sage here was delightful, and we had scarcely any motion beyond that
of the screw.

We are nearly but not quite full of passengers. At table I sit next the
captain, on his right, on the outside of the table and close to the
door. My little cabin is big enough for everything but getting up in and
going to bed in. As it has a good window which I can leave open all
night, and a door which I can set open too, it suits my chief
requirements of it--plenty of air--admirably. On a writing-slab in it,
which pulls out when wanted, I now write in a majestic manner.

Many of the passengers are American, and I am already on the best terms
with nearly all the ship.

We began our voyage yesterday a very little while after you left us,
which was a great relief. The wind is S.E. this morning, and if it would
keep so we should go along nobly. My dearest love to your aunt, and
also to Katie and all the rest. I am in very good health, thank God, and
as well as possible.

[Sidenote: Miss Hogarth.]

ABOARD THE "CUBA," FIVE DAYS OUT,
_Wednesday, Nov. 13th, 1867._

MY DEAREST GEORGY,

As I wrote to Mamie last, I now write to you, or mean to do it, if the
motion of the ship will let me.

We are very nearly halfway to-day. The weather was favourable for us
until yesterday morning, when we got a head-wind which still stands by
us. We have rolled and pitched, of course; but on the whole have been
wonderfully well off. I have had headache and have felt faint once or
twice, _but have not been sick at all_. My spacious cabin is very noisy
at night, as the most important working of the ship goes on outside my
window and over my head; but it is very airy, and if the weather be bad
and I can't open the window, I can open the door all night. If the
weather be fine (as it is now), I can open both door and window, and
write between them. Last night, I got a foot-bath under the dignified
circumstances of sitting on a camp-stool in my cabin, and having the
bath (and my feet) in the passage outside. The officers' quarters are
close to me, and, as I know them all, I get reports of the weather and
the way we are making when the watch is changed, and I am (as I usually
am) lying awake. The motion of the screw is at its slightest vibration
in my particular part of the ship. The silent captain, reported gruff,
is a very good fellow and an honest fellow. Kelly has been ill all the
t