The National tribune., 1909-09-16

pairing herself to teach that language.
She has quite won our admiration on
account of wearing the same shirtwaist
each night for dinner. You wouldn't
believe it, but she really has. and it
looks just as fresh and dainty now as it
| did the first night she appeared in 1t.
At table she is very pleasant and chatty,
but during the day she keeps by her
self She is crossing alone, and reads
every blessed minute. / asked her the
other day what her book was, and she
said it was Nine. Bovary," Flaubert's
masterpiece, you know. Near her sits
a very amusing man with very red
nose and face Che has allowed himself
| to get terribly busned), whom we call
Sherlock Holmes. He has found out
who everyone is on the ship, why they
came, and where they are gong. He
often joins us on deck with some anus
ing story about some passenger. He
really is very clever and awfully good
| company, and when he is serious
| which he seldom is-he talks extremely
well on all subjects, being remarkably
well-infOrmed. He is some sort of an
artistic chap, knows all about rare china
and all that sort of thing, and is going
over now to hunt up something special
Iy rare for a rich New Yorker.
A good deal of the weather has been
disagreeable, gray and foggy, and on
several occasions the. fog-horn blew
nearly all night, which disturbed our
| slumbers and made Elizabeth nervous,
for, experienced sailor that she is, she
says she never gets used to fog. Several
evenings the Captain did not come to
| dinner at all, and never left the bridge
day or night while the fog lasted. There
are good many vocations / should care
| fully avoid had heaven seen fit to make
me a man, and one of these is that Of
Captain of anything that carried lot
| of people, especially women. Just think
what an awful responsibility he assumes
in taking an expensive ship filed with
people across the briny deep! And never
to have any home life at all. It's much
worse than being in the Navy.
To-day Is the glorious Fourth. Last
night at dinner every lady found a neat
| ily-tied-up box cf chocolates at her plate
land with them a bright little Old Glory
paper fan. 1t was the nearest we have
come to celebrating. Quite early in the
iday yesterday We passed the Scilly
Islands. the first land sighted. These.
| they tell me, are the garden of Eng
land, tho they looked barren enough
from the ship. The raising of flowers
and fishing are the occupations of the
inhabitants, who are quite a primitive
people, still wearing the native dress
and preserving the old customs. The
London florists get most of their flowers
from these islands, and boats run sew
eral times week between them and
| Falmouth, in Cornwall.
Our plans, as far as we have made
any, are to take the steamer Amazon
from Southampton, on the Sth of this
| month for Norway. Beyond that we
have settled nothing. We are very anx-
ious to see something of the interior of
the country and want to take a driving
! trip. We may leave the Amazon on
her return trip from the North Cape
and do so, but all is de-
| lightful vagueness at present. We
hope to make Southampton in few
hours now. Already We are quite a
| deserted ship, having lost a good many
of our fellow-passengers at Plymouth,
which We reached yesterday about 6
o'clock. The Judge and his lady, in a
perfectly stunning hat, which she had
not worn before, and several of our
| friends left us there. When we get into
| Southampton we shall go at once to
London and spend in that city, so rich
| in historic interest, the few days that
remain to us before again boarding a
ship, and trusting our lives and for
tunes TO the mercy of wind and wave.
Your devoted
| Sailor Aunt"