ll to London.
We started. The voyage was a very rough one, and I was very, very sick
the first day. I often think of my first day's sailoring; I do that, I
do. I was put to all manner of drudgery, such as scrubbing the decks. The
cooking for the crew also fell into my hands; there were about a dozen of
us. Fortunately, I had no need to complain of the lack of food. There was
plenty of salt pork and biscuits; but, then, biscuits and salt pork and
salt pork and biscuits have a tendency to become a little monotonous to
the palate. I got very roughly handled by the crew. The voyage to London
occupied about six days. We stayed at the English capital about a
fortnight, in order to exchange our cargo for one of goods suitable for
the Hull trade. Even while we were moored in the Thames, I was very
anxious to make my escape, but a too close watch was kept over me. We
started on the home journey, during which I was not affected by sea
sickness.

LONGING FOR HOME AGAIN

I determined that as soon as ever I got into Hull I would make straight
for Keighley. Many a time on the vessel did I think of Mrs Hemans's
beautiful poem "There's no place like home." I shall never forget, I
think, the feelings of ecstacy with which I was seized on the vessel
sailing into the port of Hull. It was four o' clock on a cold, dreary
December afternoon, and I could not help but cry as, going on the quay, I
heard an organ grinder giving off the strains "Home, Sweet Home!"

Of all the spots on earth to me
Is Home, Sweet Home.
And that dear spot I long to see--
My Home, Sweet Home.
Where joyfully relations meet,
Where neighbours do each other greet.
If ought on earth there can be sweet,
'Tis Home, Sweet Home.

It seemed to me as if my father and mother were calling their prodigal
son home. I straightened myself up, and says: "Here goes for Keighley,
without a ha'penny in my pocket:" the skipper was not by any means
kind-hearted, and did not give me even an "honorarium." But my troubles
were not by any means past and gone: many who read these lines will, I
trow, know what it is to tramp a long distance with a purse, as Carlyle
said, "so flabby that it could scarcely be thrown against the wind." My
trudge from Hull to Bradford seemed beset with thorny places.

TRAMPING AND ADVENTURING

Leaving Hull, I walked all night in stormy, winterly weather, and before
morning I was on the near bank of Howd