Page:Travel letters from New Zealand, Australia and Africa (1913).djvu/39

 times. He hates the "Maheno," and predicts a disagreeable experience. He says the "Maheno" can kick up a rough sea when the weather is fine, and that there is nothing commendable about the boat except that it usually gets across in a little less than four days You can never know what it means to be crowded until you have been one of three in a steamship stateroom. It was a disagreeable experience, getting to bed, which we attempted at 8:30, as the weather was rough. After I was in bed with my two roommates, I began thinking: "Suppose one of them should snore!" I am a bad sleeper at best, and the thought of a snoring man in my room all night set my nerves on edge The opportunity was too good to be neglected. Mr. Bond and his friend talked business awhile, another thing I am not accustomed to in my sleeping-room, and then Mr. Bond began snoring. For years, people around me have paid attention to my nerves, because I am a bad sleeper, and I resented this snoring as a spoilt child does when whipped by a neighbor. I stood it until midnight, and then I crawled out of bed, found a bath-robe and slippers, and spent the night on a sofa in the music-room.

—A ship is no place for an early riser. A ship bed becomes unbearable to me by 5, and half an hour later I am on deck. I can't sit in the music-room or smoking-room, because the stewards are cleaning up, and when I walk the decks I am in the way of sailors who are washing them with