ng a row on deck one evening, when one man accused another of being
a cheat and a professional gambler, and almost cried about some money
he'd lost. If I had been the first man, I wouldn't have trusted the
other in the beginning, because he had fat lips, greasy black curls,
and wicked eyes so close together you felt they might run into one, if
he winked too hard on a hot day. But if I _had_ been so stupid as to
trust him, I would have been ashamed to make a fuss afterwards. I think
people ought to be sporting.

I liked the "Captain's dinner," too, in honour of the last night on
board, with the flags and paper-flower decorations, the band playing
military music, the dishes on the menu named after famous generals, and
the stewards filing in, in a long procession, when the salon had been
darkened, each carrying a bright-coloured, illuminated ice, and cake
with tiny English, and American, and German flags stuck into the top.

Yes, I liked everything, except--but now it is nearly over. America is
just round the corner of the world.

III

ABOUT NEW YORK

After you have seen nothing but water for days, it's odd how excited
you are on seeing a little land. Just a little, little land, and not at
all interesting to look at; a strip of grey sand, or a patch of green
grass; and you have been only a few days away from such things, yet
somehow you want to jump up and down and shout for joy.

More than half the first-class passengers on our ship were Americans,
coming home, and I suppose they had gone away because they wanted to
go. If they had liked, they could have stopped in their own country as
well as not; and I heard some of them saying during the voyage that if
they could, they would spend nine months out of the year in Paris; but
they made as much fuss over the first lump of sand we saw as if we were
discovering the North Pole. Some of them had taken this trip a dozen
times or maybe more, but anyone would have thought it was as new to
them as to me.

It seemed as if I were sailing, in a dream, to a dream land, and
everything would be a dream, till I found myself waking up at home. If
anyone had pinched me, I hardly believe I should have felt it, as I
stood by the rail, while we steamed towards New York. We passed a big
fort, and some neat little houses, which looked like officers'
quarters. There were Long Island and Coney Island, which Mr. Doremus
said I must be "personally conducted" to see, some day when I f