THE FLORENCE STORIES,

BY JACOB ABBOTT.

EXCURSION TO THE ORKNEY ISLANDS.

NEW YORK: SHELDON & COMPANY, 115 NASSAU STREET.

1861.

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STEREOTYPED BY Smith & McDougal. 82 & 84 Beekman-st.

PRINTED BY C. A. Alvord. 15 Vandewater-st.

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ENGRAVINGS.

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CONTENTS.

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CHAPTER I.

LETTER FROM SINGAPORE.

On one occasion, when Mrs. Morelle went down to New York with Grimkie and her two children Florence and John, while her husband was in the East Indies, she heard that a letter had arrived from him that very day, and that it had just been sent to the post-office in order to be conveyed to her at her house up the North River. The letter, she was told, came from Singapore.

Singapore is a large English port situated just about half way round the world from America, on the way to the East Indies. It is a sort of center and rendezvous for all ships navigating those seas, and letters go and come to and from it in all directions.

It is often visited, moreover, by ships of war, cruising in those seas.

[12]

Grimkie went down to New York with his aunt and cousins, on this occasion, because it was holiday at his school at the Chateau. Every Saturday was holiday at the Chateau.

His aunt and also his cousins were always very glad to have him go to New York with them when they went, but he never left his school to go on such excursions, except upon the regular holidays.

Mrs. Morelle would have been very impatient to reach home if she had supposed that her husband’s letter would arrive there before she did. But she knew very well that the mail from New York did not get in till about eight o’clock, and that the letter would not be brought up to the Octagon until about half-past eight. She was, therefore, not in any special haste to reach the end of the voyage, but amused herself talking with the children very quietly and contentedly all the way.

The steamboat arrived between four and five. Grimkie obtained a carriage at the pier, and, after assisting Mrs. Morelle and the children to get into it, he bade them good-by, and turned his own steps toward the Chateau.

At half-past eight o’clock the letter came. Mrs. Morelle, who had been watching for the coming of the boy who brought the mail, took[13] the letter from him at the door, and went at once into her little room to read it. It was as follows:

Singapore, August 16. “My very dear wife:

“I have just arrived at this port from Calcutta, on my way to Canton, and in consequence of letters which I have received here I find that next summer I shall have occasion to go to London. I hope to reach there about the first of September.

“Now I have a plan to propose to you, though I do not know what you will think of it. It is no less than this—that you should take the children and come out to England and meet me. I shall be able to spend four or five weeks in England, and then I must return to Canton again. I might come to America in that time to see you, instead of asking you to cross the Atlantic to see me, but if I were to do so, the voyage would occupy nearly all the time that I should have to spare, and thus leave me only a very few days to spend in your company; whereas, if you come to London, I can enjoy the pleasure of being with you and the children a whole month.

“Besides, I think it might perhaps be agreeable to you, and also improving to the children, to make a little tour in England and France.

[14]

The facilities for travelling are such now that I think you will have no difficulty in coming out alone. If you approve of this plan, I would recommend to you to cross early in June, and spend a little time in rambling about England before I come. By sending your address to my bankers from time to time, I could come to you immediately on my arrival. Let me know what you think of this plan.

“The overland mail is just closing, so I can not write any more at this time, I shall, however, write you again very soon, and in the meantime I am your very affectionate husband.”

James Morelle.

The children came into the room just as their mother had finished reading her letter, and so she read it aloud to them. They were very much excited at the idea of making a voyage to England, and they asked their mother if she thought she would go.

“Yes,” said Mrs. Morelle. “I rather think I shall.”

The children clapped their hands with delight at hearing this answer.

“I wish that Grimkie could go with us,” said Florence.

“So do I,” said John.

“Ah!” responded Mrs. Morelle, shaking her head, “I am afraid that will be impossible.”

[15]

CHAPTER II.

TAKING PASSAGE.

While Mrs. Morelle was reflecting upon the arrangements which she should make for her intended voyage, she thought a great deal of the suggestion which Florence had made, namely, that she should take Grimkie with her.

“I wish I could take him with me,” said she. “He would be a great help to me, and a great reliance. He is so capable, and at the same time so considerate; besides, he would be a great deal of company for the children, and would make the tour not only doubly pleasant, but doubly profitable for them.”

But then there was the difficulty of his studies. He was fitting for college; and Mrs. Morelle knew very well that his father was always extremely unwilling to allow any thing to interfere with his studies in school.

