an' a six weeks'
voyage. They 'd acted sort of ashamed o' me when I pled so to go
ashore, an' that hurt my feelin's most of all. But Albert come below
pretty soon; I 'd never given way so in my life, an' he begun to act
frightened, and treated me gentle just as he did when we was goin' to
be married, an' when I got over sobbin' he went on deck and saw Horace
an' talked it over what they could do; they really had their duty to
the vessel, and could n't be spared that day. Horace was real good
when he understood everything, and he come an' told me I 'd more than
worked my passage an' was goin' to do just as I liked now we was in
port. He 'd engaged a cook, too, that was comin' aboard that mornin',
and he was goin' to send the ship's carpenter with me--a nice fellow
from up Thomaston way; he 'd gone to put on his ashore clothes as
quick's he could. So then I got ready, and we started off in the small
boat and rowed up river. I was afraid we were too late, but the tide
was setting up very strong, and we landed an' left the boat to a
keeper, and I run all the way up those great streets and across a park.
'Twas a great day, with sights o' folks everywhere, but 't was just as
if they was nothin' but wax images to me. I kep' askin' my way an'
runnin' on, with the carpenter comin' after as best he could, and just
as I worked to the front o' the crowd by the palace, the gates was
flung open and out she came; all prancin' horses and shinin' gold, and
in a beautiful carriage there she sat; 't was a moment o' heaven to me.
I saw her plain, and she looked right at me so pleasant and happy, just
as if she knew there was somethin' different between us from other
folks."

There was a moment when the Queen's Twin could not go on and neither of
her listeners could ask a question.

"Prince Albert was sitting right beside her in the carriage," she
continued. "Oh, he was a beautiful man! Yes, dear, I saw 'em both
together just as I see you now, and then she was gone out o' sight in
another minute, and the common crowd was all spread over the place
pushin' an' cheerin'. 'T was some kind o' holiday, an' the carpenter
and I got separated, an' then I found him again after I did n't think I
should, an' he was all for makin' a day of it, and goin' to show me all
the sights; he 'd been in London before, but I did n't want nothin'
else, an' we went back through the streets down to the waterside an'
took the boat. I remember I mended an