valise in my hand. A stage up Greenwich Street carried me nearly to the
ferry, and I reached the steamer half an hour before the appointed time.
I found the state-room which I was to share with "E. Dunkswell," where I
left my valise, the evidence of my respectability, and then went on
deck. Mr. Loraine and Kate soon appeared, and I spent the time with them
until those not going in the ship were required to leave. Kate cried
then; I took her hand and kissed her--I could not help it. We parted as
brother and sister would part, and I watched her on the wharf until she
could no longer be seen. The ponderous wheels of the great ship
revolved, and we moved slowly down the harbor.

I was excited by the scene and its surroundings, by the thought that I
was leaving the land where I had lived from my childhood, and more than
all by the reflection that I was going to seek and find my mother.
Everything was new and strange to me. I wandered through every part of
the ship open to a passenger. I gazed at the shores, and I studied the
faces of my fellow-voyagers. Off Sandy Hook the pilot was discharged,
and the prow of the noble steamer pointed out to the middle of the great
ocean that rolled between me and my mother. The excitement on board
began to subside; the passengers went below to arrange their state-rooms
for the voyage.

When I first went on board I entered the dining saloon, where I found a
few passengers selecting their seats at the tables. Mr. Solomons had
told me in travelling to do as others did; so I took a couple of cards,
wrote my friend's name on one and my own on the other, and pinned them
to the table-cloth, as near the head of the captain's table as I could
find two vacant places. This secured us pleasant seats for the voyage,
and Mr. Solomons was pleased with my thoughtfulness, as he called it.
Before we reached Sandy Hook, he proposed to his room-mate to exchange
berths with me; but when Mr. Dunkswell was pointed out to him as the
person whose state-room he was to share, he politely but regretfully
declined to do so, leaving his reasons to be inferred, for he did not
give them.

When the gong sounded for lunch, at twelve o'clock, I found to my
surprise that Mr. Dunkswell had taken the seat next to mine. I was
rather prejudiced against him; partly because he refused to exchange
berths with my friend, and partly because Mr. Solomons' room-mate did
not like him well enough to exchange with me. He was very polite