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CHAPTER XIV.

PASSAGE TO JERSEY.

NEITHER Florence nor Grimkie made any attempt to induce Mrs. Morelle to alter her determination in respect to going to Jersey that day in case the weather should prove pleasant. Having acquiesced in the arrangement while there was a prospect that they would gain by it, they made it a point of honor not to complain when it proved that they were to lose.

So Grimkie called for and paid the bill at eleven o'clock, having learned that the Jersey boat was to sail at twelve, that being the hour at which the tide served. A porter came and put all the baggage upon a queer looking wheelbarrow, as clumsy, so John thought, for a wheelbarrow, as the sabots were for shoes, and at half past eleven set out from the hotel, Mrs. Morelle and her party following, along the sidewalk, on foot.

Mrs. Morelle said that she preferred to walk, it was such a charming day. Besides, the young girl who served as clerk and bookkeeper at the

hotel told her that it was customary for the passengers to walk to the boat, and it was a rule with Mrs. Morelle in traveling to conform always to the customs of the place, in regard to such things, whatever they might be.

Following the porter, the party went along. the pier out to the place where the steamer was lying. They passed by a large number of vessels that lay alongside, loading and unloading. At one place the sailors were hoisting cows on board a vessel, and John wished very much to stop and witness the operation, but Grimkie told him it would not do.

When they reached the end of the pier, they found the steamboat lying there. It was very small for a seagoing boat, and contrasted strongly with the immense ships of the Cunard line, built for crossing the Atlantic.

The porter carried the baggage over the plank, and the party all followed. There was a large group of people assembled on the pier to witness the departure of the steamer, and several passengers had already gone on board. Everybody looked smiling and happy at the prospect of so pleasant a passage. The air was calm, the surface of the sea was like glass, and the sun, shining on all the landscape around, lighted up the cliffs and the promontories, the castle walls, the

spires of the churches, the ranges of buildings in the town, and the masts and rigging of the shipping, with a golden autumnal light which seemed to reflect into every heart a feeling of contentment and happiness.

At different places along the deck of the steamer were several broad and well cushioned settees placed athwart the deck, midway from side to side, the backs of which were carried up high and brought over the seat above, so as to form a complete canopy to defend those sitting there from the wind and rain. The backs of these seats were toward the bows, and thus they were open only toward the stern, being so made in order to defend them from the draft of wind along the deck from stem to stern, which is almost always produced on the deck of a steamer by her rapid motion over the surface of the water.

Mrs. Morelle, after looking at these arrangements, was disposed to go down into the cabin and find a place to lie down, for fear that she should be sick; but the stewardess, a pretty looking young girl, who received her at the head of the cabin stairs, told her that she could not be sick in such weather as that if she tried. So after making a brief visit to the cabin, she came on deck again and established herself upon one

of the canopied settees. The stewardess brought her a pillow, and Mrs. Morelle put her traveling bag on the seat to keep the place for her until the steamer should sail, and then began to walk about the deck with Florence and the boys to see what was to be seen.

By this time a number of passengers had come on board. Among them were two or three English gentlemen and ladies, apparently on a tour, and several groups of the people of the country -women with babies, and ruddy-cheeked girls wearing the most fantastic looking caps made of white muslin. There were two police officers on board also, to examine the passports. One was in grand dress, with a military chapeau upon his head, and a sword by his side. The other was also dressed in a sort of military uniform, and he had a book in which he wrote the names and ages of all the passengers, after looking at their passports, and also put down where they came from and where they were going to, in columns ruled for the purpose in his book.

At length the time arrived for departure. The bell rang, friends bade each other good-by, the plank was taken ashore, and after a great deal of pulling and hauling of cables and hawsers to get the steamer round into the right position

for passing out of the harbor, the engines were put in motion, and she began to glide smoothly and more and more swiftly over the water. As soon as the engines began to move, Mrs. Morelle went at once and took her place upon her settee, and there reclined at her ease, watching the receding shores of Granville as the steamer moved away from the land. She saw the great promontory to the left, with the walls of the town and citadel and the spire of the church rising above them, and little parties walking about on the green brow of the cliff, looking over the sea, and the town below, and the piers, and the masts and sails of the shipping in the basin, and the green hills back of the town, with villages here and there, and spires of churches rising among the trees.

In a short time after leaving the land, Grimkie and Florence came to the place where Mrs. Morelle was sitting, to tell her that Mont St. Michel was in sight, and to beg her to come and see it.

"Will it do for me to get up and move. about ?" asked Mrs. Morelle.

"Oh yes, mother," said Florence; "the deck is as steady as a floor."

Mrs. Morelle rose cautiously from her seat and walked with the children to the side of the

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