Chapter 1

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_ CHAPTER ONE

A Trip to Russia proposed--Cousin Giles and his History--Preparations for the Voyage--Journey to Hull--The Steamer described--The Voyage commenced--A Fog at Sea.

"Thank you, thank you; it will be very delightful," said Fred Markham.

"It will be jolly, that it will!" exclaimed his younger brother Harry; and home they ran as fast as their legs could carry them to find their father and mother.

"Oh, father, father!--mother, mother!--may we go? May we go?" they exclaimed in a breath together. "Cousin Giles has asked us, and he says that he will take very good care of us, and that he is not joking; that he is in real earnest, and that, if you will give us leave to go, he wishes to set off immediately."

"But you have not told us where you wish to go to," said Captain Markham. "If it should chance to be to Timbuctoo, to the Sandwich Islands, or to the antipodes, I fear that I must refuse your request."

"Even should Cousin Giles be answerable for your safe return, I could not part with you for so long a time as would be required to go to either of those regions of the world," added their mother, smiling.

"But it is not to Timbuctoo, nor to the Sandwich Islands, nor to any place near so far off that Cousin Giles wants to take us," replied Fred eagerly. "It is only to Russia, and that is no distance at all, he says."

"Only to Russia!" exclaimed Captain Markham, with an emphasis on the only. "That country used to be thought a long way off from England in my younger days; but railways and steamers have worked a great change in our notions of distances. We must, however, hear what Cousin Giles has to say before we decide on the subject."

The lads had not to endure their uncertainty very long before Cousin Giles made his appearance, his somewhat weather-beaten countenance beaming with a glow of benevolence and vivacity which seldom forsook it. Now it must be understood that Cousin Giles was not really the young Markhams' cousin, any more than he was that of several other families in the county who called him by the same affectionate name. He was a lieutenant in the navy, but, having received a severe wound in battle, which incapacitated him, he considered, from doing his duty properly, he retired from the service, though he ultimately recovered sufficiently to travel about without inconvenience. As in the course of his professional career he had visited the sea-coasts of nearly every part of the world, besides taking journeys inland from them, while he made his observations on what he saw, he possessed a large fund of information. What was also of great consequence, he had a considerable talent for describing what he had seen. Besides possessing these qualifications, being the life and spirit of every juvenile party, and the promoter of all sports and pastimes in-doors and out of doors, he was a welcome guest, both, with old and young, at every friend's house which he could find time to visit. More than all this, he was a religious, honourable, generous-hearted man. He could not, therefore, fail to be a most desirable travelling companion for his young friends. He had been several times to sea with their father, who was himself a captain in the navy, and who had the greatest confidence in him.

"What is all this, my dear fellow, the boys are saying about Russia?" asked Captain Markham as he entered the room.

"Why, that I have bethought me of paying a visit this summer to the land of the Czar; that I want companions; that I like young ones, who will follow my ways better than old ones, who won't; that I enjoy fresh ideas freshly expressed, and am tired of stale platitudes; in short, if you will entrust your youngsters to me, I will take charge of them, and point out what is mostly worth seeing and remembering at the places we visit."

"I cannot refuse you, Fairman," replied Captain Markham. "You offer is a very kind one, and the boys cannot fail to benefit by the excursion."

"Do not talk about that," said Cousin Giles, interrupting him. "Fred must undertake to keep a log, and note down all our adventures."

Fred, though somewhat diffident of his powers of composition, promised to do his best, and Mrs Markham begged that Harry might keep another note-book for her especial edification.

"All I bargain for," she added, "is to have descriptions of scenes written down as soon as visited, and ideas as soon as they occur."

"By all means, freshness is what we want," said Cousin Giles. "A short sketch made on the spot is worth a volume of after-recollections."

Thus the matter was speedily arranged. Before he left the house, their kind friend gave the young travellers a list of the things they would require. He would allow them only a small portmanteau apiece, which they could carry in their hands. He told them each to take a warm greatcoat, and a complete suit of waterproof clothing, including boots and hat. "Thus," said he, "you will be independent of the weather, and need never be kept in the house, however hard it may rain." He told them that, although the weather is frequently much hotter during the summer in Russia than in England, yet that at times it is as rainy, and cold, and variable as at that season of the year at home. Their Bibles, a history of Russia, and a volume of travels in that country were the only books he would let them take, advising them thoroughly to master the contents of the history and travels before they reached Saint Petersburg. He had got, he said, a good map of Russia, and a chart of the Baltic, which they were to study; as also a book called, _What to Observe; or, The Traveller's Remembrancer_, which is not only full of useful information, but also turns a travellers attention to what is most worth remarking abroad. Fred Markham was about fifteen; his brother, a year younger. Both of them were fine, intelligent lads. Cousin Giles was not far removed from fifty, thin and sinewy, though strongly built, and not tall, with large hard hands, which gave a warm, cordial grasp to a friend and a firm one to a rope; his heart was like them as to size, but a great contrast to them in hardness--a more thorough-going, honest sailor never existed.

