was high time
to retire, and, like Longfellow's Arabs, they began to "silently steal
away." The chairman of the meeting, Mayor Wood, of Brooklyn, unmindful
of his usual decorum, upon an extra roll of the steamer went over the
back of his chair, and rolled ingloriously upon the floor. He
acknowledged that he had never been so completely floored in his life.

There was another portly gentleman who, in attempting to navigate, was
caught near the cabin door, just behind the knees, by a friendly
chair, and as he was suddenly tilted back into it, remarked somewhat
dryly, "I believe _I'll sit down_!" Going out on deck, I found that
the storm had lifted, the lights of Sandy Hook were far astern, and we
were fairly at sea. From this point of time on Monday evening, when we
_lay_ on deck, (things were getting too _unsteady_ for landsmen to
_stand_,) I omit, out of courtesy to ourselves, any further incidents
of the voyage, and pass on to Thursday morning, which found us sitting
on the forward deck, waiting and watching for the spires of
Charleston. The weather was delightful. As we passed into the warmer
southern climate, the sea became calmer and more transparent, schools
of porpoises played about the steamer, and one enthusiastic individual
insisted that he had seen a whale! but he was set down by one of the
disgruntled passengers as "only a pesky oil speculator." The German
band on board, or rather the brief remnant of it, still kept up what
at the distance of several yards sounded like very dismal music!
Presently some one suggested "lemons and lump sugar," as the right
remedy for any lingering unpleasantness, and we drew lots as to who
should "go below," combat the smells of the cook-room, and purchase
them. The announcement that the chance had fallen on my old friend and
comrade of the Tenth Rhode Island, William Vaughan, was greeted with
roars of laughter. But he got off very much like another fellow
described in Pickwick, who spelled his name with a "double you" and a
"wee," by liberally feeing some one else to go in his place.

About three o'clock in the afternoon came the joyful shout of
"Land-ho!" which quickly filled the deck of the "Oceanus" with a troop
of smiling faces. All gloom now gave way to sanguine expectation. We
could plainly distinguish the light-ship, bearing the suggestive name,
"Rattlesnake Shoals," and knew we were at last off Charleston harbor.
A pilot was presently taken on board, who informed the c