A Day's Ride (Volume 1-2); A Life's Romance (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1864. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... England. On the deck, I say, for I had need to husband my resources, and travel with every imaginable economy, not only because my resources were small in themselves, but that having left all that I possessed of clothes and baggage at the Rosary, I should be obliged to acquire a complete outfit on reaching England. It was a calm night, with a starry sky and a tranquil sea, and, when the cabin passengers had gone down to their berths, the captain did not oppose my stealing " aft" to the quarter-deck, where I could separate myself from the somewhat riotous company of the harvest labourers that thronged the forepart of the vessel. He saw, with that instinct a sailor is eminently gifted with, that I was not of that class by which I was surrounded, and with a ready courtesy he admitted me to the privilege of isolation. " You are going to enlist, I'll be bound," said he, as he passed me in his short deck walk. "Ain't I right?" " No," said I; " I'm going to seek my fortune." "Seek your fortune " he repeated, with a slighting sort of laugh. " One used to read about fellows doing that in story books when a child, but it's rather strange to hear of it now-a-days." "And may I presume to ask why should it be more strange now than formerly? Is not the world pretty much what it used to be ? Is not the drama of life the same stock piece our forefathers played ages ago? Are not: tbe actors and the actresses made np of the precise materials their ancestors were ? Can you tell me of a new sentiment, a new emotion, or even a new crime? Why, therefore, should there be a seeming incongruity in reviving any feature of the past?" "Just because it won't do, my good friend," said he, bluntly. "If the law catches a fellow lounging about the world in these times, it takes him up for a vag...