did not recover too quickly. I had nothing to fear from any of them that day. No more mischief, no more chaff, no more singing; but if these woeful wights had found voice for song, their quavering chorus would have surely been "As we lay, In the bay, In the Bay of Biscay-Oh-hh!" If it is so much misery to be sick in the first-class cabins of a passenger steamer, what, I have often asked myself, must have been the sufferings of our Peter Simples and Midshipman Easys in their gloomy cock-pit berths ? Thus the day passed away. After dark a light was seen from a boat close ahead, and we slackened speed. "I hope this is one of the frog-eaters, to let me turn in and get a quiet night," quoth the captain. We burned a blue light at the bows, there was a hail from the boat, the steamer stopped, and a man scrambled on board-my first Frenchman! He was the pilot for the bar of the Gironde, but he looked such a ferocious character, with his big cloak, his fur cap, and his scraggy beard, that I thought him much more like a pirate. Now our voyage might be considered as almost at an end, and I went snugly to bed, full of pleasant expectations of seeing foreign parts. Gooderidge Sweet is Pleasure after Pain. 35 was, or pretended to be, asleep, and to-morrow I should be done with him-happy thought! Next morning we found ourselves in the calm waters of the Gironde, with the low shores of La Belle France on either hand, not very enchanting, certainly, in this part; a somewhat monotonous scenery of flat fields and naked vineyards. But the wind had gone down, and the sun had come out to light up the spring green, and any land would have appeared beautiful to most of my pining fellowpassengers. Up they came to enjoy the sunshine, very much subdued, no longer making any show of familiarity with the ocean. They had had enough of that for a time. The Eton boy was civil, the Bluecoat was silent; the army tutor's pupils had no heart to display their big pipes; the tourists addressed themselves to serious study of their guide-books; the French boys kept longing eyes fixed on the familiar shore. The acrobats crept up to sun themselves, looking more dishevelled and unshaven than ever, but had not an antic left in them to celebrate their approach to firm land. And Gooderidge! All his bullying and bumptiousness had been washed out of him for the nonce. After his recent experiences he seemed quite meek, even evinced a certain surly thankfulness to me for the various attentions I had paid him in his hour of need. When he talked of making me fag for him, he had little thought how dependent he should be on my voluntary services; and indeed I can wish no worse fate to a tyrant than being badly sea-sick before the eyes of his victim. This day, for the first time, we all sat down to dinner, and did ample justice to our last meal in good substantial British style. Foreign kickshaws must henceforth be our fare till again we should face the briny ordeal that lay between us and the roast beef of Old England. The boys were all on their best behaviour now. There was very little conversation among them, for they all attended strictly to the business of eating, having indeed to make up a long leeway, as the captain facetiously remarked, glancing round at the active knives and forks of his reunited party. "Had enough playing pitch and toss, eh?” he asked them, more than once, with a chuckle and a wink to me. The skipper evidently "fancied himself" for his wit, and was not magnanimous enough to refrain from crowing a little over those fallen rebels. It was slow work ascending the peasoup-like flood of the Gironde. We had to wait for the tide, and to take two fresh pilots on board at different points, Farewell! a Long Farewell! 37 but at last, towards evening, we were safely moored at the quay of Bordeaux; and among the little mob of curious idlers, red-legged soldiers, blue-bloused workmen, turnip-headed children, and so forth, who had gathered to watch our disembarkation, I caught sight of my father looking out for me. I waved my hand, and he waved back, hurrying towards the gangway; and now, what need I care for all the Gooderidges in the world! Then came a great confusion: porters gesticulating and shouting to secure a job; custom-house officers boarding the boat; boxes and bags being dragged up from below and opened on deck for their inspection. Between the excitement of exchanging signals with my father, and of looking after my small baggage, I had almost forgotten that truculent schoolfellow of mine, when he accosted me with a slap on the back, in a tone that was meant to be friendly Good-bye, you young smout! Hope you will enjoy yourself in the holidays. See you again next term?" "Yes," replied I, not very enthusiastically. I never saw him again. After the holidays, for some reason or other, he did not come back to school, and nobody that I know of was sorry; at least, I for one was certainly not so. But at this |
