a little
appalled at my size," he went on, as he shook hands with the lad. "Most
people are at first, but nobody is so much appalled as I am myself.
Still it has its amusing side, you know. I don't often get into an
omnibus, because I do not think it is fair; but if I am driven to do so,
and there happen to be five people on each side, the expression of alarm
on those ten faces when I appear at the door is a picture, because it is
manifestly impossible that they can make room for me on either side."

"What do you do, sir?" Wilfrid asked laughing.

"I ask one of them to change sides. That leaves two places vacant, and
as I make a point of paying for two, we get on comfortably enough. It is
fortunate there are only two of us in this cabin. If I have the bad luck
to travel in a full ship I always wait until the others are in bed
before I turn in, and get up in the morning before they are astir; but I
think you and I can manage pretty comfortably."

"Then you have travelled a good deal, sir?" Wilfrid said.

"I am always travelling," the other replied. "I am like the fidgetty
Phil of the story-book, who could never keep still. Most men of my size
are content to take life quietly, but that is not so with me. For the
last twelve or thirteen years I have been always on the move, and I
ought to be worn down to a thread paper; but unfortunately, as you see,
that is not the effect of travel in my case. I suppose you are going out
to settle?"

"Yes, sir. I have my father, mother, and sister on board."

"Lucky fellow!" Mr. Atherton said; "I have no relations worth speaking
of."

"Are you going to settle at last, sir?" Wilfrid asked.

"No, I am going out to botanize. I have a mania for botany, and New
Zealand, you know, is in that respect one of the most remarkable regions
in the world, and it has not yet been explored with anything approaching
accuracy. It is a grand field for discovery, and there are special
points of interest connected with it, as it forms a sort of connecting
link between the floras of Australia, Asia, and South America, and has a
flora of its own entirely distinct from any of these. Now let me advise
you as to the stowing away of your traps. There is a good deal of knack
in these things. Have you got your portmanteaus packed so that one
contains all the things you are likely to require for say the first
month of your voyage, and the other as a reserve to be drawn on
occasionally? because, if not, I shou