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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Returning Home, by Anthony Trollope
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions 
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at 
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+
+
+
+Title: Returning Home
+
+
+Author: Anthony Trollope
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 16, 2015  [eBook #3720]
+[This file was first posted on August 7, 2001]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RETURNING HOME***
+
+
+Transcribed from the 1864 Chapman and Hall “Tales of All Countries”
+edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
+
+
+
+
+
+                             RETURNING HOME.
+
+
+IT is generally supposed that people who live at home,—good domestic
+people, who love tea and their arm-chairs, and who keep the parlour
+hearth-rug ever warm,—it is generally supposed that these are the people
+who value home the most, and best appreciate all the comforts of that
+cherished institution.  I am inclined to doubt this.  It is, I think, to
+those who live farthest away from home, to those who find the greatest
+difficulty in visiting home, that the word conveys the sweetest idea.  In
+some distant parts of the world it may be that an Englishman acknowledges
+his permanent resting place; but there are many others in which he will
+not call his daily house, his home.  He would, in his own idea, desecrate
+the word by doing so.  His home is across the blue waters, in the little
+northern island, which perhaps he may visit no more; which he has left,
+at any rate, for half his life; from which circumstances, and the
+necessity of living, have banished him.  His home is still in England,
+and when he speaks of home his thoughts are there.
+
+No one can understand the intensity of this feeling who has not seen or
+felt the absence of interest in life which falls to the lot of many who
+have to eat their bread on distant soils.  We are all apt to think that a
+life in strange countries will be a life of excitement, of stirring
+enterprise, and varied scenes;—that in abandoning the comforts of home,
+we shall receive in exchange more of movement and of adventure than would
+come in our way in our own tame country; and this feeling has, I am sure,
+sent many a young man roaming.  Take any spirited fellow of twenty, and
+ask him whether he would like to go to Mexico for the next ten years!
+Prudence and his father may ultimately save him from such banishment, but
+he will not refuse without a pang of regret.
+
+Alas! it is a mistake.  Bread may be earned, and fortunes, perhaps, made
+in such countries; and as it is the destiny of our race to spread itself
+over the wide face of the globe, it is well that there should be
+something to gild and paint the outward face of that lot which so many
+are called upon to choose.  But for a life of daily excitement, there is
+no life like life in England; and the farther that one goes from England
+the more stagnant, I think, do the waters of existence become.
+
+But if it be so for men, it is ten times more so for women.  An
+Englishman, if he be at Guatemala or Belize, must work for his bread, and
+that work will find him in thought and excitement.  But what of his wife?
+Where will she find excitement?  By what pursuit will she repay herself
+for all that she has left behind her at her mother’s fireside?  She will
+love her husband.  Yes; that at least!  If there be not that, there will
+be a hell, indeed.  Then she will nurse her children, and talk of
+her—home.  When the time shall come that her promised return thither is
+within a year or two of its accomplishment, her thoughts will all be
+fixed on that coming pleasure, as are the thoughts of a young girl on her
+first ball for the fortnight before that event comes off.
+
+On the central plain of that portion of Central America which is called
+Costa Rica stands the city of San José.  It is the capital of the
+Republic,—for Costa Rica is a Republic,—and, for Central America, is a
+town of some importance.  It is in the middle of the coffee district,
+surrounded by rich soil on which the sugar-cane is produced, is blessed
+with a climate only moderately hot, and the native inhabitants are
+neither cut-throats nor cannibals.  It may be said, therefore, that by
+comparison with some other spots to which Englishmen and others are
+congregated for the gathering together of money, San José may be
+considered as a happy region; but, nevertheless, a life there is not in
+every way desirable.  It is a dull place, with little to interest either
+the eye or the ear.  Although the heat of the tropics is but little felt
+there on account of its altitude, men and women become too lifeless for
+much enterprise.  There is no society.  There are a few Germans and a few
+Englishmen in the place, who see each other on matters of business during
+the day; but, sombre as life generally is, they seem to care little for
+each other’s company on any other footing.  I know not to what point the
+aspirations of the Germans may stretch themselves, but to the English the
+one idea that gives salt to life is the idea of home.  On some day,
+however distant it may be, they will once more turn their faces towards
+the little northern island, and then all will be well with them.
+
+To a certain Englishman there, and to his dear little wife, this prospect
+came some few years since somewhat suddenly.  Events and tidings, it
+matters not which or what, brought it about that they resolved between
+themselves that they would start immediately;—almost immediately.  They
+would pack up and leave San José within four months of the day on which
+their purpose was first formed.  At San José a period of only four months
+for such a purpose was immediately.  It creates a feeling of instant
+excitement, a necessity for instant doing, a consciousness that there was
+in those few weeks ample work both for the hands and thoughts,—work
+almost more than ample.  The dear little wife, who for the last two years
+had been so listless, felt herself flurried.
+
+“Harry,” she said to her husband, “how shall we ever be ready?”  And her
+pretty face was lighted up with unusual brightness at the happy thought
+of so much haste with such an object.  “And baby’s things too,” she said,
+as she thought of all the various little articles of dress that would be
+needed.  A journey from San José to Southampton cannot in truth be made
+as easily as one from London to Liverpool.  Let us think of a month to be
+passed without any aid from the washerwoman, and the greatest part of
+that month amidst the sweltering heats of the West Indian tropics!
+
+In the first month of her hurry and flurry Mrs. Arkwright was a happy
+woman.  She would see her mother again and her sisters.  It was now four
+years since she had left them on the quay at Southampton, while all their
+hearts were broken at the parting.  She was a young bride then, going
+forth with her new lord to meet the stern world.  He had then been home
+to look for a wife, and he had found what he looked for in the younger
+sister of his partner.  For he, Henry Arkwright, and his wife’s brother,
+Abel Ring, had established themselves together in San José.  And now, she
+thought, how there would be another meeting on those quays at which there
+should be no broken hearts; at which there should be love without sorrow,
+and kisses, sweet with the sweetness of welcome, not bitter with the
+bitterness of parting.  And people told her,—the few neighbours around
+her,—how happy, how fortunate she was to get home thus early in her life.
+They had been out some ten,—some twenty years, and still the day of their
+return was distant.  And then she pressed her living baby to her breast,
+and wiped away a tear as she thought of the other darling whom she would
+leave beneath that distant sod.
+
+And then came the question as to the route home.  San José stands in the
+middle of the high plain of Costa Rica, half way between the Pacific and
+the Atlantic.  The journey thence down to the Pacific is, by comparison,
+easy.  There is a road, and the mules on which the travellers must ride
+go steadily and easily down to Punta Arenas, the port on that ocean.
+There are inns, too, on the way,—places of public entertainment at which
+refreshment may be obtained, and beds, or fair substitutes for beds.  But
+then by this route the traveller must take a long additional sea voyage.
+He must convey himself and his weary baggage down to that wretched place
+on the Pacific, there wait for a steamer to take him to Panamá, cross the
+isthmus, and reship himself in the other waters for his long journey
+home.  That terrible unshipping and reshipping is a sore burden to the
+unaccustomed traveller.  When it is absolutely necessary,—then indeed it
+is done without much thought; but in the case of the Arkwrights it was
+not absolutely necessary.  And there was another reason which turned Mrs.
+Arkwright’s heart against that journey by Punt’ Arenas.  The place is
+unhealthy, having at certain seasons a very bad name;—and here on their
+outward journey her husband had been taken ill.  She had never ceased to
+think of the fortnight she had spent there among uncouth strangers,
+during a portion of which his life had trembled in the balance.  Early,
+therefore, in those four months she begged that she might not be taken
+round by Punt’ Arenas.  There was another route.  “Harry, if you love me,
+let me go by the Serapiqui.”  As to Harry’s loving her, there was no
+doubt about that, as she well knew.
+
+There was this other route by the Serapiqui river, and by Greytown.
+Greytown, it is true, is quite as unhealthy as Punt’ Arenas, and by that
+route one’s baggage must be shipped and unshipped into small boats.
+There are all manner of difficulties attached to it.  Perhaps no direct
+road to and from any city on the world’s surface is subject to sharper
+fatigue while it lasts.  Journeying by this route also, the traveller
+leaves San José mounted on his mule, and so mounted he makes his way
+through the vast primeval forests down to the banks of the Serapiqui
+river.  That there is a track for him is of course true; but it is simply
+a track, and during nine months of the twelve is so deep in mud that the
+mules sink in it to their bellies.  Then, when the river has been
+reached, the traveller seats him in his canoe, and for two days is
+paddled down,—down along the Serapiqui, into the San Juan River, and down
+along the San Juan till he reaches Greytown, passing one night at some
+hut on the river side.  At Greytown he waits for the steamer which will
+carry him his first stage on his road towards Southampton.  He must be a
+connoisseur in disagreeables of every kind who can say with any precision
+whether Greytown or Punt’ Arenas is the better place for a week’s
+sojourn.
+
+For a full month Mr. Arkwright would not give way to his wife.  At first
+he all but conquered her by declaring that the Serapiqui journey would be
+dangerous for the baby; but she heard from some one that it could be made
+less fatiguing for the baby than the other route.  A baby had been
+carried down in a litter strapped on to a mule’s back.  A guide at the
+mule’s head would be necessary, and that was all.  When once in her boat
+the baby would be as well as in her cradle.  What purpose cannot a woman
+gain by perseverance?  Her purpose in this instance Mrs. Arkwright did at
+last gain by persevering.
+
+And then their preparations for the journey went on with much flurrying
+and hot haste.  To us at home, who live and feel our life every day, the
+manufacture of endless baby-linen and the packing of mountains of clothes
+does not give an idea of much pleasurable excitement; but at San José,
+where there was scarcely motion enough in existence to prevent its waters
+from becoming foul with stagnation, this packing of baby-linen was
+delightful, and for a month or so the days went by with happy wings.
+
+But by degrees reports began to reach both Arkwright and his wife as to
+this new route, which made them uneasy.  The wet season had been
+prolonged, and even though they might not be deluged by rain themselves,
+the path would be in such a state of mud as to render the labour
+incessant.  One or two people declared that the road was unfit at any
+time for a woman,—and then the river would be much swollen.  These
+tidings did not reach Arkwright and his wife together, or at any rate not
+till late amidst their preparations, or a change might still have been
+made.  As it was, after all her entreaties, Mrs. Arkwright did not like
+to ask him again to alter his plans; and he, having altered them once,
+was averse to change them again.  So things went on till the mules and
+the boats had been hired, and things had gone so far that no change could
+then be made without much cost and trouble.
