f of land are still allowed us, and then
we shall set foot on the back of the oak-ribbed leviathan, which will be
our home until a thousand leagues of blue ocean are crossed. I shall
hear the old Aldgate clock strike for the last time--I shall take a last
walk through the Minories and past the Tower yard, and as we glide down
the Thames, St. Pauls, half-hidden in mist and coal-smoke, will probably
be my last glimpse of London.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

HOMEWARD BOUND----CONCLUSION.

We slid out of St. Katharine's Dock at noon on the appointed day, and
with a pair of sooty steamboats hitched to our vessel, moved slowly down
the Thames in mist and drizzling rain. I stayed on the wet deck all
afternoon, that I might more forcibly and joyously feel we were again in
motion on the waters and homeward bound! My attention was divided
between the dreary views of Blackwall, Greenwich and Woolwich, and the
motley throng of passengers who were to form our ocean society. An
English family, going out to settle in Canada, were gathered together in
great distress and anxiety, for the father had gone ashore in London at
a late hour, and was left behind. When we anchored for the night at
Gravesend, their fears were quieted by his arrival in a skiff from the
shore, as he had immediately followed us by railroad.

My cousin and B---- had hastened on from Paris to join me, and a day
before the sailing of the "Victoria," we took berths in the second
cabin, for twelve pounds ten shillings each, which in the London line of
packets, includes coarse but substantial fare for the whole voyage. Our
funds were insufficient to pay even this; but Captain Morgan, less
mistrustful than my Norman landlord, generously agreed that the
remainder of the fare should be paid in America. B---- and I, with two
young Englishmen, took possession of a State-room of rough boards,
lighted by a bull's-eye, which in stormy weather leaked so much that our
trunks swam in water. A narrow mattrass and blanket, with a knapsack for
a pillow, formed a passable bed. A long entry between the rooms, lighted
by a feeble swinging lamp, was filled with a board table, around which
the thirty-two second cabin passengers met to discuss politics and salt
pork, favorable winds and hard sea-biscuit.

We lay becalmed opposite Sheerness the whole of the second day. At dusk
a sudden squall came up, which drove us foaming towards the North
Foreland. When I went on deck in the morning, we