O dear! there is Grandpapa beckoning to us to
hurry." So on they sped, having no breath for words. And presently they
were on the boat, and little Dr. Fisher and Mr. Henderson went forward
into the saloon, where the rooms reserved beforehand were to be given
out, and the rest of the party waited and watched the stream of people
of all ages and sizes and nationalities who desired to reach Holland
the next morning.
To Polly it was a world of delight, and to Jasper, who watched her
keenly, it was a revelation to see how nothing escaped her, no matter
how noisy and dirty or turbulent the crowd, or how annoying the
detention,--it was all a marvel of happiness from beginning to end. And
Jasper looking back over the two times he had been before to Europe
with his father, although he had never seen Holland, remembered only a
sort of dreary drifting about with many pleasant episodes and
experiences, it is true, still with the feeling on the whole of the
most distinct gladness when their faces were turned homeward and the
journeying was over.
"Mamsie," cried Polly, poking her head out from the upper berth of the
stuffy little state-room assigned to Mrs. Fisher, Mrs. Henderson,
Phronsie, and herself; "was anything ever so delicious as this boat?
--and to think, Mamsie,"--here Polly paused to add as impressively as if
the idea had never been voiced before,--"that we are really to see
Holland to-morrow.
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