In the Heart of the Rockies | Page 8

last thing he said when I bade good-bye to him was,
'Keep up your spirits, mother'; and I try to do so."
The old lady went on talking about her son, and Tom, listening to her
kindly attempts to draw him out of his own troubles, grew interested,
and by the time they reached Winchester, where she left the train, he
had shaken off his first depression. It was a long journey with several
changes, and he did not arrive in Liverpool until six o'clock in the
evening, having been nearly twelve hours on the road. Carry's last
injunction had been, "Take a cab when you get to Liverpool, Tom, and
drive straight down to the docks. Liverpool is a large place, and you
might get directed wrong. I shall be more comfortable if I know that, at
any rate, you will go straight on board."
Tom had thought it an unnecessary expense, but as he saw that Carry
would be more comfortable about him if he followed her advice, he

promised to do so, and was not sorry for it as he drove through the
streets; for, in spite of cutting down everything that seemed
unnecessary for the voyage and subsequent journey, the portmanteau
was too heavy to carry far with comfort, and although prepared to
rough it to any extent when he had once left England, he felt that he
should not like to make his way along the crowded streets with his
trunk on his shoulder.
The cabman had no difficulty in finding the Parthia, which was still in
the basin. Tom was, however, only just in time to get on board, for the
men were already throwing off the warps, and ten minutes later she
passed out through the dock-gates, and soon anchored in the middle of
the river. Tom had been on board too many ships at Portsmouth to feel
any of that bewilderment common to emigrants starting on their first
voyage. He saw that at present everyone was too busy to attend to him,
and so he put his portmanteau down by the bulwark forward, and
leaning on the rail watched the process of warping the ship out of the
docks. There were a good many steerage passengers forward, but at
present the after-part of the ship was entirely deserted, as the cabin
passengers would not come on board until either late at night or early
next morning. When the anchor had been let drop he took up his trunk
and asked a sailor where he ought to go to.
"Show me your ticket. Ah! single man's quarters, right forward."
There he met a steward, who, after looking at his ticket, said: "You will
see the bunks down there, and can take any one that is unoccupied. I
should advise you to put your trunk into it, and keep the lid shut.
People come and go in the morning, and you might find that your
things had gone too. It would be just as well for you to keep it locked
through the voyage. I see that you have got a cord round it. Keep it
corded; the more things there are to unfasten to get at the contents the
less chance there is of anyone attempting it."
The place was crowded with berths, mere shallow trays, each
containing a straw mattress and pillow and two coloured blankets. They
were in three tiers, one above the other, and were arranged in lines
three deep, with a narrow passage between. He saw by the number into

which bags and packets had been thrown that the upper berths were the
favourites, but he concluded that the lower tiers were preferable. "It
will be frightfully hot and stuffy here," he said to himself, "and I should
say the lower berths will be cooler than the upper." He therefore placed
his trunk in one of those next to the central passage and near the door,
and then went up on deck.
The Parthia was a Cunarder, and although not equal in size to the great
ships of the present day, was a very fine vessel. The fare had been
somewhat higher than that for which he could have had a passage in a
sailing ship, but in addition to his saving time, there was the advantage
that on board the steamers, passengers were not obliged to provide their
own bedding, as they had to do in sailing vessels, and also the food was
cooked for them in the ship's galleys.
The first meal was served soon after the anchor dropped, and consisted
of a bowl of cocoa and a large piece of bread. Half an hour later a
tender came alongside with the last batch of steerage passengers, and
Tom was interested in watching the various groups as they came