fore explained the causes which operated upon me to produce
such effects as above, and hope the reader, if ever he or she should
have been afflicted in either of the ways I have mentioned, will at
least tolerate the method of alleviation.

This "_maladie-de-pays_" is a horrible sensation, worse than
sea-sickness, I ween, and I can fully sympathize with the poor Swiss,
who are said to have fallen victims to it in the armies of Napoleon. He
should have allowed pens, ink, and any quantity of writing paper; they
might have relieved their minds by _scribbling_. Music is also said to
be a capital cure, although the "_Ranz des Vaches_" did not succeed; but
I judge from the cheerful countenances of those of their countrymen who
are in the habit of parading our streets with a hand organ and monkey,
and enlivening us with the air of

"Arouse thee, arouse thee, my merry Swiss boy."

For myself I have only experienced the malady twice. The first
attack occurred, when with a heart rather more tender than at the
present writing, I was left amongst a parcel of strange inquisitive
boys, at a boarding-school in the country, at what then appeared to
my unsophisticated mind away "'tother side of yonder;"--I shall
never forget, although I may laugh at it now, the feeling of utter
desolateness that came over me, or how low sank my little heart,
even to the very soles of my stockings, when the Dominie, whose face
was fast forgetting the smiles it had worn in my good parents'
presence, inquired in a tone half hypocritical, half ironical: "What
does the young gentleman want now?" and I blubberingly answered,
"I--want--to--go--go--home." I recovered from that attack with the
aid of counter irritation by the application of birch, and emollients
in the shape of scribbling verses to the metre of "dulce--dulce
domum." The effects of the second are now before the reader, from
which I opine he is the greatest sufferer, and this is dispersed by
music, for the "retreat" has just been beaten, and I shall turn in.

CHAPTER XXI.

Haul up all standing--Boat Races--Interest in the sport--
Excitement general--Arrangements--Jockeyism--Regatta--
Preparations--The Start--The Race--The Result--Launch and
First Cutter--Race described con-amore--Suggestion of an
Old Salt--Satan and Sailors.

But I must cease my digressions, lest my sickness become epidemic, and
extend to my readers, in which event I should fear they would not be "at
h