At first, Mrs. Morelle thought that this difficulty was insurmountable, and that it was wholly out of the question that Grimkie should accompany them on the proposed tour. But on[16] reflecting more fully upon the subject, she recollected that it was not usually considered well for a boy to enter college until he was about sixteen years of age, whereas Grimkie was not yet fourteen. She knew also that he was already pretty nearly fitted for college, and she thought it possible that his father might think that he could now spare a year from his studies as well as not. It would undoubtedly be greatly promotive of his health, she thought, and of the strength of his constitution, to spend a year in travelling, and thus enable him to enter upon his college course with more vigor and energy. He might travel with her and the children a year, she thought, and still leave a year for school, to complete his preparations for the college examination, before it would be time for him to be offered.

So she determined to propose the plan to Grimkie’s father, though she did it with great doubt and hesitation.

“It will be exactly what I want for him,” said Mr. Jay, when he heard the proposal. “I have been quite at a loss to decide what to do with him for the two coming years. I thought seriously of sending him to some farmer for a year. A boy ought not to be kept at his studies all the time, while he is growing.

[17]

“But it seems to me, sister,” he added, after a moment’s pause, “that you show a great deal of courage in undertaking the charge of three such children, in making the tour of Europe. I should think your own two children would be charge enough for you.”

“That is just it,” said Mrs. Morelle. “They are too much of a charge, and so I want Grimkie to go with us to help me take care of them.”

Mr. Jay made no further objection, and so it was arranged that Grimkie should go.

Mr. Jay made it a condition, however, that Grimkie should have all the charge of the baggage and of the accounts during the tour, so as to learn to do such business properly.

Grimkie was, of course, greatly pleased when he heard of the plan which had thus been formed for him, and it was determined that the very next Saturday the whole party should go to New York and take passage in the Cunard line of steamers. It was necessary for Grimkie to go, for this was a part of the business which he was bound to attend to, according to the arrangement. Grimkie wished that Mrs. Morelle should go, in order that she might choose the staterooms which the party were to occupy, and Florence and John must go for the pleasure of being of the party.

[18]

“Besides,” said Florence, “we want to go on board the ship and see the staterooms.”

“Ah! but we are not going on board the ship,” replied Grimkie: “we are only going to the office.”

“Then how is mother going to choose the staterooms that we are to have,” said Florence, “if she does not see them.”

“She will see a plan of them,” said Grimkie. “They have plans of all the ships at the office, with the plans and shapes of all the staterooms laid down upon them.”

“Ho!” said John, in a tone of disappointment; “I don’t care any thing about seeing a plan. Nevertheless,” he added, after a moment’s pause, “I should like to go.”

So it was agreed that they should all go together.

It was necessary to go immediately, too; for the berths and staterooms in the Atlantic steamers are usually engaged long beforehand. Mrs. Morelle asked Grimkie to inquire which was the best steamer in the Cunard line; for as the precise time of their sailing was not material, they could go a little sooner or later, for the sake of having one of the best ships.

Grimkie accordingly inquired, and he learned that the Persia was the largest of the ships,[19] though in other respects they were all nearly equally good. Mrs. Morelle accordingly determined to take passage in the Persia, provided she found that that ship was going at any time near the first of June.

Accordingly, on the first Saturday morning after it was concluded that Grimkie should go, the whole party set out together to go to New York to engage the passages. They went down by the railroad, and arrived at the Chambers-street station about ten o’clock.

“This is just right,” said Grimkie. “The office opens at ten, I suppose.”

So Grimkie selected a nice looking carriage from among those that were standing at the station, and after assisting his aunt and his cousins to enter it, and also getting in himself, he directed the coachman to drive to the office of the Cunard Company. The office was situated at the foot of Broadway, opposite the lower end of the Bowling Green.

They all descended from the carriage, and went up the steps which led to the office. On entering it they found a large room, in the front part of which was a counter with a desk at one end of it, and on the counter were lying one or two immense books containing plans. The books were about a yard long, and perhaps two feet[20] wide, and each leaf contained a plan. The leaves were very stiff, as if the plans had been pasted upon sheets of pasteboard, in order that they might be turned over easily, and also to protect them from injury by constant handling.

In the back part of the room were other desks, where several clerks were engaged in writing.

Grimkie accosted the clerk who stood at the desk near the counter, saying,

“We came, sir, to engage passages in one of your ships.”

