nd--but hold! I must not
forestall. Let me begin at the beginning.

The adventurous keel above referred to was not, as you know, my own
private property. I shared it with some two hundred or so of human
beings, and a large assortment of the lower animals. Its name was the
"Windsor Castle"--one of a magnificent line of ocean steamers belonging
to an enterprising British firm.

There is something appallingly disagreeable in leave-taking. I do not
refer now to the sentiment, but to the manner of it. Neither do I hint,
my dear fellow, at _your_ manner of leave-taking. Your abrupt "Well,
old boy, _bon voyage_, good-bye, bless you," followed by your prompt
retirement from the scene, was perfect in its way, and left nothing to
be desired; but leave-takings in general--how different!

Have you never stood on a railway platform to watch the starting of an
express?

Of course you have, and you have seen the moist faces of those two young
sisters, who had come to "see off" that dear old aunt, who had been more
than a mother to them since that day, long ago, when they were left
orphans, and who was leaving them for a few months, for the first time
for many years; and you have observed how, after kissing and weeping on
her for the fiftieth time, they were forcibly separated by the
exasperated guard; and the old lady was firmly, yet gently thrust into
her carriage, and the door savagely locked with one hand, while the
silver whistle was viciously clapt to the lips with the other, and the
last "goo-ood--bye--d-arling!" was drowned by a shriek, and puff and
clank, as the train rolled off.

You've seen it all, have you not, over and over again, in every degree
and modification? No doubt you have, and as it is with parting humanity
at railway stations, so is it at steamboat wharves.

There are differences, however. After you had left, I stood and
sympathised with those around me, and observed that there is usually
more emotion on a wharf than on a platform--naturally enough, as, in the
case of long sea voyages, partings, it may be presumed, are for longer
periods, and dangers are supposed to be greater and more numerous than
in land journeys,--though this is open to question. The waiting
process, too, is prolonged. Even after the warning bell had sent
non-voyagers ashore, they had to stand for a considerable time in the
rain while we cast off our moorings or went through some of those
incomprehensible processes by which