LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1435, 21 September 1878, Page 3

LITERATURE.

MY THREE WEEKS’ HOLIDAY, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. “ London Society.” Chapter I. THE JOURNEY. We were sitting over our wine, and solacing ourselves with some very mild cigars in our friend Jack’s chamber, on a close sultry evening in that hottest of months August, and we had drawn our chairs to the window, trying in vain to get even a suspicion of fresh air, The very thought of country scenes and sounds, or of the sea breezes about which we had been talking since dinner, made us feel restless and almost nervous lest we should by some 111-luck not get as much of either as we might during our impending three weeks’ holiday. I had told Jack my views (or rather those of others for me), and he was proceeding to demolish my castles in the air in much the following style : ‘Now look here, my dear fellow, don’t be absurd, and want me to think that you are following your own wishes in spending the next three weeks in Buckinghamshire, because I simply disbelieve you. Your greataunt is, I have no doubt, a most worthy old lady, but you can’t persuade me that a holiday spent with her and her ancient daughters will bo worth the name of one.’

‘ All very well, my dear Jack,’ I replied, ‘but you see “needs must” when somebody, who shall be nameless, drives the team ; and though I candidly confess the prospect is not a tempting one, it will at any rate save my pocket, and that is a great object to me in the present state of my finances.’

‘ Oh, rubbish! Why, you are twenty times better off than I am, waiting for briefs that never come, and yet I give you my word nothing would induce me to devote my holiday to driving an old lady about in a pony phaeton, carrying the spinster cousins’ galoshes, or making a fourth at their whisttable in the evenings. A fellow once said to me that his idea of a real holiday was to be able to lie all day on a quiet beach, and throw stones into the water. Now that is not my notion. Deoend upon it, excitement of a totally different kind from your general employment is the thing. And now for my grand proposition—let’s go abroad What say you ?’ My hair (I had not very much) almost stood on end at the idea, for I had been brought up at a quiet north country rectory, the only boy among six sisters, and even my coming to London was looked upon as a highly dangerous experiment, though I was to bo articled to an uncle, a solicitor of good standing. Nothing but the fact of my residing in his house (where the old servant who superintended his bachelor establishment undertook to look after ‘ Master Tom,’ and see that he did not put on damp shirts, &c.) would have induced my mother to consent. One whole year I had worked steadily, and my uncle had given me leave to have three weeks’ holiday, and to spend it where and in what manner I pleased. Through the medium of my mother an invitation had been sent me by an aunt of her own to spend a part of the time with her in Buckinghamshire. ‘ You may rely, my dear niece,’ she wrote, ‘that we will take every care of dear Tom; we are very quiet people, and with us he will be quite safe from any kind of dissipation.’ The prospect had never seemed very charming, but now since my chosen friend and greatest chum had turned it into ridicule, and had dared to propose so bold a thing as starting off on our own account, it presented a still more sombre aspect. ‘Now, I'll tell you what,’ said Jack ; ‘we must get medical authority for this. Old Dr Spearing is a great friend of mine, and also of your uncle’s; we’ll get him to say that sea bathing is absolutely necessary for your constitution after such a spell of hard work as you have had. Once convince your mother of that, and it will be all right.’

I need not enter into the details of the next few days; suffice it to say that we called on the doctor, who rubbed his hands, chuckled, and after poking us both in the ribs and calling us a couple of scamps, promised to report on the delicate state of my nervous system to my uncle, and finally wished he were young enough to join us. All went well till my mother’s reply came, and then I discovered she could not reconcile her mind to her dear boy crossing the sea. ‘O, could not Mr Tridham find any place on the English coast where the water was equally beneficial ?’