The clerk bowed politely to Mrs. Morelle, and after some conversation in respect to the time when she wished to sail, and the steamer which she preferred, he looked into his books, and found that the Persia would be coming to America, instead of going to Europe, about the first of June; also that the ship which would sail from New York nearest to that time, namely, on the 23d of May, was full. All the staterooms were engaged. There were, however, some excellent staterooms at liberty in the Boston steamer, which sailed on the following week, namely, the 30th of May.

And here, perhaps, it is necessary to explain that there are two branches to the Cunard line of steamers, one of which connects Liverpool with Boston, and the other with New York. A[21] ship of each line sails alternately from Boston and New York—one week from Boston, and the next from New York.

As soon as Grimkie heard that there were good staterooms disengaged in the Boston steamer of the 30th of May, his eye brightened up at once, and he proposed that they should go that way.

“But that will make us an extra journey from here to Boston,” said Mrs. Morelle.

“Yes, Auntie,” said Grimkie, “that is just the thing. We shall have the journey to Boston into the bargain, and without paying anything for it, for the price is less from Boston, and a good deal more than enough less to pay the expenses of going.”

“Yes, mother,” said Florence, “let us go that way.”

“Besides,” said Grimkie, “the Boston steamers touch at Halifax, into the bargain.”

“Is that so?” said Mrs. Morelle, turning to the clerk.

“Yes, madam,” said the clerk, smiling; “but I think the passengers do not usually consider the touching at Halifax any special advantage in favor of the Boston line.”

“Why? Does not the ship stop long enough for them to go on shore?” asked Mrs. Morelle.

[22]

“She stops usually two or three hours,” replied the clerk; “and the passengers can go ashore, if they please.”

“Then let us go that way, mother,” said Florence.

“We must go that way for aught I see,” said Mrs. Morelle, “if there are no staterooms for us in the New York steamers.”

The clerk looked into his books again, and said that there were no two continuous staterooms disengaged in the New York steamers until after the middle of June. He, however, then opened one of the big books, and showed Mrs. Morelle the plan of the Europa, which was the Boston steamer that was to sail on the 30th, and pointed out upon the plan two staterooms lying contiguous to each other, which were disengaged.

One of them was what was called the family stateroom, being nearly square in form, with two berths, one over the other, at the end, and a settee along the side, upon which a third person might sleep, if necessary.[23]

“I could sleep on the sofa, mother,” said John, “just as well as not.”

“Then what should we do with Grimkie,” asked Mrs. Morelle.

CHOOSING THE STATE ROOMS.

“We might give the young gentleman a separate[25] berth in another stateroom,” said the clerk; “and then you would have only three passages to pay for. But in that case,” added the clerk, “you might find it more convenient to let the young lady sleep upon the sofa, as the upper berth is pretty high, and her brother could climb up to it perhaps more easily than she could.”

“I can climb,” said John, eagerly. “I can climb up to the upper berth, just as well as not.”

Mrs. Morelle found, on further conversation with the clerk, that if she took only a single berth in the second stateroom, the other berth would be occupied by some stranger, who might or might not be very agreeable company for Grimkie. So she concluded to take two staterooms herself, with a view of letting Grimkie and John occupy one of them, while she and Florence occupied the other. The clerk accordingly put down her name for two staterooms contiguous to each other, one of the large ones for herself and Florence, and a smaller one, next to it, for Grimkie and John. Mrs. Morelle paid the money and took a receipt, and then the whole party left the office and returned to the carriage.

[26]

CHAPTER III.

PREPARATIONS.

Many weeks intervened between the time when Mrs. Morelle took her passage and the day appointed for sailing. During this interval all parties were very much occupied with making the various preparations necessary for such a tour. Mrs. Morelle bought three trunks all alike and of medium size. One of these trunks was for herself, one for Florence and John, and one for Grimkie.

These trunks were all of a medium size, that is, about as large as could be conveniently handled when full, by one man. Mrs. Morelle had learned by former experience in travelling in Europe, that occasions would often occur when it was very inconvenient to have a trunk which it required two men to lift and carry away.

Besides these trunks Mrs. Morelle bought a sort of valise as large as she thought Grimkie could conveniently carry in his hand, which contained a set of night dresses and certain toilet[27] conveniences for the whole party. This she called the night valise.

“Because you see,” she said in explaining the 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 don’t 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[28] 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 ferry-boat, 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 to go to another and another. We went to three before we could get in.

“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[29] 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.”

“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 neighboring[30] 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.