+
+During the last ten days of their sojourn at San José, Mrs. Arkwright had
+lost all that appearance of joy which had cheered up her sweet face
+during the last few months.  Terror at that terrible journey obliterated
+in her mind all the happiness which had arisen from the hope of being
+soon at home.  She was thoroughly cowed by the danger to be encountered,
+and would gladly have gone down to Punt’ Arenas, had it been now possible
+that she could so arrange it.  It rained, and rained, and still rained,
+when there was now only a week from the time they started.  Oh! if they
+could only wait for another month!  But this she said to no one.  After
+what had passed between her and her husband, she had not the heart to say
+such words to him.  Arkwright himself was a man not given to much
+talking, a silent thoughtful man, stern withal in his outward bearing,
+but tender-hearted and loving in his nature.  The sweet young wife who
+had left all, and come with him out to that dull distant place, was very
+dear to him,—dearer than she herself was aware, and in these days he was
+thinking much of her coming troubles.  Why had he given way to her
+foolish prayers?  Ah, why indeed?  And thus the last few days of their
+sojourn in San José passed away from them.  Once or twice during these
+days she did speak out, expressing her fears.  Her feelings were too much
+for her, and she could not restrain herself.  “Poor mamma,” she said, “I
+shall never see her!”  And then again, “Harry, I know I shall never reach
+home alive.”
+
+“Fanny, my darling, that is nonsense.”  But in order that his spoken word
+might not sound stern to her, he took her in his arms and kissed her.
+
+“You must behave well, Fanny,” he said to her the day before they
+started.  Though her heart was then very low within her, she promised him
+that she would do her best, and then she made a great resolution.  Though
+she should be dying on the road, she would not complain beyond the
+absolute necessity of her nature.  She fully recognised his thoughtful
+tender kindness, for though he thus cautioned her, he never told her that
+the dangers which she feared were the result of her own choice.  He never
+threw in her teeth those prayers which she had made, in yielding to which
+he knew that he had been weak.
+
+Then came the morning of their departure.  The party of travellers
+consisted of four besides the baby.  There was Mr. Arkwright, his wife,
+and an English nurse, who was going to England with them, and her
+brother, Abel Ring, who was to accompany them as far as the Serapiqui
+River.  When they had reached that, the real labour of the journey would
+be over.
+
+They had eight mules; four for the four travellers, one for the baby, a
+spare mule laden simply with blankets, so that Mrs. Arkwright might
+change in order that she should not be fatigued by the fatigue of her
+beast, and two for their luggage.  The portion of their baggage had
+already been sent off by Punt’ Arenas, and would meet them at the other
+side of the Isthmus of Panamà.
+
+For the last four days the rain had ceased,—had ceased at any rate at San
+José.  Those who knew the country well, would know that it might still be
+raining over those vast forests; but now as the matter was settled, they
+would hope for the best.  On that morning on which they started the sun
+shone fairly, and they accepted this as an omen of good.  Baby seemed to
+lay comfortably on her pile of blankets on the mule’s back, and the face
+of the tall Indian guide who took his place at that mule’s head pleased
+the anxious mother.
+
+“Not leave him ever,” he said in Spanish, laying his hand on the cord
+which was fastened to the beast’s head; and not for one moment did he
+leave his charge, though the labour of sticking close to him was very
+great.
+
+They had four attendants or guides, all of whom made the journey on foot.
+That they were all men of mixed race was probable; but three of them
+would have been called Spaniards, Spaniards, that is, of Costa Rica, and
+the other would be called an Indian.  One of the Spaniards was the
+leader, or chief man of the party, but the others seemed to stand on an
+equal footing with each other; and indeed the place of greatest care had
+been given to the Indian.
+
+For the first four or five miles their route lay along the high road
+which leads from San José to Punt’ Arenas, and so far a group of
+acquaintances followed them, all mounted on mules.  Here, where the ways
+forked, their road leading through the great forests to the Atlantic,
+they separated, and many tears were shed on each side.  What might be the
+future life of the Arkwrights had not been absolutely fixed, but there
+was a strong hope on their part that they might never be forced to return
+to Costa Rica.  Those from whom they now parted had not seemed to be dear
+to them in any especial degree while they all lived together in the same
+small town, seeing each other day by day; but now,—now that they might
+never meet again, a certain love sprang up for the old familiar faces,
+and women kissed each other who hitherto had hardly cared to enter each
+other’s houses.
+
+And then the party of the Arkwrights again started, and its steady work
+began.  In the whole of the first day the way beneath their feet was
+tolerably good, and the weather continued fine.  It was one long gradual
+ascent from the plain where the roads parted, but there was no real
+labour in travelling.  Mrs. Arkwright rode beside her baby’s mule, at the
+head of which the Indian always walked, and the two men went together in
+front.  The husband had found that his wife would prefer this, as long as
+the road allowed of such an arrangement.  Her heart was too full to admit
+of much speaking, and so they went on in silence.
+
+The first night was passed in a hut by the roadside, which seemed to be
+deserted,—a hut or rancho as it is called in that country.  Their food
+they had, of course, brought with them; and here, by common consent, they
+endeavoured in some sort to make themselves merry.
+
+“Fanny,” Arkwright said to her, “it is not so bad after all; eh, my
+darling?”
+
+“No,” she answered; “only that the mule tires one so.  Will all the days
+be as long as that?”
+
+He had not the heart to tell her that as regarded hours of work, that
+first day must of necessity be the shortest.  They had risen to a
+considerable altitude, and the night was very cold; but baby was
+enveloped among a pile of coloured blankets, and things did not go very
+badly with them; only this, that when Fanny Arkwright rose from her hard
+bed, her limbs were more weary and much more stiff than they had been
+when Arkwright had lifted her from her mule.
+
+On the second morning they mounted before the day had quite broken, in
+order that they might breakfast on the summit of the ridge which
+separates the two oceans.  At this spot the good road comes to an end,
+and the forest track begins; and here also, they would, in truth, enter
+the forest, though their path had for some time been among straggling
+trees and bushes.  And now, again, they rode two and two, up to this
+place of halting, Arkwright and Ring well knowing that from hence their
+labours would in truth commence.
+
+Poor Mrs. Arkwright, when she reached this resting-place, would fain have
+remained there for the rest of the day.  One word, in her low, plaintive
+voice, she said, asking whether they might not sleep in the large shed
+which stands there.  But this was manifestly impossible.  At such a pace
+they would never reach Greytown; and she spoke no further word when he
+told her that they must go on.
+
+At about noon that day the file of travellers formed itself into the line
+which it afterwards kept during the whole of the journey, and then
+started by the narrow path into the forest.  First walked the leader of
+the guides, then another man following him; Abel Ring came next, and
+behind him the maid-servant; then the baby’s mule, with the Indian ever
+at its head; close at his heels followed Mrs. Arkwright, so that the
+mother’s eye might be always on her child; and after her her husband;
+then another guide on foot completed the number of the travellers.  In
+this way they went on and on, day after day, till they reached the banks
+of the Serapiqui, never once varying their places in the procession.  As
+they started in the morning, so they went on till their noon-day’s rest,
+and so again they made their evening march.  In that journey there was no
+idea of variety, no searching after the pleasures of scenery, no attempts
+at conversation with any object of interest or amusement.  What words
+were spoken were those simply needful, or produced by sympathy for
+suffering.  So they journeyed, always in the same places, with one
+exception.  They began their work with two guides leading them, but
+before the first day was over one of them had fallen back to the side of
+Mrs. Arkwright, for she was unable to sit on her mule without support.
+
+Their daily work was divided into two stages, so as to give some hours
+for rest in the middle of the day.  It had been arranged that the
+distance for each day should not be long,—should be very short as was
+thought by them all when they talked it over at San José; but now the
+hours which they passed in the saddle seemed to be endless.  Their
+descent began from that ridge of which I have spoken, and they had no
+sooner turned their faces down upon the mountain slopes looking towards
+the Atlantic, than that passage of mud began to which there was no
+cessation till they found themselves on the banks of the Serapiqui river.
+I doubt whether it be possible to convey in words an adequate idea of the
+labour of riding over such a path.  It is not that any active exertion is
+necessary,—that there is anything which requires doing.  The traveller
+has before him the simple task of sitting on his mule from hour to hour,
+and of seeing that his knees do not get themselves jammed against the
+trees; but at every step the beast he rides has to drag his legs out from
+the deep clinging mud, and the body of the rider never knows one moment
+of ease.  Why the mules do not die on the road, I cannot say.  They live
+through it, and do not appear to suffer.  They have their own way in
+everything, for no exertion on the rider’s part will make them walk
+either faster or slower than is their wont.
+
+On the day on which they entered the forest,—that being the second of
+their journey,—Mrs. Arkwright had asked for mercy, for permission to
+escape that second stage.  On the next she allowed herself to be lifted
+into her saddle after her mid-day rest without a word.  She had tried to
+sleep, but in vain; and had sat within a little hut, looking out upon the
+desolate scene before her, with her baby in her lap.  She had this one
+comfort, that of all the travellers, she, the baby, suffered the least.
+They had now left the high grounds, and the heat was becoming great,
+though not as yet intense.  And then, the Indian guide, looking out
+slowly over the forest, saw that the rain was not yet over.  He spoke a
+word or two to one of his companions in a low voice and in a patois which
+Mrs. Arkwright did not understand, and then going after the husband, told
+him that the heavens were threatening.
+
+“We have only two leagues,” said Arkwright, “and it may perhaps hold up.”
+
+“It will begin in an hour,” said the Indian, “and the two leagues are
+four hours.”
+
+“And to-morrow,” asked Arkwright.
+
+“To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow it will still rain,” said the
+guide, looking as he spoke up over the huge primeval forest.
+
+“Then we had better start at once,” said Arkwright, “before the first
+falling drops frighten the women.”  So the mules were brought out, and he
+lifted his uncomplaining wife on to the blankets which formed her
+pillion.  The file again formed itself, and slowly they wound their way
+out from the small enclosure by which the hut was surrounded;—out from
+the enclosure on to a rough scrap of undrained pasture ground from which
+the trees had been cleared.  In a few minutes they were once more
+struggling through the mud.
+
+The name of the spot which our travellers had just left is Carablanco.
+There they found a woman living all alone.  Her husband was away, she
+told them, at San José, but would be back to her when the dry weather
+came, to look up the young cattle which were straying in the forest.
+What a life for a woman!  Nevertheless, in talking with Mrs. Arkwright
+she made no complaint of her own lot, but had done what little she could
+to comfort the poor lady who was so little able to bear the fatigues of
+her journey.
+
+“Is the road very bad?” Mrs. Arkwright asked her in a whisper.
+
+“Ah, yes; it is a bad road.”
+
+“And when shall we be at the river?”
+
+“It took me four days,” said the woman.
+
+“Then I shall never see my mother again,” and as she spoke Mrs. Arkwright
+pressed her baby to her bosom.  Immediately after that her husband came
+in, and they started.
