American Notes | Page 5

and deplorable
state of things. And with this; and with showing how, - by very nearly
closing the door, and twining in and out like serpents, and by counting
the little washing slab as standing-room, - we could manage to
insinuate four people into it, all at one time; and entreating each other
to observe how very airy it was (in dock), and how there was a
beautiful port-hole which could be kept open all day (weather
permitting), and how there was quite a large bull's-eye just over the
looking-glass which would render shaving a perfectly easy and
delightful process (when the ship didn't roll too much); we arrived, at
last, at the unanimous conclusion that it was rather spacious than
otherwise: though I do verily believe that, deducting the two berths,
one above the other, than which nothing smaller for sleeping in was
ever made except coffins, it was no bigger than one of those hackney
cabriolets which have the door behind, and shoot their fares out, like
sacks of coals, upon the pavement.
Having settled this point to the perfect satisfaction of all parties,

concerned and unconcerned, we sat down round the fire in the ladies'
cabin - just to try the effect. It was rather dark, certainly; but somebody
said, 'of course it would be light, at sea,' a proposition to which we all
assented; echoing 'of course, of course;' though it would be exceedingly
difficult to say why we thought so. I remember, too, when we had
discovered and exhausted another topic of consolation in the
circumstance of this ladies' cabin adjoining our state-room, and the
consequently immense feasibility of sitting there at all times and
seasons, and had fallen into a momentary silence, leaning our faces on
our hands and looking at the fire, one of our party said, with the solemn
air of a man who had made a discovery, 'What a relish mulled claret
will have down here!' which appeared to strike us all most forcibly; as
though there were something spicy and high-flavoured in cabins, which
essentially improved that composition, and rendered it quite incapable
of perfection anywhere else.
There was a stewardess, too, actively engaged in producing clean
sheets and table-cloths from the very entrails of the sofas, and from
unexpected lockers, of such artful mechanism, that it made one's head
ache to see them opened one after another, and rendered it quite a
distracting circumstance to follow her proceedings, and to find that
every nook and corner and individual piece of furniture was something
else besides what it pretended to be, and was a mere trap and deception
and place of secret stowage, whose ostensible purpose was its least
useful one.
God bless that stewardess for her piously fraudulent account of January
voyages! God bless her for her clear recollection of the companion
passage of last year, when nobody was ill, and everybody dancing from
morning to night, and it was 'a run' of twelve days, and a piece of the
purest frolic, and delight, and jollity! All happiness be with her for her
bright face and her pleasant Scotch tongue, which had sounds of old
Home in it for my fellow-traveller; and for her predictions of fair winds
and fine weather (all wrong, or I shouldn't be half so fond of her); and
for the ten thousand small fragments of genuine womanly tact, by
which, without piecing them elaborately together, and patching them
up into shape and form and case and pointed application, she
nevertheless did plainly show that all young mothers on one side of the
Atlantic were near and close at hand to their little children left upon the

other; and that what seemed to the uninitiated a serious journey, was, to
those who were in the secret, a mere frolic, to be sung about and
whistled at! Light be her heart, and gay her merry eyes, for years!
The state-room had grown pretty fast; but by this time it had expanded
into something quite bulky, and almost boasted a bay- window to view
the sea from. So we went upon deck again in high spirits; and there,
everything was in such a state of bustle and active preparation, that the
blood quickened its pace, and whirled through one's veins on that clear
frosty morning with involuntary mirthfulness. For every gallant ship
was riding slowly up and down, and every little boat was splashing
noisily in the water; and knots of people stood upon the wharf, gazing
with a kind of 'dread delight' on the far-famed fast American steamer;
and one party of men were 'taking in the milk,' or, in other words,
getting the cow on board; and another were filling the icehouses to the
very throat with fresh provisions; with butchers'-meat and garden-stuff,
pale sucking-pigs, calves' heads