No merrier party ever left London than the three travellers who started by the mail train for Hull a few nights after the above conversation. They put up at the Railway Hotel, which Cousin Giles said reminded him of a Spanish palace. In the centre is a large court glazed over, with an ottoman instead of a fountain in the centre, and broad flights of stairs on either side leading to the upper chambers. The younger travellers had never before been in so large and comfortable a hotel. Their first care in the morning was to visit the steamer _Ladoga_, in which they had taken their passage to Saint Petersburg. She was a gaily-painted, sharp-built, fast-looking screw.

"She'll carry us there quickly enough, if at all," muttered Cousin Giles. "But she's not the craft I should have chosen."

She had only a small part of her cargo on board, and yet the master promised to sail on the following morning. The boys were incredulous.

"Modern cranes, system, and activity will work wonders," said Cousin Giles; and he was right.

By nine o'clock the next morning the vessel was ready to sail. They spent the interim in walking about the docks, full of vessels of all nations,--sixteen steamers, they heard, ran between Hull and Saint Petersburg,--in looking at the quaint old houses of the town, and in visiting the monument raised to Wilberforce,--a lofty pillar, the first object which greets the mariner as he returns home. At the base is a simple inscription: "Negro Emancipation, 1832."

"How far more worthy was he of the pillar than most people who have monuments raised to them; and yet how he would have despised such an honour, unless it induces others to labour as he did for the benefit of their fellow-creatures," remarked Cousin Giles. "Remember, my lads, this monument, and endeavour to walk in that great man's footsteps."

A lovely morning found the voyagers on board the _Ladoga_, and, after much pulling and hauling, clear of the docks, and steaming down the Humber.

Cousin Giles face wore an expression of dissatisfaction as he found her deck crowded with huge, heavy iron machines and bales of cotton.

"This is nothing; we are often obliged to carry twice as much deck cargo," said the master. "Competition is so great, we must do everything to make the vessel pay."

"Were a heavy gale to spring up, it is your underwriters would have to pay, I suspect," answered. Cousin Giles.

"Oh, you don't know what this vessel would go through," replied the young master.

"Humph!" remarked the old lieutenant; "I know where she would go to if you did not heave all this deck lumber overboard."

"I presume you have been to sea before?" said the master.

"At times," answered Cousin Giles quietly.

England sends large quantities of machinery of all sorts to Russia. The cotton had come from America to Liverpool, had been thence sent across the country by railway to Hull, and was going to supply numerous manufactories of cotton goods which have been established in Russia, and fostered by high protective duties. They are chiefly managed by Englishmen, and the foremen are mostly English or German. Manual labour is cheaper than in England, as is the expense of erecting the buildings; but, as all other items cost much more, the Russians have to pay very dearly for the cotton goods they use. Even with the high duties imposed on them, they can buy English manufactures cheaper than their own.

In addition to the cargo on deck, there were twelve fine horses which an English groom was taking over for a Russian nobleman, who was to figure at the approaching coronation of the Emperor. The Russians set great value on English horses, and employ a considerable number of English grooms, many of whom raise themselves to respectable situations, as had the man who had charge of the horses in question.

There were several other passengers, some of whom were English merchants who had resided in Russia for many years, and from them the friends gained a considerable amount of valuable information. This Cousin Giles had particularly the art of eliciting from his companions, and Fred and Harry had abundance to do in noting it down. The cabins and saloon were both comfortable and handsome. The latter was lined with mahogany, had gilt mouldings, and the sofas which surrounded it were covered with cool, clean, antibilious-looking chintz, while in the centre there was a sociable table, with a skylight overhead. Everything, also, was provided by the young master to conduce to the comfort of his passengers.

On the afternoon of the day they sailed, the sky looked wildish, and the master prognosticated either wind or heavy rain. A thunder-storm played at a distance round the ship; the lightning flashed vividly, but scarcely a mutter of the clouds' artillery was heard; some heavy showers fell, then the weather cleared up. The stars shone forth brightly from the clear sky, and the waning moon arose and shed her silvery light on the calm water, over which the breeze played with just sufficient strength to crisp it into silvery wavelets. It was a night for meditation and prayer. Unhappy is the state of man who can look forth from the deck of a ship on such a scene and not feel gratitude to the Framer of the magnificent firmament above him,--whom it does not make more meditative, more prayerful, than his wont,--whom it does not cause to think of eternity.

The next day a bright silvery fog hung over the sea, yet so dense that no eye could pierce the bowsprit's length through it. The engines were therefore put at half their power, yet even then the vessel went nearly seven knots through the water.

The lads were delighted with the smooth, easy way in which the vessel glided on. They remarked it to Cousin Giles.

"You think it is very pleasant, because you see no danger, my dear boys," he answered. "Much the same aspect does vice bear to the young, while they shrink with fear from the storm of adversity. Now, 'a wise seaman dreads a calm near a coast where there are currents, and a fog far more than heavy gales of wind in the open ocean.' Put that down in your log,--it is worth remembering, as the lesson you have learned from a calm and a fog." _

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