d come next.

"What, is there more, sir?" inquired I, innocently.

"More, sir. Yes, sir, plenty more. I ask you whether even the seasons
have not changed in our unhappy country; have we not summer with
unusual, unexampled heat, and winters without cold; when shall we ever
see the mercury down below sixty degrees again? never, sir. What is
summer but a season of alarm and dread? Does not the cholera come in as
regularly as green peas--terrifying us to death, whether we die of it or
not? Of what advantage are the fruits of the earth so bountifully
bestowed--have they not all been converted into poisons? Who dares to
drink a light summer wine now? Are not all vegetables abjured, peaches
thrown to the pigs, and strawberries ventured upon only by little boys
who sweep the streets, with the broom in one hand and the pottle in the
other? Are not melons rank poison, and cucumbers sudden death? And in
the winter, sir, are we better off? Instead of the wholesome frosts of
olden days, purifying the air and the soil, and bracing up our nerves,
what have we but the influenza, which lasts us for four months, and the
spasmodic cough which fills up the remainder of the year? I am no
grumbler, sir, I hate and abhor anything like complaining, but this I
will say, that the world has been turned upside down--that everything
has gone wrong--that peace has come to us unattended by plenty--that
every body is miserable; and that vaccination and steam, which have been
lauded as blessings, have proved the greatest of all possible curses,
and that there is no chance of a return to our former prosperity, unless
we can set fire to our coal mines, and re-introduce the small-pox. But,
sir, the will of Heaven be done, I shall say no more; I don't wish to
make other people unhappy; but pray don't think, sir, I've told you all.
_Oh, no_!"

At this last "oh, no!" my companion laid his face down upon his
knuckles, and was silent. I once more sought the deck, and preferred to
encounter the east wind. "Blow, blow, thou wintry wind, thou art not so
unkind," soliloquised I, as I looked over the bows, and perceived that
we were close to the pile entrance of the harbour of Ostend. Ten
minutes afterwards there was a cessation of paddle, paddle, thump,
thump, the stern-fast was thrown on the quay, there was a rush on board
of commissionnaires, with their reiterated cries accompanied with cards
thrust into your hands, "Hotel des Bains, Monsieur."