+
+Their path now led away across the slope of a mountain which seemed to
+fall from the very top of that central ridge in an unbroken descent down
+to the valley at its foot.  Hitherto, since they had entered the forest,
+they had had nothing before their eyes but the trees and bushes which
+grew close around them.  But now a prospect of unrivalled grandeur was
+opened before them, if only had they been able to enjoy it.  At the
+bottom of the valley ran a river, which, so great was the depth, looked
+like a moving silver cord; and on the other side of this there arose
+another mountain, steep but unbroken like that which they were
+passing,—unbroken, so that the eye could stretch from the river up to the
+very summit.  Not a spot on that mountain side or on their side either
+was left uncovered by thick forest, which had stood there untouched by
+man since nature first produced it.
+
+But all this was nothing to our travellers, nor was the clang of the
+macaws anything, or the roaring of the little congo ape.  Nothing was
+gained by them from beautiful scenery, nor was there any fear from the
+beasts of prey.  The immediate pain of each step of the journey drove all
+other feelings from them, and their thoughts were bounded by an intense
+desire for the evening halt.
+
+And then, as the guide had prophesied, the rain began.  At first it came
+in such small soft drops that it was found to be refreshing, but the
+clouds soon gathered and poured forth their collected waters as though it
+had not rained for months among those mountains.  Not that it came in big
+drops, or with the violence which wind can give it, beating hither and
+thither, breaking branches from the trees, and rising up again as it
+pattered against the ground.  There was no violence in the rain.  It fell
+softly in a long, continuous, noiseless stream, sinking into everything
+that it touched, converting the deep rich earth on all sides into mud.
+
+Not a word was said by any of them as it came on.  The Indian covered the
+baby with her blanket, closer than she was covered before, and the guide
+who walked by Mrs. Arkwright’s side drew her cloak around her knees.  But
+such efforts were in vain.  There is a rain that will penetrate
+everything, and such was the rain which fell upon them now.
+Nevertheless, as I have said, hardly a word was spoken.  The poor woman,
+finding that the heat of her cloak increased her sufferings, threw it
+open again.
+
+“Fanny,” said her husband, “you had better let him protect you as well as
+he can.”
+
+She answered him merely by an impatient wave of her hand, intending to
+signify that she could not speak, but that in this matter she must have
+her way.
+
+After that her husband made no further attempt to control her.  He could
+see, however, that ever and again she would have slipped forward from her
+mule and fallen, had not the man by her side steadied her with his hand.
+At every tree he protected her knees and feet, though there was hardly
+room for him to move between the beast and the bank against which he was
+thrust.
+
+And then, at last, that day’s work was also over, and Fanny Arkwright
+slipped from her pillion down into her husband’s arms at the door of
+another rancho in the forest.  Here there lived a large family adding
+from year to year to the patch of ground which they had rescued from the
+wood, and valiantly doing their part in the extension of civilisation.
+Our party was but a few steps from the door when they left their mules,
+but Mrs. Arkwright did not now as heretofore hasten to receive her baby
+in her arms.  When placed upon the ground, she still leaned against the
+mule, and her husband saw that he must carry her into the hut.  This he
+did, and then, wet, mud-laden, dishevelled as she was, she laid herself
+down upon the planks that were to form her bed, and there stretched out
+her arms for her infant.  On that evening they undressed and tended her
+like a child; and then when she was alone with her husband, she repeated
+to him her sad foreboding.
+
+“Harry,” she said, “I shall never see my mother again.”
+
+“Oh, yes, Fanny, you will see her and talk over all these troubles with
+pleasure.  It is very bad, I know; but we shall live through it yet.”
+
+“You will, of course; and you will take baby home to her.”
+
+“And face her without you!  No, my darling.  Three more days’ riding, or
+rather two and a half, will bring us to the river, and then your trouble
+will be over.  All will be easy after that.”
+
+“Ah, Harry, you do not know.”
+
+“I do know that it is very bad, my girl, but you must cheer up.  We shall
+be laughing at all this in a month’s time.”
+
+On the following morning she allowed herself to be lifted up, speaking no
+word of remonstrance.  Indeed she was like a child in their hands, having
+dropped all the dignity and authority of a woman’s demeanour.  It rained
+again during the whole of this day, and the heat was becoming oppressive
+as every hour they were descending nearer and nearer to the sea level.
+During this first stage hardly a word was spoken by any one; but when she
+was again taken from her mule she was in tears.  The poor servant-girl,
+too, was almost prostrate with fatigue, and absolutely unable to wait
+upon her mistress, or even to do anything for herself.  Nevertheless they
+did make the second stage, seeing that their mid-day resting place had
+been under the trees of the forest.  Had there been any hut there, they
+would have remained for the night.
+
+On the following day they rested altogether, though the place at which
+they remained had but few attractions.  It was another forest hut
+inhabited by an old Spanish couple who were by no means willing to give
+them room, although they paid for their accommodation at exorbitant
+rates.  It is one singularity of places strange and out of the way like
+such forest tracks as these, that money in small sums is hardly valued.
+Dollars there were not appreciated as sixpences are in this rich country.
+But there they stayed for a day, and the guides employed themselves in
+making a litter with long poles so that they might carry Mrs. Arkwright
+over a portion of the ground.  Poor fellows!  When once she had thus
+changed her mode of conveyance, she never again was lifted on to the
+mule.
+
+There was strong reason against this day’s delay.  They were to go down
+the Serapiqui along with the post, which would overtake them on its
+banks.  But if the post should pass them before they got there, it could
+not wait; and then they would be deprived of the best canoe on the water.
+Then also it was possible, if they encountered further delay, that the
+steamer might sail from Greytown without them, and a month’s residence at
+that frightful place be thus made necessary.
+
+The day’s rest apparently did little to relieve Mrs. Arkwright’s
+sufferings.  On the following day she allowed herself to be put upon the
+mule, but after the first hour the beasts were stopped and she was taken
+off it.  During that hour they had travelled hardly over half a league.
+At that time she so sobbed and moaned that Arkwright absolutely feared
+that she would perish in the forest, and he implored the guides to use
+the poles which they had prepared.  She had declared to him over and over
+again that she felt sure that she should die, and, half-delirious with
+weariness and suffering, had begged him to leave her at the last hut.
+They had not yet come to the flat ground over which a litter might be
+carried with comparative ease; but nevertheless the men yielded, and she
+was placed in a recumbent position upon blankets, supported by boughs of
+trees.  In this way she went through that day with somewhat less of
+suffering than before, and without that necessity for self-exertion which
+had been worse to her than any suffering.
+
+There were places between that and the river at which one would have said
+that it was impossible that a litter should be carried, or even
+impossible that a mule should walk with a load on his back.  But still
+they went on, and the men carried their burden without complaining.  Not
+a word was said about money, or extra pay;—not a word, at least by them;
+and when Arkwright was profuse in his offer, their leader told him that
+they would not have done it for money.  But for the poor suffering Señora
+they would make exertions which no money would have bought from them.
+
+On the next day about noon the post did pass them, consisting of three
+strong men carrying great weights on their backs, suspended by bands from
+their foreheads.  They travelled much quicker than our friends, and would
+reach the banks of the river that evening.  In their ordinary course they
+would start down the river close upon daybreak on the following day; but,
+after some consultation with the guides, they agreed to wait till noon.
+Poor Mrs. Arkwright knew nothing of hours or of any such arrangements
+now, but her husband greatly doubted their power of catching this mail
+despatch.  However, it did not much depend on their exertions that
+afternoon.  Their resting-place was marked out for them, and they could
+not go beyond it, unless indeed they could make the whole journey, which
+was impossible.
+
+But towards evening matters seemed to improve with them.  They had now
+got on to ground which was more open, and the men who carried the litter
+could walk with greater ease.  Mrs. Arkwright also complained less, and
+when they reached their resting-place on that night, said nothing of a
+wish to be left there to her fate.  This was a place called Padregal, a
+cacao plantation, which had been cleared in the forest with much labour.
+There was a house here containing three rooms, and some forty or fifty
+acres round it had been stripped of the forest trees.  But nevertheless
+the adventure had not been a prosperous one, for the place was at that
+time deserted.  There were the cacao plants, but there was no one to pick
+the cacao.  There was a certain melancholy beauty about the place.  A few
+grand trees had been left standing near the house, and the grass around
+was rich and park-like.  But it was deserted, and nothing was heard but
+the roaring of the congos.  Ah me!  Indeed it was a melancholy place as
+it was seen by some of that party afterwards.
+
+On the following morning they were astir very early, and Mrs. Arkwright
+was so much better that she offered to sit again upon her mule.  The men,
+however, declared that they would finish their task, and she was placed
+again upon the litter.  And then with slow and weary step they did make
+their way to the river bank.  It was not yet noon when they saw the mud
+fort which stands there, and as they drew into the enclosure round a
+small house which stands close by the river side, they saw the three
+postmen still busy about their packages.
+
+“Thank God!” said Arkwright.
+
+“Thank God, indeed!” said his brother.  “All will be right with you now.”
+
+“Well, Fanny,” said her husband, as he took her very gently from the
+litter and seated her on a bench which stood outside the door.  “It is
+all over now,—is it not?”
+
+She answered him by a shower of tears, but they were tears which brought
+her relief.  He was aware of this, and therefore stood by her, still
+holding her by both her hands while her head rested against his side.
+“You will find the motion of the boat very gentle,” he said; “indeed
+there will be no motion, and you and baby will sleep all the way down to
+Greytown.”  She did not answer him in words, but she looked up into his
+face, and he could see that her spirit was recovering itself.
+
+There was almost a crowd of people collected on the spot, preparatory to
+the departure of the canoes.  In the first place there was the commandant
+of the fort, to whom the small house belonged.  He was looking to the
+passports of our friends, and with due diligence endeavouring to make
+something of the occasion, by discovering fatal legal impediments to the
+further prosecution of their voyage, which impediments would disappear on
+the payment of certain dollars.  And then there were half a dozen Costa
+Rican soldiers, men with coloured caps and old muskets, ready to support
+the dignity and authority of the commandant.  There were the guides
+taking payment from Abel Ring for their past work, and the postmen
+preparing their boats for the further journey.  And then there was a
+certain German there, with a German servant, to whom the boats belonged.
+He also was very busy preparing for the river voyage.  He was not going
+down with them, but it was his business to see them well started.  A
+singular looking man was he, with a huge shaggy beard, and shaggy
+uncombed hair, but with bright blue eyes, which gave to his face a
+remarkable look of sweetness.  He was an uncouth man to the eye, and yet
+a child would have trusted herself with him in a forest.
+
+At this place they remained some two hours.  Coffee was prepared here,
+and Mrs. Arkwright refreshed herself and her child.  They washed and
+arranged their clothes, and when she stepped down the steep bank,
+clinging to her husband’s arm as she made her way towards the boat, she
+smiled upon him as he looked at her.
+
+“It is all over now,—is it not, my girl?”—he said, encouraging her.
+
+“Oh, Harry, do not talk about it,” she answered, shuddering.
