CHAPTER II

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