one of her sisters were staying at Eastbourne
that the visit to America was mooted. Mr. Dodgson suggested that it
would be well for them to grow gradually accustomed to seafaring, and
therefore proposed to take them by steamer to Hastings. This plan was
carried out, and the weather was unspeakably bad--far worse than
anything they experienced in their subsequent trip across the
Atlantic. The two children, who were neither of them very good
sailors, experienced sensations that were the reverse of pleasant. Mr.
Dodgson did his best to console them, while he continually repeated,
"Crossing the Atlantic will be much worse than this."

However, even this terrible lesson on the horrors of the sea did not
act as a deterrent; it was as unsuccessful as the effort of the old
lady in one of his stories: "An old lady I once knew tried to check
the military ardour of a little boy by showing him a picture of a
battlefield, and describing some of its horrors. But the only answer
she got was, 'I'll be a soldier. Tell it again!'"

The Bowman children sometimes came over to visit him at Oxford, and he
used to delight in showing them over the colleges, and pointing out
the famous people whom they encountered. On one of these occasions he
was walking with Maggie, then a mere child, when they met the Bishop
of Oxford, to whom Mr. Dodgson introduced his little guest. His
lordship asked her what she thought of Oxford. "I think," said the
little actress, with quite a professional _aplomb,_ "it's the
best place in the Provinces!" At which the Bishop was much amused.
After the child had returned to town, the Bishop sent her a copy of a
little book called "Golden Dust," inscribed "From W. Oxon," which
considerably mystified her, as she knew nobody of that name!

Another little stage-friend of Lewis Carroll's was Miss Vera Beringer,
the "Little Lord Fauntleroy," whose acting delighted all theatre-goers
eight or nine years ago. Once, when she was spending a holiday in the
Isle of Man, he sent her the following lines:--

There was a young lady of station,
"I love man" was her sole exclamation;
But when men cried, "You flatter,"
She replied, "Oh! no matter,
Isle of Man is the true explanation."

Many of his friendships with children began in a railway carriage, for
he always took about with him a stock of puzzles when he travelled, to
amuse any little companions whom chance might send him. Once he was