+
+“But I want you to say a word to me to let me know that you are better.”
+
+“I am better,—much better.”
+
+“And you will see your mother again; will you not; and give baby to her
+yourself?”
+
+To this she made no immediate answer, for she was on a level with the
+river, and the canoe was close at her feet.  And then she had to bid
+farewell to her brother.  He was now the unfortunate one of the party,
+for his destiny required that he should go back to San José alone,—go
+back and remain there perhaps some ten years longer before he might look
+for the happiness of home.
+
+“God bless you, dearest Abel,” she said, kissing him and sobbing as she
+spoke.
+
+“Good-bye, Fanny,” he said, “and do not let them forget me in England.
+It is a great comfort to think that the worst of your troubles are over.”
+
+“Oh,—she’s all right now,” said Arkwright.  “Good-bye, old boy,”—and the
+two brothers-in-law grasped each other’s hands heartily.  “Keep up your
+spirits, and we’ll have you home before long.”
+
+“Oh, I’m all right,” said the other.  But from the tone of the voices, it
+was clear that poor Ring was despondent at the thoughts of his coming
+solitude, and that Arkwright was already triumphing in his emancipation.
+
+And then, with much care, Fanny Arkwright was stowed away in the boat.
+There was a great contest about the baby, but at last it was arranged,
+that at any rate for the first few hours she should be placed in the boat
+with the servant.  The mother was told that by this plan she would feel
+herself at liberty to sleep during the heat of the day, and then she
+might hope to have strength to look to the child when they should be on
+shore during the night.  In this way therefore they prepared to start,
+while Abel Ring stood on the bank looking at them with wishful eyes.  In
+the first boat were two Indians paddling, and a third man steering with
+another paddle.  In the middle there was much luggage, and near the
+luggage so as to be under shade, was the baby’s soft bed.  If nothing
+evil happened to the boat, the child could not be more safe in the best
+cradle that was ever rocked.  With her was the maid-servant and some
+stranger who was also going down to Greytown.
+
+In the second boat were the same number of men to paddle, the Indian
+guide being one of them, and there were the mails placed.  Then there was
+a seat arranged with blankets, cloaks, and cushions, for Mrs. Arkwright,
+so that she might lean back and sleep without fatigue, and immediately
+opposite to her her husband placed himself.  “You all look very
+comfortable,” said poor Abel from the bank.
+
+“We shall do very well now,” said Arkwright.
+
+“And I do think I shall see mamma again,” said his wife.
+
+“That’s right, old girl;—of course you will see her.  Now then,—we are
+all ready.”  And with some little assistance from the German on the bank,
+the first boat was pushed off into the stream.
+
+The river in this place is rapid, because the full course of the water is
+somewhat impeded by a bank of earth jutting out from the opposite side of
+the river into the stream; but it is not so rapid as to make any
+recognised danger in the embarkation.  Below this bank, which is opposite
+to the spot at which the boats were entered, there were four or five
+broken trees in the water, some of the shattered boughs of which showed
+themselves above the surface.  These are called snags, and are very
+dangerous if they are met with in the course of the stream; but in this
+instance no danger was apprehended from them, as they lay considerably to
+the left of the passage which the boats would take.  The first canoe was
+pushed off by the German, and went rapidly away.  The waters were strong
+with rain, and it was pretty to see with what velocity the boat was
+carried on some hundred of yards in advance of the other by the force of
+the first effort of the paddle.  The German, however, from the bank
+holloaed to the first men in Spanish, bidding them relax their efforts
+for awhile; and then he said a word or two of caution to those who were
+now on the point of starting.
+
+The boat then was pushed steadily forward, the man at the stern keeping
+it with his paddle a little farther away from the bank at which they had
+embarked.  It was close under the land that the stream ran the fastest,
+and in obedience to the directions given to him he made his course
+somewhat nearer to the sunken trees.  It was but one turn of his hand
+that gave the light boat its direction, but that turn of the hand was too
+strong.  Had the anxious master of the canoes been but a thought less
+anxious, all might have been well; but, as it was, the prow of the boat
+was caught by some slight hidden branch which impeded its course and
+turned it round in the rapid river.  The whole lengths of the canoe was
+thus brought against the sunken tree, and in half a minute the five
+occupants of the boat were struggling in the stream.
+
+Abel Ring and the German were both standing on the bank close to the
+water when this happened, and each for a moment looked into the other’s
+face.  “Stand where you are,” shouted the German, “so that you may assist
+them from the shore.  I will go in.”  And then, throwing from him his
+boots and coat, he plunged into the river.
+
+The canoe had been swept round so as to be brought by the force of the
+waters absolutely in among the upturned roots and broken stumps of the
+trees which impeded the river, and thus, when the party was upset, they
+were at first to be seen scrambling among the branches.  But
+unfortunately there was much more wood below the water than above it, and
+the force of the stream was so great, that those who caught hold of the
+timber were not able to support themselves by it above the surface.
+Arkwright was soon to be seen some forty yards down, having been carried
+clear of the trees, and here he got out of the river on the farther bank.
+The distance to him was not above forty yards, but from the nature of the
+ground he could not get up towards his wife, unless he could have forced
+his way against the stream.
+
+The Indian who had had charge of the baby rose quickly to the surface,
+was carried once round in the eddy, with his head high above the water,
+and then was seen to throw himself among the broken wood.  He had seen
+the dress of the poor woman, and made his effort to save her.  The other
+two men were so caught by the fragments of the boughs, that they could
+not extricate themselves so as to make any exertions; ultimately,
+however, they also got out on the further bank.
+
+Mrs. Arkwright had sunk at once on being precipitated into the water, but
+the buoyancy of her clothes had brought her for a moment again to the
+surface.  She had risen for a moment, and then had again gone down,
+immediately below the forked trunk of a huge tree;—had gone down, alas,
+alas! never to rise again with life within her bosom.  The poor Indian
+made two attempts to save her, and then came up himself, incapable of
+further effort.
+
+It was then that the German, the owner of the canoes, who had fought his
+way with great efforts across the violence of the waters, and indeed up
+against the stream for some few yards, made his effort to save the life
+of that poor frail creature.  He had watched the spot at which she had
+gone down, and even while struggling across the river, had seen how the
+Indian had followed her and had failed.  It was now his turn.  His life
+was in his hand, and he was prepared to throw it away in that attempt.
+Having succeeded in placing himself a little above the large tree, he
+turned his face towards the bottom of the river, and dived down among the
+branches.  And he also, after that, was never again seen with the
+life-blood flowing round his heart.
+
+When the sun set that night, the two swollen corpses were lying in the
+Commandant’s hut, and Abel Ring and Arkwright were sitting beside them.
+Arkwright had his baby sleeping in his arms, but he sat there for
+hours,—into the middle of the long night,—without speaking a word to any
+one.
+
+“Harry,” said his brother at last, “come away and lay down.  It will be
+good for you to sleep.”
+
+“Nothing ever will be good again for me,” said he.
+
+“You must bear up against your sorrow as other men do,” said Ring.
+
+“Why am I not sleeping with her as the poor German sleeps?  Why did I let
+another man take my place in dying for her?”  And then he walked away
+that the other might not see the tears on his face.
+
+It was a sad night,—that at the Commandant’s hut, and a sad morning
+followed upon it.  It must be remembered that they had there none of
+those appurtenances which are so necessary to make woe decent and
+misfortune comfortable.  They sat through the night in the small hut, and
+in the morning they came forth with their clothes still wet and dirty,
+with their haggard faces, and weary stiff limbs, encumbered with the
+horrid task of burying that loved body among the forest trees.  And then,
+to keep life in them till it was done, the brandy flask passed from hand
+to hand; and after that, with slow but resolute efforts, they reformed
+the litter on which the living woman had been carried thither, and took
+her body back to the wild plantation at Padregal.  There they dug for her
+her grave, and repeating over her some portion of the service for the
+dead, left her to sleep the sleep of death.  But before they left her,
+they erected a pallisade of timber round the grave, so that the beasts of
+the forest should not tear the body from its resting-place.
+
+When that was done Arkwright and his brother made their slow journey back
+to San José.  The widowed husband could not face his darling’s mother
+with such a tale upon his tongue as that.
