of those on dock! Transportation for life, with
stone-breaking in heavy chains, appeared
distinctly visible in their countenances. Some
were trying to look unconcerned, and even
rather jolly, as if they knew all about it, and
it was a mere nothing to them; others got up
a little careless whistling, and put questions
to the pilot in an imitative gruff voice ; some
reeled and staggered from the hatchway to the
scuppers like drunken men, while others held
on with a gripe of despair by the spare anchor
under the long-boat, as if expecting the ship to
founder, and they meant to make a life-buoy
of that. None were actually ill, but there was
scattered about, every stage of incipient sea-
sickness.

I made my way to the main-hatch, and
began to descend the ladder. "On deck there!"
cried a voice below, that seemed to come up
from the farthest corner of a very deep cask.
"Ay, ay!" growled the sailor addressed,
who was busily engaged in some mysterious
operation with the long-boat. "Where have
you stowed your patent ventilators?" inquired
the voice from the cask, "we're choking down
here." "Oh," rejoined the tar, as he winked
at the cook's mate, "Neptune will bring
them there a-board when he visits us at the
Line!"

The complaint was indeed well founded, as
I felt on descending into the regions below,
where I found the man with the casky voice.
The complainant was a middle-aged person, a
tailor or shoemaker perhaps, disguised as a
naval character according to the most
approved fashion at the Surrey Theatre. It took
me some minutes before I could distinguish
the lights and shades of the living panorama
moving in that long, half-obscure vault of a
place. How changed since I saw it in the
Docks! The uproar, the crowd, the handing
about of packages and clothing, the dim indistinct
light from the far distant fore-hatch,
gave it the appearance of Rag Fair held in
the Thames Tunnel for novelty's sake.

There was small room for walking about.
I had to clamber over all sorts of sharp-
cornered, hard-edged packages. Children
were crying, women were chattering, men
were grumbling and swearing, and calling
down the ugliest maledictions upon the heads
of all the captains, chief-mates, brokers, and
ship-owners in the known world. On the
whole, it was confusing to a new-comer, and
not much plainer, apparently, to those who
had been on board during the last twenty-
four hours. Had the captain poured the
entire contents of the London Dock
warehouse down an enormous funnel into that
particular 'tween decks, the chaos could
scarcely have been aggravated. The staggering
motion of the vessel set all landsmen's
attempts to labour at complete defiance. As
for the women, they were content to seat
themselves on anything that was nearest their
cabins, and there contemplate the encompassing
wilderness of property.

There were a few exceptions in the way of
work, and these at once attracted my attention.
Adjoining the main-hatch, there was a
family scene presenting a strong and interesting
contrast to the angry idleness around. The
mother had placed three young children
securely on the deck, between boxes lashed
down so that they could not move, and there
they played together contentedly, while she
busied herself with arranging the little clean
bed-linen as tidily as a head chambermaid at
a first-class hotel. She had made up her
orderly mind that there was not to be such a
thing as a crease in the pillow-case; and, as
for the snow-white sheets, she seemed to
expect some of the nobility to sleep in them—
if you could have fancied any nobility, however
old, being of greater importance to her, at that
moment, than her own plebeian family. The
husband was not less busily engaged in securing
their various little cabin comforts; although
these appeared to be few enough. He seemed to
know how to make the most of them, though;
and was bent upon not giving in until he had
accomplished his task. It was quite a relief
to watch that energetic persevering man and
his bustling wife, after seeing so much
discomfort about the decks. He evidently
prided himself upon the perfect manner in
which he had fastened up a few little pewter
drinking mugs at the side of the cabin, out of
all fear of knocking their heads against the
handles. Few men on board could have
accomplished that feat. Then there was a
long strip of leather nailed up at intervals, in
which spoons, forks, combs, and brushes were
inserted, bidding stern defiance to the heaviest
lurches of the ship. The little square looking-
glass, however, was his chef d'oeuvre; he had
secured it by nails and white tape, and there
was not the least fear of its giving way. He
was not quite sure, though, that it was in the
centre, and retreating from the cabin until he
fell over a whole waggon-load of goods, he
took an elaborate survey of its position. He
looked at it from all sorts of distances and
points; he peeped through both eyes and
then through only one; he gazed attentively
from the summit of a sea-chest, and then tried
the effect of it from one of the opposite
cabins. This man's destiny I saw at a glance.
His fortune is as good as made. I shouldn't
object to share in his future prosperity; for it
will be steady and lasting, and more ample
than that of many an emigrant who takes
out a lump of capital to work upon. This
family are all excellent, from the tips of their
hair to the soles of their feet; there's nothing
worthless about them.

How different the party of men and women
I saw near them, half-washed, half-clad, half
boisterous, half drowsy. The men were
trying to get up a game with a dirty pack of
cards, but it was scarcely possible to see the
marks on them. A short distance from my
industrious friends was another family group
not less interesting. A grey-haired old