m from me, to write me
a Letter from Home." And when was there a more appropriate moment for
"Auld Lang Syne" than now, when the land, the friends, and the
affections of that mingled but beloved time were fading and fleeing
behind us in the vessel's wake? It pointed forward to the hour when
these labours should be overpast, to the return voyage, and to many a
meeting in the sanded inn, when those who had parted in the spring of
youth should again drink a cup of kindness in their age. Had not Burns
contemplated emigration, I scarce believe he would have found that note.

All Sunday the weather remained wild and cloudy; many were prostrated by
sickness; only five sat down to tea in the second cabin, and two of
these departed abruptly ere the meal was at an end. The Sabbath was
observed strictly by the majority of the emigrants. I heard an old woman
express her surprise that, "The ship didna gae doon," as she saw some
one pass her with a chess-board on the holy day. Some sang Scottish
psalms. Many went to service, and in true Scottish fashion came back ill
pleased with their divine. "I didna think he was an experienced
preacher," said one girl to me.

It was a bleak, uncomfortable day; but at night, by six bells, although
the wind had not yet moderated, the clouds were all wrecked and blown
away behind the rim of the horizon, and the stars came out thickly
overhead. I saw Venus burning as steadily and sweetly across this
hurly-burly of the winds and waters as ever at home upon the summer
woods. The engine pounded, the screw tossed out of the water with a
roar, and shook the ship from end to end; the bows battled with loud
reports against the billows: and as I stood in the lee-scuppers and
looked up to where the funnel leaned out, over my head, vomiting smoke,
and the black and monstrous top-sails blotted, at each lurch, a
different crop of stars, it seemed as if all this trouble were a thing
of small account, and that just above the mast reigned peace unbroken
and eternal.

STEERAGE SCENES

Our companion (Steerage No. 2 and 3) was a favourite resort. Down one
flight of stairs there was a comparatively large open space, the centre
occupied by a hatchway, which made a convenient seat for about twenty
persons, while barrels, coils of rope, and the carpenter's bench
afforded perches for perhaps as many more. The canteen, or steerage bar,
was on one side of the stair; on the other a no le