+
+
+
+
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+
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Returning Home, by Anthony Trollope
+
+
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+
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+Title: Returning Home
+
+
+Author: Anthony Trollope
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 16, 2015  [eBook #3720]
+[This file was first posted on August 7, 2001]
+
+Language: English
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+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RETURNING HOME***
+</pre>
+<p>Transcribed from the 1864 Chapman and Hall &ldquo;Tales of All
+Countries&rdquo; edition by David Price, email
+ccx074@pglaf.org</p>
+<h1>RETURNING HOME.</h1>
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> is generally supposed that
+people who live at home,&mdash;good domestic people, who love tea
+and their arm-chairs, and who keep the parlour hearth-rug ever
+warm,&mdash;it is generally supposed that these are the people
+who value home the most, and best appreciate all the comforts of
+that cherished institution.&nbsp; I am inclined to doubt
+this.&nbsp; It is, I think, to those who live farthest away from
+home, to those who find the greatest difficulty in visiting home,
+that the word conveys the sweetest idea.&nbsp; In some distant
+parts of the world it may be that an Englishman acknowledges his
+permanent resting place; but there are many others in which he
+will not call his daily house, his home.&nbsp; He would, in his
+own idea, desecrate the word by doing so.&nbsp; His home is
+across the blue waters, in the little northern island, which
+perhaps he may visit no more; which he has left, at any rate, for
+half his life; from which circumstances, and the necessity of
+living, have banished him.&nbsp; His home is still in England,
+and when he speaks of home his thoughts are there.</p>
+<p>No one can understand the intensity of this feeling who has
+not seen or felt the absence of interest in life which falls to
+the lot of many who have to eat their bread on distant
+soils.&nbsp; We are all apt to think that a life in strange
+countries will be a life of excitement, of stirring enterprise,
+and varied scenes;&mdash;that in abandoning the comforts of home,
+we shall receive in exchange more of movement and of adventure
+than would come in our way in our own tame country; and this
+feeling has, I am sure, sent many a young man roaming.&nbsp; Take
+any spirited fellow of twenty, and ask him whether he would like
+to go to Mexico for the next ten years!&nbsp; Prudence and his
+father may ultimately save him from such banishment, but he will
+not refuse without a pang of regret.</p>
+<p>Alas! it is a mistake.&nbsp; Bread may be earned, and
+fortunes, perhaps, made in such countries; and as it is the
+destiny of our race to spread itself over the wide face of the
+globe, it is well that there should be something to gild and
+paint the outward face of that lot which so many are called upon
+to choose.&nbsp; But for a life of daily excitement, there is no
+life like life in England; and the farther that one goes from
+England the more stagnant, I think, do the waters of existence
+become.</p>
+<p>But if it be so for men, it is ten times more so for
+women.&nbsp; An Englishman, if he be at Guatemala or Belize, must
+work for his bread, and that work will find him in thought and
+excitement.&nbsp; But what of his wife?&nbsp; Where will she find
+excitement?&nbsp; By what pursuit will she repay herself for all
+that she has left behind her at her mother&rsquo;s
+fireside?&nbsp; She will love her husband.&nbsp; Yes; that at
+least!&nbsp; If there be not that, there will be a hell,
+indeed.&nbsp; Then she will nurse her children, and talk of
+her&mdash;home.&nbsp; When the time shall come that her promised
+return thither is within a year or two of its accomplishment, her
+thoughts will all be fixed on that coming pleasure, as are the
+thoughts of a young girl on her first ball for the fortnight
+before that event comes off.</p>
+<p>On the central plain of that portion of Central America which
+is called Costa Rica stands the city of San Jos&eacute;.&nbsp; It
+is the capital of the Republic,&mdash;for Costa Rica is a
+Republic,&mdash;and, for Central America, is a town of some
+importance.&nbsp; It is in the middle of the coffee district,
+surrounded by rich soil on which the sugar-cane is produced, is
+blessed with a climate only moderately hot, and the native
+inhabitants are neither cut-throats nor cannibals.&nbsp; It may
+be said, therefore, that by comparison with some other spots to
+which Englishmen and others are congregated for the gathering
+together of money, San Jos&eacute; may be considered as a happy
+region; but, nevertheless, a life there is not in every way
+desirable.&nbsp; It is a dull place, with little to interest
+either the eye or the ear.&nbsp; Although the heat of the tropics
+is but little felt there on account of its altitude, men and
+women become too lifeless for much enterprise.&nbsp; There is no
+society.&nbsp; There are a few Germans and a few Englishmen in
+the place, who see each other on matters of business during the
+day; but, sombre as life generally is, they seem to care little
+for each other&rsquo;s company on any other footing.&nbsp; I know
+not to what point the aspirations of the Germans may stretch
+themselves, but to the English the one idea that gives salt to
+life is the idea of home.&nbsp; On some day, however distant it
+may be, they will once more turn their faces towards the little
+northern island, and then all will be well with them.</p>
+<p>To a certain Englishman there, and to his dear little wife,
+this prospect came some few years since somewhat suddenly.&nbsp;
+Events and tidings, it matters not which or what, brought it
+about that they resolved between themselves that they would start
+immediately;&mdash;almost immediately.&nbsp; They would pack up
+and leave San Jos&eacute; within four months of the day on which
+their purpose was first formed.&nbsp; At San Jos&eacute; a period
+of only four months for such a purpose was immediately.&nbsp; It
+creates a feeling of instant excitement, a necessity for instant
+doing, a consciousness that there was in those few weeks ample
+work both for the hands and thoughts,&mdash;work almost more than
+ample.&nbsp; The dear little wife, who for the last two years had
+been so listless, felt herself flurried.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Harry,&rdquo; she said to her husband, &ldquo;how shall
+we ever be ready?&rdquo;&nbsp; And her pretty face was lighted up
+with unusual brightness at the happy thought of so much haste
+with such an object.&nbsp; &ldquo;And baby&rsquo;s things
+too,&rdquo; she said, as she thought of all the various little
+articles of dress that would be needed.&nbsp; A journey from San
+Jos&eacute; to Southampton cannot in truth be made as easily as
+one from London to Liverpool.&nbsp; Let us think of a month to be
+passed without any aid from the washerwoman, and the greatest
+part of that month amidst the sweltering heats of the West Indian
+tropics!</p>
+<p>In the first month of her hurry and flurry Mrs. Arkwright was
+a happy woman.&nbsp; She would see her mother again and her
+sisters.&nbsp; It was now four years since she had left them on
+the quay at Southampton, while all their hearts were broken at
+the parting.&nbsp; She was a young bride then, going forth with
+her new lord to meet the stern world.&nbsp; He had then been home
+to look for a wife, and he had found what he looked for in the
+younger sister of his partner.&nbsp; For he, Henry Arkwright, and
+his wife&rsquo;s brother, Abel Ring, had established themselves
+together in San Jos&eacute;.&nbsp; And now, she thought, how
+there would be another meeting on those quays at which there
+should be no broken hearts; at which there should be love without
+sorrow, and kisses, sweet with the sweetness of welcome, not
+bitter with the bitterness of parting.&nbsp; And people told
+her,&mdash;the few neighbours around her,&mdash;how happy, how
+fortunate she was to get home thus early in her life.&nbsp; They
+had been out some ten,&mdash;some twenty years, and still the day
+of their return was distant.&nbsp; And then she pressed her
+living baby to her breast, and wiped away a tear as she thought
+of the other darling whom she would leave beneath that distant
+sod.</p>
+<p>And then came the question as to the route home.&nbsp; San
+Jos&eacute; stands in the middle of the high plain of Costa Rica,
+half way between the Pacific and the Atlantic.&nbsp; The journey
+thence down to the Pacific is, by comparison, easy.&nbsp; There
+is a road, and the mules on which the travellers must ride go
+steadily and easily down to Punta Arenas, the port on that
+ocean.&nbsp; There are inns, too, on the way,&mdash;places of
+public entertainment at which refreshment may be obtained, and
+beds, or fair substitutes for beds.&nbsp; But then by this route
+the traveller must take a long additional sea voyage.&nbsp; He
+must convey himself and his weary baggage down to that wretched
+place on the Pacific, there wait for a steamer to take him to
+Panam&aacute;, cross the isthmus, and reship himself in the other
+waters for his long journey home.&nbsp; That terrible unshipping
+and reshipping is a sore burden to the unaccustomed
+traveller.&nbsp; When it is absolutely necessary,&mdash;then
+indeed it is done without much thought; but in the case of the
+Arkwrights it was not absolutely necessary.&nbsp; And there was
+another reason which turned Mrs. Arkwright&rsquo;s heart against
+that journey by Punt&rsquo; Arenas.&nbsp; The place is unhealthy,
+having at certain seasons a very bad name;&mdash;and here on
+their outward journey her husband had been taken ill.&nbsp; She
+had never ceased to think of the fortnight she had spent there
+among uncouth strangers, during a portion of which his life had
+trembled in the balance.&nbsp; Early, therefore, in those four
+months she begged that she might not be taken round by
+Punt&rsquo; Arenas.&nbsp; There was another route.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Harry, if you love me, let me go by the
+Serapiqui.&rdquo;&nbsp; As to Harry&rsquo;s loving her, there was
+no doubt about that, as she well knew.</p>
+<p>There was this other route by the Serapiqui river, and by
+Greytown.&nbsp; Greytown, it is true, is quite as unhealthy as
+Punt&rsquo; Arenas, and by that route one&rsquo;s baggage must be
+shipped and unshipped into small boats.&nbsp; There are all
+manner of difficulties attached to it.&nbsp; Perhaps no direct
+road to and from any city on the world&rsquo;s surface is subject
+to sharper fatigue while it lasts.&nbsp; Journeying by this route
+also, the traveller leaves San Jos&eacute; mounted on his mule,
+and so mounted he makes his way through the vast primeval forests
+down to the banks of the Serapiqui river.&nbsp; That there is a
+track for him is of course true; but it is simply a track, and
+during nine months of the twelve is so deep in mud that the mules
+sink in it to their bellies.&nbsp; Then, when the river has been
+reached, the traveller seats him in his canoe, and for two days
+is paddled down,&mdash;down along the Serapiqui, into the San
+Juan River, and down along the San Juan till he reaches Greytown,
+passing one night at some hut on the river side.&nbsp; At
+Greytown he waits for the steamer which will carry him his first
+stage on his road towards Southampton.&nbsp; He must be a
+connoisseur in disagreeables of every kind who can say with any
+precision whether Greytown or Punt&rsquo; Arenas is the better
+place for a week&rsquo;s sojourn.</p>
+<p>For a full month Mr. Arkwright would not give way to his
+wife.&nbsp; At first he all but conquered her by declaring that
+the Serapiqui journey would be dangerous for the baby; but she
+heard from some one that it could be made less fatiguing for the
+baby than the other route.&nbsp; A baby had been carried down in
+a litter strapped on to a mule&rsquo;s back.&nbsp; A guide at the
+mule&rsquo;s head would be necessary, and that was all.&nbsp;
+When once in her boat the baby would be as well as in her
+cradle.&nbsp; What purpose cannot a woman gain by
+perseverance?&nbsp; Her purpose in this instance Mrs. Arkwright
+did at last gain by persevering.</p>
+<p>And then their preparations for the journey went on with much
+flurrying and hot haste.&nbsp; To us at home, who live and feel
+our life every day, the manufacture of endless baby-linen and the
+packing of mountains of clothes does not give an idea of much
+pleasurable excitement; but at San Jos&eacute;, where there was
+scarcely motion enough in existence to prevent its waters from
+becoming foul with stagnation, this packing of baby-linen was
+delightful, and for a month or so the days went by with happy
+wings.</p>
+<p>But by degrees reports began to reach both Arkwright and his
+wife as to this new route, which made them uneasy.&nbsp; The wet
+season had been prolonged, and even though they might not be
+deluged by rain themselves, the path would be in such a state of
+mud as to render the labour incessant.&nbsp; One or two people
+declared that the road was unfit at any time for a
+woman,&mdash;and then the river would be much swollen.&nbsp;
+These tidings did not reach Arkwright and his wife together, or
+at any rate not till late amidst their preparations, or a change
+might still have been made.&nbsp; As it was, after all her
+entreaties, Mrs. Arkwright did not like to ask him again to alter
+his plans; and he, having altered them once, was averse to change
+them again.&nbsp; So things went on till the mules and the boats
+had been hired, and things had gone so far that no change could
+then be made without much cost and trouble.</p>
+<p>During the last ten days of their sojourn at San Jos&eacute;,
+Mrs. Arkwright had lost all that appearance of joy which had
+cheered up her sweet face during the last few months.&nbsp;
+Terror at that terrible journey obliterated in her mind all the
+happiness which had arisen from the hope of being soon at
+home.&nbsp; She was thoroughly cowed by the danger to be
+encountered, and would gladly have gone down to Punt&rsquo;
+Arenas, had it been now possible that she could so arrange
+it.&nbsp; It rained, and rained, and still rained, when there was
+now only a week from the time they started.&nbsp; Oh! if they
+could only wait for another month!&nbsp; But this she said to no
+one.&nbsp; After what had passed between her and her husband, she
+had not the heart to say such words to him.&nbsp; Arkwright
+himself was a man not given to much talking, a silent thoughtful
+man, stern withal in his outward bearing, but tender-hearted and
+loving in his nature.&nbsp; The sweet young wife who had left
+all, and come with him out to that dull distant place, was very
+dear to him,&mdash;dearer than she herself was aware, and in
+these days he was thinking much of her coming troubles.&nbsp; Why
+had he given way to her foolish prayers?&nbsp; Ah, why
+indeed?&nbsp; And thus the last few days of their sojourn in San
+Jos&eacute; passed away from them.&nbsp; Once or twice during
+these days she did speak out, expressing her fears.&nbsp; Her
+feelings were too much for her, and she could not restrain
+herself.&nbsp; &ldquo;Poor mamma,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I shall
+never see her!&rdquo;&nbsp; And then again, &ldquo;Harry, I know
+I shall never reach home alive.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Fanny, my darling, that is nonsense.&rdquo;&nbsp; But
+in order that his spoken word might not sound stern to her, he
+took her in his arms and kissed her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You must behave well, Fanny,&rdquo; he said to her the
+day before they started.&nbsp; Though her heart was then very low
+within her, she promised him that she would do her best, and then
+she made a great resolution.&nbsp; Though she should be dying on
+the road, she would not complain beyond the absolute necessity of
+her nature.&nbsp; She fully recognised his thoughtful tender
+kindness, for though he thus cautioned her, he never told her
+that the dangers which she feared were the result of her own
+choice.&nbsp; He never threw in her teeth those prayers which she
+had made, in yielding to which he knew that he had been weak.</p>
+<p>Then came the morning of their departure.&nbsp; The party of
+travellers consisted of four besides the baby.&nbsp; There was
+Mr. Arkwright, his wife, and an English nurse, who was going to
+England with them, and her brother, Abel Ring, who was to
+accompany them as far as the Serapiqui River.&nbsp; When they had
+reached that, the real labour of the journey would be over.</p>
+<p>They had eight mules; four for the four travellers, one for
+the baby, a spare mule laden simply with blankets, so that Mrs.
