Page:Travel letters from New Zealand, Australia and Africa (1913).djvu/436

 "Oh," the other will reply, "it serves to kill time, but is rather foolish." What queer things you find in books! And how much alike many of the famous ones are. "Adam Bede," "The Manxman," and "The Scarlet Letter," were all written around an "idea" that is unnatural, unclean and absurd.

—We are in a wider part of the Red Sea today, and are not meeting so many ships; the few we have seen have been far away. Yesterday we were in a part of the sea almost as narrow as a river, and we could not avoid meeting all passing vessels. At one time last night so many brilliantly lighted ships were in sight that we were reminded of a night parade of electrical features at a celebration We have had a strong head-wind all day which travelers pray for in the Red Sea, and toward evening the "Burgermeister" acquired considerable motion The English passengers on board organized a Sports Committee this morning, and are now busily engaged in arranging for such elevating sports as "In a Pig's Eye," "Are You There?" potato-races for women, etc. The traveling Englishman has lately gone crazy about ship sports; he is like a Methodist who believes in sanctification by baptism: he will talk of nothing else, and insists on arguing the question with you. In England, only cheap people at country fairs engage in such sports, but on English ships, dukes and princes are expected to take part, for the honor of Old England. The German passengers are not enlisting for the sports,