conveniences for the whole party. This she called

the night valise.

"Because you see," she said in explaining the

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arrangement to Florence, we are liable sometimes to be separated from our trunks for a night, but this valise we can keep with us at all times. Besides we shall sometimes wish to make a little excursion off from our main route, to be gone only a single night, and then we shall not wish to take our trunks with us. In such cases as this the night valise will be very convenient. Then it will be just the thing for me to use as a stool to put my feet upon in the railway carriages."

"I do'nt see how we can ever get separated from our trunks," said Florence. "They will always go with us in the same train."

"But accidents happen," said her mother. "In travelling, we have not only to make arrangements for the ordinary course of things, but we must also provide for accidents."

"What kind of accidents ?" asked Florence. "Every kind that you can imagine," said Mrs. Morelle.

"But tell me of one kind, mother," said Florence.

"At one time,” replied Mrs. Morelle, "your father and I arrived in Liverpool late in the

evening. It was eleven o'clock before we got through the custom-house. The ship could not go into dock because the tide was so low. So we were obliged to go ashore in a tender, which is a small steamer somewhat like a Brooklyn ferryboat, but not half so large. It was dark and rainy, and the wind was blowing a heavy gale. We had to go down a long black ladder from the steamer to the tender. One of the officers of the ship held a lantern at the top, and a sailor held one below. We wished to take our trunks with us, but they said we could not do that. We must say what hotel we were going to, and they would send them there.

"So we told them that we were going to the Waterloo Hotel, and they marked all our trunks with a big W in chalk.

“Then we went down the ladder to the tender, and were sent on shore. When we landed we took a cab, and drove to the Waterloo Hotel. But we found that we could not have rooms there, for the hotel was full. So we were obliged go to another and another. We went to three before we could get in.

to

"It was now about midnight, and we were very tired, and we would have liked very much to go to bed. If we had had night dresses with us we might have gone to bed at once, and let

our trunks remain at the Waterloo until morning. But we had nothing of the kind, and so your father had to take a cab and go back to the Waterloo and wait there till the trunks came, and he did not get to our hotel so that we could undress and go to bed till nearly two o'clock."

“That was curious," said John, who had been standing by all the time, listening to the conversation. "But I don't understand very well what you mean about not getting into the docks." Ah, you'll find out all about that," said his mother, "when you get to Liverpool."

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"Tell us some more accidents, then, mother," said John.

"No," said his mother. "I can not tell you of any more, but you will experience plenty of them, you may depend, if we travel about much in Europe, before we meet father."

One of the most important things to be arranged in making a tour in Europe is the question of funds. We can not take American money with us, for American money is not known, and does not circulate in foreign countries. We must have for each country which we wish to travel through, the kind of money that belongs to that country, except that in some cases we can use the money of a neighbor

ing country, when it happens to be well known. We can use the principal gold coins of England and France, namely, the sovereign and the Napoleon, almost all over Europe, for they are almost universally known. With the exception

of these, we require always the money of the country which we are travelling in.

Besides this, even if American money would circulate in foreign countries, it would be very inconvenient to take a sufficient quantity of it for a long tour, on account of the weight of it. I speak now, of course, of real money, that is, of gold or silver coin. Bank bills, as doubtless most of the readers of this book are aware, are not in fact money, but only the promises of banks to pay money. They pass as money in the country where the bank issuing them is situated, because every one knows that he can go with them to the bank and get the coin-that is, if he thinks the bank is good, and that it will keep its promises. But in foreign countries, where of course the banks issuing the bills are beyond the reach of the holders, the bills would be good for nothing except to sell at a loss to somebody who could send them across the Atlantic, and make arrangements for having the coin sent back to him.

The arrangements for furnishing travellers

with the money they require, are made by the great banking houses. The banking houses must not be confounded with the banks. They are private establishments, conducted by men of great wealth. They have branches of their establishments in all the great cities and towns in Europe and America, and large supplies of money at all of them. At each branch they have money of the country where the branch is situated. An American traveller going to Europe, can go accordingly to one of these banking houses in New York, and make arrangements there to be furnished with any amount of money at any of the great towns in Europe, and of such kinds as they require, on condition of repaying the value of it in American money in New York, as soon as the news of its having been paid can

come over.

The document which the banker in New York gives to the traveller, instructing the branches in Europe to pay him the money he may require, is called a letter of credit. A letter of credit may be given for any sum of money, and continue in force for any period of time.

There are several precautions and conditions to be attended to in making arrangements for a letter of credit. In the first place, the banker requires some security that the money which is