+Arkwright might change in order that she should not be fatigued
+by the fatigue of her beast, and two for their luggage.&nbsp; The
+portion of their baggage had already been sent off by Punt&rsquo;
+Arenas, and would meet them at the other side of the Isthmus of
+Panam&agrave;.</p>
+<p>For the last four days the rain had ceased,&mdash;had ceased
+at any rate at San Jos&eacute;.&nbsp; Those who knew the country
+well, would know that it might still be raining over those vast
+forests; but now as the matter was settled, they would hope for
+the best.&nbsp; On that morning on which they started the sun
+shone fairly, and they accepted this as an omen of good.&nbsp;
+Baby seemed to lay comfortably on her pile of blankets on the
+mule&rsquo;s back, and the face of the tall Indian guide who took
+his place at that mule&rsquo;s head pleased the anxious
+mother.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not leave him ever,&rdquo; he said in Spanish, laying
+his hand on the cord which was fastened to the beast&rsquo;s
+head; and not for one moment did he leave his charge, though the
+labour of sticking close to him was very great.</p>
+<p>They had four attendants or guides, all of whom made the
+journey on foot.&nbsp; That they were all men of mixed race was
+probable; but three of them would have been called Spaniards,
+Spaniards, that is, of Costa Rica, and the other would be called
+an Indian.&nbsp; One of the Spaniards was the leader, or chief
+man of the party, but the others seemed to stand on an equal
+footing with each other; and indeed the place of greatest care
+had been given to the Indian.</p>
+<p>For the first four or five miles their route lay along the
+high road which leads from San Jos&eacute; to Punt&rsquo; Arenas,
+and so far a group of acquaintances followed them, all mounted on
+mules.&nbsp; Here, where the ways forked, their road leading
+through the great forests to the Atlantic, they separated, and
+many tears were shed on each side.&nbsp; What might be the future
+life of the Arkwrights had not been absolutely fixed, but there
+was a strong hope on their part that they might never be forced
+to return to Costa Rica.&nbsp; Those from whom they now parted
+had not seemed to be dear to them in any especial degree while
+they all lived together in the same small town, seeing each other
+day by day; but now,&mdash;now that they might never meet again,
+a certain love sprang up for the old familiar faces, and women
+kissed each other who hitherto had hardly cared to enter each
+other&rsquo;s houses.</p>
+<p>And then the party of the Arkwrights again started, and its
+steady work began.&nbsp; In the whole of the first day the way
+beneath their feet was tolerably good, and the weather continued
+fine.&nbsp; It was one long gradual ascent from the plain where
+the roads parted, but there was no real labour in
+travelling.&nbsp; Mrs. Arkwright rode beside her baby&rsquo;s
+mule, at the head of which the Indian always walked, and the two
+men went together in front.&nbsp; The husband had found that his
+wife would prefer this, as long as the road allowed of such an
+arrangement.&nbsp; Her heart was too full to admit of much
+speaking, and so they went on in silence.</p>
+<p>The first night was passed in a hut by the roadside, which
+seemed to be deserted,&mdash;a hut or rancho as it is called in
+that country.&nbsp; Their food they had, of course, brought with
+them; and here, by common consent, they endeavoured in some sort
+to make themselves merry.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Fanny,&rdquo; Arkwright said to her, &ldquo;it is not
+so bad after all; eh, my darling?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No,&rdquo; she answered; &ldquo;only that the mule
+tires one so.&nbsp; Will all the days be as long as
+that?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He had not the heart to tell her that as regarded hours of
+work, that first day must of necessity be the shortest.&nbsp;
+They had risen to a considerable altitude, and the night was very
+cold; but baby was enveloped among a pile of coloured blankets,
+and things did not go very badly with them; only this, that when
+Fanny Arkwright rose from her hard bed, her limbs were more weary
+and much more stiff than they had been when Arkwright had lifted
+her from her mule.</p>
+<p>On the second morning they mounted before the day had quite
+broken, in order that they might breakfast on the summit of the
+ridge which separates the two oceans.&nbsp; At this spot the good
+road comes to an end, and the forest track begins; and here also,
+they would, in truth, enter the forest, though their path had for
+some time been among straggling trees and bushes.&nbsp; And now,
+again, they rode two and two, up to this place of halting,
+Arkwright and Ring well knowing that from hence their labours
+would in truth commence.</p>
+<p>Poor Mrs. Arkwright, when she reached this resting-place,
+would fain have remained there for the rest of the day.&nbsp; One
+word, in her low, plaintive voice, she said, asking whether they
+might not sleep in the large shed which stands there.&nbsp; But
+this was manifestly impossible.&nbsp; At such a pace they would
+never reach Greytown; and she spoke no further word when he told
+her that they must go on.</p>
+<p>At about noon that day the file of travellers formed itself
+into the line which it afterwards kept during the whole of the
+journey, and then started by the narrow path into the
+forest.&nbsp; First walked the leader of the guides, then another
+man following him; Abel Ring came next, and behind him the
+maid-servant; then the baby&rsquo;s mule, with the Indian ever at
+its head; close at his heels followed Mrs. Arkwright, so that the
+mother&rsquo;s eye might be always on her child; and after her
+her husband; then another guide on foot completed the number of
+the travellers.&nbsp; In this way they went on and on, day after
+day, till they reached the banks of the Serapiqui, never once
+varying their places in the procession.&nbsp; As they started in
+the morning, so they went on till their noon-day&rsquo;s rest,
+and so again they made their evening march.&nbsp; In that journey
+there was no idea of variety, no searching after the pleasures of
+scenery, no attempts at conversation with any object of interest
+or amusement.&nbsp; What words were spoken were those simply
+needful, or produced by sympathy for suffering.&nbsp; So they
+journeyed, always in the same places, with one exception.&nbsp;
+They began their work with two guides leading them, but before
+the first day was over one of them had fallen back to the side of
+Mrs. Arkwright, for she was unable to sit on her mule without
+support.</p>
+<p>Their daily work was divided into two stages, so as to give
+some hours for rest in the middle of the day.&nbsp; It had been
+arranged that the distance for each day should not be
+long,&mdash;should be very short as was thought by them all when
+they talked it over at San Jos&eacute;; but now the hours which
+they passed in the saddle seemed to be endless.&nbsp; Their
+descent began from that ridge of which I have spoken, and they
+had no sooner turned their faces down upon the mountain slopes
+looking towards the Atlantic, than that passage of mud began to
+which there was no cessation till they found themselves on the
+banks of the Serapiqui river.&nbsp; I doubt whether it be
+possible to convey in words an adequate idea of the labour of
+riding over such a path.&nbsp; It is not that any active exertion
+is necessary,&mdash;that there is anything which requires
+doing.&nbsp; The traveller has before him the simple task of
+sitting on his mule from hour to hour, and of seeing that his
+knees do not get themselves jammed against the trees; but at
+every step the beast he rides has to drag his legs out from the
+deep clinging mud, and the body of the rider never knows one
+moment of ease.&nbsp; Why the mules do not die on the road, I
+cannot say.&nbsp; They live through it, and do not appear to
+suffer.&nbsp; They have their own way in everything, for no
+exertion on the rider&rsquo;s part will make them walk either
+faster or slower than is their wont.</p>
+<p>On the day on which they entered the forest,&mdash;that being
+the second of their journey,&mdash;Mrs. Arkwright had asked for
+mercy, for permission to escape that second stage.&nbsp; On the
+next she allowed herself to be lifted into her saddle after her
+mid-day rest without a word.&nbsp; She had tried to sleep, but in
+vain; and had sat within a little hut, looking out upon the
+desolate scene before her, with her baby in her lap.&nbsp; She
+had this one comfort, that of all the travellers, she, the baby,
+suffered the least.&nbsp; They had now left the high grounds, and
+the heat was becoming great, though not as yet intense.&nbsp; And
+then, the Indian guide, looking out slowly over the forest, saw
+that the rain was not yet over.&nbsp; He spoke a word or two to
+one of his companions in a low voice and in a patois which Mrs.
