baggage, novelly comforted in the business by the
respectfulness of the young Canadian who took charge of the trunks for
the boat. He was slow, and his system was not good,--he did not
give checks for the pieces, but marked them with the name of their
destination; and there was that indefinable something in his manner
which hinted his hope that you would remember the porter; but he was
so civil that he did not snub the meekest and most vexatious of the
passengers, and Basil mutely blessed his servile soul. Few white
Americans, he said to himself, would behave so decently in his place;
and he could not conceive of the American steamboat clerk who would use
the politeness towards a waiting crowd that the Canadian purser showed
when they all wedged themselves in about his window to receive their
stateroom keys. He was somewhat awkward, like the porter, but he was
patient, and he did not lose his temper even when some of the crowd,
finding he would not bully them, made bold to bully him. He was three
times as long in serving them as an American would have been, but their
time was of no value there, and he served them well. Basil made a point
of speaking him fair, when his turn came, and the purser did not trample
on him for a base truckler, as an American jack-in-office would have
done.

Our tourists felt at home directly on this steamer, which was very
comfortable, and in every way sufficient for its purpose, with a visible
captain, who answered two or three questions very pleasantly, and bore
himself towards his passengers in some sort like a host.

In the saloon Isabel had found among the passengers her
semi-acquaintances of the hotel parlor and the Rapids-elevator, and had
glanced tentatively towards them. Whereupon the matron of the party
had made advances that ended in their all sitting down together and
wondering when the boat would start, and what time they would get to
Montreal next evening, with other matters that strangers going upon
the same journey may properly marvel over in company. The introduction
having thus accomplished itself, they exchanged addresses, and it
appeared that Richard was Colonel Ellison, of Milwaukee, and that Fanny
was his wife. Miss Kitty Ellison was of Western New York, not far from
Erie. There was a diversion presently towards the different state-rooms;
but the new acquaintances sat vis-a-vis at the table, and after supper
the ladies drew their chairs together on the promenade deck, an