‘ Good gracious, no 1’ shouted Jack. ‘ Write and tell your mother that the water in which I propose you should take your first dip has been blessed with no end of religious ceremonies, is universally acknowledged to be possessed of wonderful properties of all kinds But, my dear fellow, you really must act for yourself some time or other, and it is as well to begin at once. Now my advice is this : write a nice little consoling letter to the mater, and forget to post it till you are the other side of the Channel; then her fears as to the dangers of the voyage will at any rate be at an end.’ I took his advice in this as in most other things, wrote my letter on Friday, and one memorable Saturday embarked about twelve o’clock on board the steamship Ef., plying between London and 0., the place we were going to. That she was a very fine vessel I have no doubt, and I wish to cast no reflection on her; I only know the time I passed on board was by far the moat miserable of my life so far as it has gone at present. For the first three or four hours I really enjoyed myself greatly ; the sense of freedom, from being taken care of, and of having a twentypound note (besides some small change) in my pocket, really made me feel like an independent man As for Jack, he was as merry as possible. It was by no means his first trip abroad, but he made me feel quite irritated by the persistent way in which he rushed up and down into the saloon to assure himself that my berth had not been appropriated. ‘ Because you sec, old ellow, you may be glad to turn in before wo get there,’ ‘ Not likely,’' I replied, and paraded the upper deck, and heard the captain telling Jack about a terrible voyage he had once made in a snowstorm, and showing him the watch the passengers had presented him with in admiration of his conduct.

‘You see, sir, the inscription,’ he said, handing it to me, I have no doubt whatever it was there, but somehow I could not read it well, and was beginning to have some misgivings about the steadiness of the famous steamer, and to have some doubts as to my prudence in having embarked in her at all. Jack, watching me as a cat does a mouse, drew my arm within his, and said, ‘I think, old fellow, a little brandy-and-wator and a turn into our bertha will about suit both of ns.’ ‘God bless him for the suggestion,'-1 shall always say. Tim brauciy-ani-water proved a miserable failure r.S far as I was concerned, and I drew a veil over the nc>.t Jew' hours. lam told that duviuij tho evening some barbarians pm took of tea with chop?, steaks, and broiled ham. I can only say I was not one of the number. -V cheery voice at last said ill my ear, ‘Jump up, old fellow; we are in, the harbor, and you’ll be all right now, But really ymi’y, been a capital uiilor.’ ‘ Had I, indeed ! Well, perhaps so; and raising'my head Wearily, I said,

* Well, I don’t think I have done so badly after all,’ A great noise and confusion overhead, then a stop, and a babel of voices, such as I had never heard before. Jack seized hold of my arm, and we made our way over a narrow gangway on to the quay. ‘ But, Jack, my portmanteau! ’ I exclaimed. ‘O, don’t bother,’ replied he; ‘it will turn up all right.’ Leaning on Jack’s arm I managed to stagger along, and found myself seated on a bench in a long dirty-looking room, still amidst a hideous confusion of tongues. Jack, who seemed about as cheery as if he had just taken a run from London Bridge to Blackfriars in a penny steamer, soon left me to dash after a man with a linen blouse, who was shouldering our impedimenta. I really felt as if I did not much care what became of that or myself : but even my feelings were presently aroused by seeing a stout official-looking personage proceeding to unfasten the straps of my portmanteau, and muttering in a gruff voice, * A qui est-ce ?' 4 Hey !’ cried I; *O, that’s mine.’ ‘ Monsieur, vans avez rien a declarer? ‘O, good heavens, what is he saying?’ ejaculated I, looking round in despair for my fidus Achates , who was lost to view in the crowd.

‘ The officer is asking if you have anything to declare/ said a rather gentlemanly-look-ing man close to my elbow. Declare ? thought I; nothing except that I am deadly sick, and wish with all my heart I was in my aunt’s quiet house in Buckinghamshire. Up rushed Jack, puffing and panting, and exhibited, as I thought, a most unwarrantable anxiety to have my portmanteau opened. Curiously enough the more anxious he seemed the less so became the officer, who, finally giving it a scratch and a shove, intimated that we were at liberty to proceed. Out into the open air again, and amid a worse babel than ever. How we reached our hotel I do not know, but I am morally certain to this day that had I landed alone I should have been found tom limb from limb, and deposited in small particles in the different places of accommodation so urgently pressed on my notice in a language the harshness of which I cannot attempt to describe. When at last I stretched myself on the small bed, of which Jack had an exact counterpart, I was still under an impression that I was in that famous steamer, so persistently did everything appear to be going up and down; and I envied Jack with all my heart, who was sound asleep before his head had been five minutes on his pillow. (To be continued.)