“I am not going to say a word,” said he, and he didn’t.  All our belongings was in our trunks.  Jone didn’t carry any hand-bag, and I had only a little one which had in it three newspapers, which we bought from the pilot, a tooth-brush, a spool of thread and some needles, and a pair of scissors with one point broken off.  With these things we had to go to a hotel and spend the night, and in the morning we had to go back to have our trunks examined, which, as there was nothing in them to pay duty on, was waste time for all parties, no matter when it was done.

[Illustration:  “Jone didn’t carry any hand-bag, and I had only a little one”]

That night, when I was lying awake thinking about this welcome to our native land, I don’t say that I hauled down the stars and stripes, but I did put them at half mast.  When we arrived in England we got ashore about twelve o’clock at night, but there was the custom-house officers as civil and obliging as any people could be, ready to tend to us and pass us on.  And when I thought of them, and afterward of the lordly hirelings who met us here, I couldn’t help feeling what a glorious thing it would be to travel if you could get home without coming back.

Jone tried to comfort me by telling me that we ought to be very glad we don’t like this sort of thing.  “In many foreign countries,” said he, “people are a good deal nagged by their governments and they like it; we don’t like it, so haul up your flag.”

I hauled it up, and it’s flying now from the tiptop of my tallest mast.  In an hour our train starts, and I shall see Corinne before the sun goes down.