FINDING FRIENDS
The weather was fine, and Tom Wade found the voyage
more pleasant than he had expected. The port-holes
were kept open all the way, and the crowded quarters
were less uncomfortable than would have been the case
had they encountered rough weather. There were
some very rough spirits among the party forward, but
the great majority were quiet men, and after the first
night all talking and larking were sternly repressed
after the lights were out. The food was abundant,
and although some grumbled at the meat there was no
real cause of complaint. A rope across the deck
divided the steerage passengers from those aft, and
as there were not much more than one-half the emigrants
aboard that the Parthia could carry, there
was plenty of room on deck.
But few of the passengers suffered from sea-sickness,
and the women sat and chatted and sewed in little
groups while the children played about, and the men
walked up and down or gathered forward and smoked,
while a few who had provided themselves with newspapers
or books sat in quiet corners and read. Tom was
one of these, for he had picked up a few books on
the United States at second-hand bookstalls at Portsmouth,
and this prevented him from finding the voyage monotonous.
When indisposed to read he chatted with Brown the
carpenter and his mates, and sometimes getting a party
of children round him and telling them stories gathered
from the books now standing on the shelves in his room
at Southsea. He was glad, however, when the voyage
was over; not because he was tired of it, but because
he was longing to be on his way west. Before leaving
the ship he took a very hearty farewell of his companions
on the voyage, and on landing was detained but a few
minutes at the custom-house, and then entering an
omnibus that was in waiting at the gate, was driven
straight to the station of one of the western lines
of railway.
From the information he had got up before sailing
he had learnt that there were several of these, but
that there was very little difference either in their
speed or rates of fare, and that their through-rates
to Denver were practically the same. He had therefore
fixed on the Chicago and Little Rock line, not because
its advantages were greater, but in order to be able
to go straight from the steamer to the station without
having to make up his mind between the competing lines.
He found on arrival that the emigrant trains ran to
Omaha, where all the lines met, and that beyond that
he must proceed by the regular trains. An emigrant
train was to leave that evening at six o’clock.
“The train will be made up about four,”
a good-natured official said to him, “and you
had best be here by that time so as to get a corner
seat, for I can tell you that makes all the difference
on a journey like this. If you like to take your
ticket at once you can register that trunk of yours
straight on to Denver, and then you won’t have
any more trouble about it.”
