“You can play, sing, speak three or four languages?”

“By no means.”

“Still I think you are clever” (a pause and a yawn). “Shall you be seasick?”

“Shall you?”

“Oh, immensely! as soon as ever we get in sight of the sea: I begin, indeed, to feel it already. I shall go below; and won’t I order about that fat odious stewardess! Heureusement je sais faire aller mon monde. ”

Down she went.

It was not long before the other passengers followed her: throughout the afternoon I remained on deck alone. When I recall the tranquil, and even happy mood in which I passed those hours, and remember, at the same time, the position in which I was placed; its hazardous⁠—some would have said its hopeless⁠—character; I feel that, as⁠—

“Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars⁠—a cage,”

“Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars⁠—a cage,”

so peril, loneliness, an uncertain future, are not oppressive evils, so long as the frame is healthy and the faculties are employed; so long, especially, as Liberty lends us her wings, and Hope guides us by her star.