Fred Markham in Russia | Page 2

is a very kind one, and the boys cannot fail to benefit by the excursion."
"Do not talk about that," said Cousin Giles, interrupting him. "Fred must undertake to keep a log, and note down all our adventures."
Fred, though somewhat diffident of his powers of composition, promised to do his best, and Mrs Markham begged that Harry might keep another note-book for her especial edification.
"All I bargain for," she added, "is to have descriptions of scenes written down as soon as visited, and ideas as soon as they occur."
"By all means, freshness is what we want," said Cousin Giles. "A short sketch made on the spot is worth a volume of after-recollections."
Thus the matter was speedily arranged. Before he left the house, their kind friend gave the young travellers a list of the things they would require. He would allow them only a small portmanteau apiece, which they could carry in their hands. He told them each to take a warm greatcoat, and a complete suit of waterproof clothing, including boots and hat. "Thus," said he, "you will be independent of the weather, and need never be kept in the house, however hard it may rain." He told them that, although the weather is frequently much hotter during the summer in Russia than in England, yet that at times it is as rainy, and cold, and variable as at that season of the year at home. Their Bibles, a history of Russia, and a volume of travels in that country were the only books he would let them take, advising them thoroughly to master the contents of the history and travels before they reached Saint Petersburg. He had got, he said, a good map of Russia, and a chart of the Baltic, which they were to study; as also a book called, What to Observe; or, The Traveller's Remembrancer, which is not only full of useful information, but also turns a travellers attention to what is most worth remarking abroad. Fred Markham was about fifteen; his brother, a year younger. Both of them were fine, intelligent lads. Cousin Giles was not far removed from fifty, thin and sinewy, though strongly built, and not tall, with large hard hands, which gave a warm, cordial grasp to a friend and a firm one to a rope; his heart was like them as to size, but a great contrast to them in hardness--a more thorough-going, honest sailor never existed.
No merrier party ever left London than the three travellers who started by the mail train for Hull a few nights after the above conversation. They put up at the Railway Hotel, which Cousin Giles said reminded him of a Spanish palace. In the centre is a large court glazed over, with an ottoman instead of a fountain in the centre, and broad flights of stairs on either side leading to the upper chambers. The younger travellers had never before been in so large and comfortable a hotel. Their first care in the morning was to visit the steamer Ladoga, in which they had taken their passage to Saint Petersburg. She was a gaily-painted, sharp-built, fast-looking screw.
"She'll carry us there quickly enough, if at all," muttered Cousin Giles. "But she's not the craft I should have chosen."
She had only a small part of her cargo on board, and yet the master promised to sail on the following morning. The boys were incredulous.
"Modern cranes, system, and activity will work wonders," said Cousin Giles; and he was right.
By nine o'clock the next morning the vessel was ready to sail. They spent the interim in walking about the docks, full of vessels of all nations,--sixteen steamers, they heard, ran between Hull and Saint Petersburg,--in looking at the quaint old houses of the town, and in visiting the monument raised to Wilberforce,--a lofty pillar, the first object which greets the mariner as he returns home. At the base is a simple inscription: "Negro Emancipation, 1832."
"How far more worthy was he of the pillar than most people who have monuments raised to them; and yet how he would have despised such an honour, unless it induces others to labour as he did for the benefit of their fellow-creatures," remarked Cousin Giles. "Remember, my lads, this monument, and endeavour to walk in that great man's footsteps."
A lovely morning found the voyagers on board the Ladoga, and, after much pulling and hauling, clear of the docks, and steaming down the Humber.
Cousin Giles face wore an expression of dissatisfaction as he found her deck crowded with huge, heavy iron machines and bales of cotton.
"This is nothing; we are often obliged to carry twice as much deck cargo," said the master. "Competition is so great, we must do everything to make the vessel pay."
"Were a heavy gale to spring up, it is your underwriters would