+Arkwright did not understand, and then going after the husband,
+told him that the heavens were threatening.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We have only two leagues,&rdquo; said Arkwright,
+&ldquo;and it may perhaps hold up.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It will begin in an hour,&rdquo; said the Indian,
+&ldquo;and the two leagues are four hours.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And to-morrow,&rdquo; asked Arkwright.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow it will still
+rain,&rdquo; said the guide, looking as he spoke up over the huge
+primeval forest.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then we had better start at once,&rdquo; said
+Arkwright, &ldquo;before the first falling drops frighten the
+women.&rdquo;&nbsp; So the mules were brought out, and he lifted
+his uncomplaining wife on to the blankets which formed her
+pillion.&nbsp; The file again formed itself, and slowly they
+wound their way out from the small enclosure by which the hut was
+surrounded;&mdash;out from the enclosure on to a rough scrap of
+undrained pasture ground from which the trees had been
+cleared.&nbsp; In a few minutes they were once more struggling
+through the mud.</p>
+<p>The name of the spot which our travellers had just left is
+Carablanco.&nbsp; There they found a woman living all
+alone.&nbsp; Her husband was away, she told them, at San
+Jos&eacute;, but would be back to her when the dry weather came,
+to look up the young cattle which were straying in the
+forest.&nbsp; What a life for a woman!&nbsp; Nevertheless, in
+talking with Mrs. Arkwright she made no complaint of her own lot,
+but had done what little she could to comfort the poor lady who
+was so little able to bear the fatigues of her journey.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Is the road very bad?&rdquo; Mrs. Arkwright asked her
+in a whisper.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah, yes; it is a bad road.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And when shall we be at the river?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It took me four days,&rdquo; said the woman.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then I shall never see my mother again,&rdquo; and as
+she spoke Mrs. Arkwright pressed her baby to her bosom.&nbsp;
+Immediately after that her husband came in, and they started.</p>
+<p>Their path now led away across the slope of a mountain which
+seemed to fall from the very top of that central ridge in an
+unbroken descent down to the valley at its foot.&nbsp; Hitherto,
+since they had entered the forest, they had had nothing before
+their eyes but the trees and bushes which grew close around
+them.&nbsp; But now a prospect of unrivalled grandeur was opened
+before them, if only had they been able to enjoy it.&nbsp; At the
+bottom of the valley ran a river, which, so great was the depth,
+looked like a moving silver cord; and on the other side of this
+there arose another mountain, steep but unbroken like that which
+they were passing,&mdash;unbroken, so that the eye could stretch
+from the river up to the very summit.&nbsp; Not a spot on that
+mountain side or on their side either was left uncovered by thick
+forest, which had stood there untouched by man since nature first
+produced it.</p>
+<p>But all this was nothing to our travellers, nor was the clang
+of the macaws anything, or the roaring of the little congo
+ape.&nbsp; Nothing was gained by them from beautiful scenery, nor
+was there any fear from the beasts of prey.&nbsp; The immediate
+pain of each step of the journey drove all other feelings from
+them, and their thoughts were bounded by an intense desire for
+the evening halt.</p>
+<p>And then, as the guide had prophesied, the rain began.&nbsp;
+At first it came in such small soft drops that it was found to be
+refreshing, but the clouds soon gathered and poured forth their
+collected waters as though it had not rained for months among
+those mountains.&nbsp; Not that it came in big drops, or with the
+violence which wind can give it, beating hither and thither,
+breaking branches from the trees, and rising up again as it
+pattered against the ground.&nbsp; There was no violence in the
+rain.&nbsp; It fell softly in a long, continuous, noiseless
+stream, sinking into everything that it touched, converting the
+deep rich earth on all sides into mud.</p>
+<p>Not a word was said by any of them as it came on.&nbsp; The
+Indian covered the baby with her blanket, closer than she was
+covered before, and the guide who walked by Mrs.
+Arkwright&rsquo;s side drew her cloak around her knees.&nbsp; But
+such efforts were in vain.&nbsp; There is a rain that will
+penetrate everything, and such was the rain which fell upon them
+now.&nbsp; Nevertheless, as I have said, hardly a word was
+spoken.&nbsp; The poor woman, finding that the heat of her cloak
+increased her sufferings, threw it open again.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Fanny,&rdquo; said her husband, &ldquo;you had better
+let him protect you as well as he can.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She answered him merely by an impatient wave of her hand,
+intending to signify that she could not speak, but that in this
+matter she must have her way.</p>
+<p>After that her husband made no further attempt to control
+her.&nbsp; He could see, however, that ever and again she would
+have slipped forward from her mule and fallen, had not the man by
+her side steadied her with his hand.&nbsp; At every tree he
+protected her knees and feet, though there was hardly room for
+him to move between the beast and the bank against which he was
+thrust.</p>
+<p>And then, at last, that day&rsquo;s work was also over, and
+Fanny Arkwright slipped from her pillion down into her
+husband&rsquo;s arms at the door of another rancho in the
+forest.&nbsp; Here there lived a large family adding from year to
+year to the patch of ground which they had rescued from the wood,
+and valiantly doing their part in the extension of
+civilisation.&nbsp; Our party was but a few steps from the door
+when they left their mules, but Mrs. Arkwright did not now as
+heretofore hasten to receive her baby in her arms.&nbsp; When
+placed upon the ground, she still leaned against the mule, and
+her husband saw that he must carry her into the hut.&nbsp; This
+he did, and then, wet, mud-laden, dishevelled as she was, she
+laid herself down upon the planks that were to form her bed, and
+there stretched out her arms for her infant.&nbsp; On that
+evening they undressed and tended her like a child; and then when
+she was alone with her husband, she repeated to him her sad
+foreboding.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Harry,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I shall never see my
+mother again.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, yes, Fanny, you will see her and talk over all
+these troubles with pleasure.&nbsp; It is very bad, I know; but
+we shall live through it yet.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You will, of course; and you will take baby home to
+her.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And face her without you!&nbsp; No, my darling.&nbsp;
+Three more days&rsquo; riding, or rather two and a half, will
+bring us to the river, and then your trouble will be over.&nbsp;
+All will be easy after that.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah, Harry, you do not know.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I do know that it is very bad, my girl, but you must
+cheer up.&nbsp; We shall be laughing at all this in a
+month&rsquo;s time.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>On the following morning she allowed herself to be lifted up,
+speaking no word of remonstrance.&nbsp; Indeed she was like a
+child in their hands, having dropped all the dignity and
+authority of a woman&rsquo;s demeanour.&nbsp; It rained again
+during the whole of this day, and the heat was becoming
+oppressive as every hour they were descending nearer and nearer
+to the sea level.&nbsp; During this first stage hardly a word was
+spoken by any one; but when she was again taken from her mule she
+was in tears.&nbsp; The poor servant-girl, too, was almost
+prostrate with fatigue, and absolutely unable to wait upon her
+mistress, or even to do anything for herself.&nbsp; Nevertheless
+they did make the second stage, seeing that their mid-day resting
+place had been under the trees of the forest.&nbsp; Had there
+been any hut there, they would have remained for the night.</p>
+<p>On the following day they rested altogether, though the place
+at which they remained had but few attractions.&nbsp; It was
+another forest hut inhabited by an old Spanish couple who were by
+no means willing to give them room, although they paid for their
+accommodation at exorbitant rates.&nbsp; It is one singularity of
+places strange and out of the way like such forest tracks as
+these, that money in small sums is hardly valued.&nbsp; Dollars
+there were not appreciated as sixpences are in this rich
+country.&nbsp; But there they stayed for a day, and the guides
+employed themselves in making a litter with long poles so that
+they might carry Mrs. Arkwright over a portion of the
+ground.&nbsp; Poor fellows!&nbsp; When once she had thus changed
+her mode of conveyance, she never again was lifted on to the
+mule.</p>
+<p>There was strong reason against this day&rsquo;s delay.&nbsp;
+They were to go down the Serapiqui along with the post, which
+would overtake them on its banks.&nbsp; But if the post should
+pass them before they got there, it could not wait; and then they
+would be deprived of the best canoe on the water.&nbsp; Then also
+it was possible, if they encountered further delay, that the
+steamer might sail from Greytown without them, and a
+month&rsquo;s residence at that frightful place be thus made
+necessary.</p>
+<p>The day&rsquo;s rest apparently did little to relieve Mrs.
+Arkwright&rsquo;s sufferings.&nbsp; On the following day she
+allowed herself to be put upon the mule, but after the first hour
+the beasts were stopped and she was taken off it.&nbsp; During
+that hour they had travelled hardly over half a league.&nbsp; At
+that time she so sobbed and moaned that Arkwright absolutely
+feared that she would perish in the forest, and he implored the
+guides to use the poles which they had prepared.&nbsp; She had
+declared to him over and over again that she felt sure that she
+should die, and, half-delirious with weariness and suffering, had
+begged him to leave her at the last hut.&nbsp; They had not yet
+come to the flat ground over which a litter might be carried with
+comparative ease; but nevertheless the men yielded, and she was
+placed in a recumbent position upon blankets, supported by boughs
+of trees.&nbsp; In this way she went through that day with
+somewhat less of suffering than before, and without that
+necessity for self-exertion which had been worse to her than any
+suffering.</p>
+<p>There were places between that and the river at which one
+would have said that it was impossible that a litter should be
+carried, or even impossible that a mule should walk with a load
+on his back.&nbsp; But still they went on, and the men carried
+their burden without complaining.&nbsp; Not a word was said about
+money, or extra pay;&mdash;not a word, at least by them; and when
+Arkwright was profuse in his offer, their leader told him that
+they would not have done it for money.&nbsp; But for the poor
+suffering Se&ntilde;ora they would make exertions which no money
+would have bought from them.</p>
+<p>On the next day about noon the post did pass them, consisting
+of three strong men carrying great weights on their backs,
+suspended by bands from their foreheads.&nbsp; They travelled
+much quicker than our friends, and would reach the banks of the
+river that evening.&nbsp; In their ordinary course they would
+start down the river close upon daybreak on the following day;
+but, after some consultation with the guides, they agreed to wait
+till noon.&nbsp; Poor Mrs. Arkwright knew nothing of hours or of
+any such arrangements now, but her husband greatly doubted their
+power of catching this mail despatch.&nbsp; However, it did not
+much depend on their exertions that afternoon.&nbsp; Their
+resting-place was marked out for them, and they could not go
+beyond it, unless indeed they could make the whole journey, which
+was impossible.</p>
+<p>But towards evening matters seemed to improve with them.&nbsp;
+They had now got on to ground which was more open, and the men
+who carried the litter could walk with greater ease.&nbsp; Mrs.
+Arkwright also complained less, and when they reached their
+resting-place on that night, said nothing of a wish to be left
+there to her fate.&nbsp; This was a place called Padregal, a
+cacao plantation, which had been cleared in the forest with much
+labour.&nbsp; There was a house here containing three rooms, and
+some forty or fifty acres round it had been stripped of the
+forest trees.&nbsp; But nevertheless the adventure had not been a
+prosperous one, for the place was at that time deserted.&nbsp;
+There were the cacao plants, but there was no one to pick the
+cacao.&nbsp; There was a certain melancholy beauty about the
+place.&nbsp; A few grand trees had been left standing near the
+house, and the grass around was rich and park-like.&nbsp; But it
+was deserted, and nothing was heard but the roaring of the
+congos.&nbsp; Ah me!&nbsp; Indeed it was a melancholy place as it
+was seen by some of that party afterwards.</p>
+<p>On the following morning they were astir very early, and Mrs.
+Arkwright was so much better that she offered to sit again upon
+her mule.&nbsp; The men, however, declared that they would finish
+their task, and she was placed again upon the litter.&nbsp; And
+then with slow and weary step they did make their way to the
+river bank.&nbsp; It was not yet noon when they saw the mud fort
+which stands there, and as they drew into the enclosure round a
+small house which stands close by the river side, they saw the
+three postmen still busy about their packages.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thank God!&rdquo; said Arkwright.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thank God, indeed!&rdquo; said his brother.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;All will be right with you now.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well, Fanny,&rdquo; said her husband, as he took her
+very gently from the litter and seated her on a bench which stood
+outside the door.&nbsp; &ldquo;It is all over now,&mdash;is it
+not?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She answered him by a shower of tears, but they were tears
+which brought her relief.&nbsp; He was aware of this, and
+therefore stood by her, still holding her by both her hands while
+her head rested against his side.&nbsp; &ldquo;You will find the
+motion of the boat very gentle,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;indeed
+there will be no motion, and you and baby will sleep all the way
+down to Greytown.&rdquo;&nbsp; She did not answer him in words,
+but she looked up into his face, and he could see that her spirit
+was recovering itself.</p>
+<p>There was almost a crowd of people collected on the spot,
+preparatory to the departure of the canoes.&nbsp; In the first
+place there was the commandant of the fort, to whom the small
+house belonged.&nbsp; He was looking to the passports of our
+friends, and with due diligence endeavouring to make something of
+the occasion, by discovering fatal legal impediments to the
+further prosecution of their voyage, which impediments would
+disappear on the payment of certain dollars.&nbsp; And then there
+were half a dozen Costa Rican soldiers, men with coloured caps
+and old muskets, ready to support the dignity and authority of
+the commandant.&nbsp; There were the guides taking payment from
+Abel Ring for their past work, and the postmen preparing their
+boats for the further journey.&nbsp; And then there was a certain
+German there, with a German servant, to whom the boats
+belonged.&nbsp; He also was very busy preparing for the river
+voyage.&nbsp; He was not going down with them, but it was his
+business to see them well started.&nbsp; A singular looking man
+was he, with a huge shaggy beard, and shaggy uncombed hair, but
+with bright blue eyes, which gave to his face a remarkable look
+of sweetness.&nbsp; He was an uncouth man to the eye, and yet a
+child would have trusted herself with him in a forest.</p>
+<p>At this place they remained some two hours.&nbsp; Coffee was
+prepared here, and Mrs. Arkwright refreshed herself and her
+child.&nbsp; They washed and arranged their clothes, and when she
+stepped down the steep bank, clinging to her husband&rsquo;s arm
+as she made her way towards the boat, she smiled upon him as he
+looked at her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It is all over now,&mdash;is it not, my
+girl?&rdquo;&mdash;he said, encouraging her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, Harry, do not talk about it,&rdquo; she answered,
+shuddering.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But I want you to say a word to me to let me know that
+you are better.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I am better,&mdash;much better.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And you will see your mother again; will you not; and
+give baby to her yourself?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>To this she made no immediate answer, for she was on a level
+with the river, and the canoe was close at her feet.&nbsp; And
+then she had to bid farewell to her brother.&nbsp; He was now the
+unfortunate one of the party, for his destiny required that he
+should go back to San Jos&eacute; alone,&mdash;go back and remain
+there perhaps some ten years longer before he might look for the
+happiness of home.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;God bless you, dearest Abel,&rdquo; she said, kissing
+him and sobbing as she spoke.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Good-bye, Fanny,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and do not let
+them forget me in England.&nbsp; It is a great comfort to think
+that the worst of your troubles are over.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh,&mdash;she&rsquo;s all right now,&rdquo; said
+Arkwright.&nbsp; &ldquo;Good-bye, old boy,&rdquo;&mdash;and the
+two brothers-in-law grasped each other&rsquo;s hands
+heartily.&nbsp; &ldquo;Keep up your spirits, and we&rsquo;ll have
+you home before long.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, I&rsquo;m all right,&rdquo; said the other.&nbsp;
+But from the tone of the voices, it was clear that poor Ring was
+despondent at the thoughts of his coming solitude, and that
+Arkwright was already triumphing in his emancipation.</p>
+<p>And then, with much care, Fanny Arkwright was stowed away in
+the boat.&nbsp; There was a great contest about the baby, but at
+last it was arranged, that at any rate for the first few hours
+she should be placed in the boat with the servant.&nbsp; The
+mother was told that by this plan she would feel herself at
+liberty to sleep during the heat of the day, and then she might
+hope to have strength to look to the child when they should be on
+shore during the night.&nbsp; In this way therefore they prepared
+to start, while Abel Ring stood on the bank looking at them with
+wishful eyes.&nbsp; In the first boat were two Indians paddling,
+and a third man steering with another paddle.&nbsp; In the middle
+there was much luggage, and near the luggage so as to be under
+shade, was the baby&rsquo;s soft bed.&nbsp; If nothing evil
+happened to the boat, the child could not be more safe in the
+best cradle that was ever rocked.&nbsp; With her was the
+maid-servant and some stranger who was also going down to
+Greytown.</p>
+<p>In the second boat were the same number of men to paddle, the
+Indian guide being one of them, and there were the mails
+placed.&nbsp; Then there was a seat arranged with blankets,
+cloaks, and cushions, for Mrs. Arkwright, so that she might lean
+back and sleep without fatigue, and immediately opposite to her
+her husband placed himself.&nbsp; &ldquo;You all look very
+comfortable,&rdquo; said poor Abel from the bank.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We shall do very well now,&rdquo; said Arkwright.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And I do think I shall see mamma again,&rdquo; said his
+wife.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s right, old girl;&mdash;of course you will
+see her.&nbsp; Now then,&mdash;we are all ready.&rdquo;&nbsp; And
+with some little assistance from the German on the bank, the
+first boat was pushed off into the stream.</p>
+<p>The river in this place is rapid, because the full course of
+the water is somewhat impeded by a bank of earth jutting out from
+the opposite side of the river into the stream; but it is not so
+rapid as to make any recognised danger in the embarkation.&nbsp;
+Below this bank, which is opposite to the spot at which the boats
+were entered, there were four or five broken trees in the water,
+some of the shattered boughs of which showed themselves above the
+surface.&nbsp; These are called snags, and are very dangerous if
+they are met with in the course of the stream; but in this
+instance no danger was apprehended from them, as they lay
+considerably to the left of the passage which the boats would
+take.&nbsp; The first canoe was pushed off by the German, and
+went rapidly away.&nbsp; The waters were strong with rain, and it
+was pretty to see with what velocity the boat was carried on some
+hundred of yards in advance of the other by the force of the
+first effort of the paddle.&nbsp; The German, however, from the
+bank holloaed to the first men in Spanish, bidding them relax
+their efforts for awhile; and then he said a word or two of
+caution to those who were now on the point of starting.</p>
+<p>The boat then was pushed steadily forward, the man at the
+stern keeping it with his paddle a little farther away from the
+bank at which they had embarked.&nbsp; It was close under the
+land that the stream ran the fastest, and in obedience to the
+directions given to him he made his course somewhat nearer to the
+sunken trees.&nbsp; It was but one turn of his hand that gave the
+light boat its direction, but that turn of the hand was too
+strong.&nbsp; Had the anxious master of the canoes been but a
+thought less anxious, all might have been well; but, as it was,
+the prow of the boat was caught by some slight hidden branch
+which impeded its course and turned it round in the rapid
+river.&nbsp; The whole lengths of the canoe was thus brought
+against the sunken tree, and in half a minute the five occupants
+of the boat were struggling in the stream.</p>
+<p>Abel Ring and the German were both standing on the bank close
+to the water when this happened, and each for a moment looked
+into the other&rsquo;s face.&nbsp; &ldquo;Stand where you
+are,&rdquo; shouted the German, &ldquo;so that you may assist
+them from the shore.&nbsp; I will go in.&rdquo;&nbsp; And then,
+throwing from him his boots and coat, he plunged into the
+river.</p>
+<p>The canoe had been swept round so as to be brought by the
+force of the waters absolutely in among the upturned roots and
+broken stumps of the trees which impeded the river, and thus,
+when the party was upset, they were at first to be seen
+scrambling among the branches.&nbsp; But unfortunately there was
+much more wood below the water than above it, and the force of
+the stream was so great, that those who caught hold of the timber
+were not able to support themselves by it above the
+surface.&nbsp; Arkwright was soon to be seen some forty yards
+down, having been carried clear of the trees, and here he got out
+of the river on the farther bank.&nbsp; The distance to him was
+not above forty yards, but from the nature of the ground he could
+not get up towards his wife, unless he could have forced his way
+against the stream.</p>
+<p>The Indian who had had charge of the baby rose quickly to the
+surface, was carried once round in the eddy, with his head high
+above the water, and then was seen to throw himself among the
+broken wood.&nbsp; He had seen the dress of the poor woman, and
+made his effort to save her.&nbsp; The other two men were so
+caught by the fragments of the boughs, that they could not
+extricate themselves so as to make any exertions; ultimately,
+however, they also got out on the further bank.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Arkwright had sunk at once on being precipitated into the
+water, but the buoyancy of her clothes had brought her for a
+moment again to the surface.&nbsp; She had risen for a moment,
+and then had again gone down, immediately below the forked trunk
+of a huge tree;&mdash;had gone down, alas, alas! never to rise
+again with life within her bosom.&nbsp; The poor Indian made two
+attempts to save her, and then came up himself, incapable of
+further effort.</p>
+<p>It was then that the German, the owner of the canoes, who had
+fought his way with great efforts across the violence of the
+waters, and indeed up against the stream for some few yards, made
+his effort to save the life of that poor frail creature.&nbsp; He
+had watched the spot at which she had gone down, and even while
+struggling across the river, had seen how the Indian had followed
+her and had failed.&nbsp; It was now his turn.&nbsp; His life was
+in his hand, and he was prepared to throw it away in that
+attempt.&nbsp; Having succeeded in placing himself a little above
+the large tree, he turned his face towards the bottom of the
+river, and dived down among the branches.&nbsp; And he also,
+after that, was never again seen with the life-blood flowing
+round his heart.</p>
+<p>When the sun set that night, the two swollen corpses were
+lying in the Commandant&rsquo;s hut, and Abel Ring and Arkwright
+were sitting beside them.&nbsp; Arkwright had his baby sleeping
+in his arms, but he sat there for hours,&mdash;into the middle of
+the long night,&mdash;without speaking a word to any one.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Harry,&rdquo; said his brother at last, &ldquo;come
+away and lay down.&nbsp; It will be good for you to
+sleep.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Nothing ever will be good again for me,&rdquo; said
+he.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You must bear up against your sorrow as other men
+do,&rdquo; said Ring.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Why am I not sleeping with her as the poor German
+sleeps?&nbsp; Why did I let another man take my place in dying
+for her?&rdquo;&nbsp; And then he walked away that the other
+might not see the tears on his face.</p>
+<p>It was a sad night,&mdash;that at the Commandant&rsquo;s hut,
+and a sad morning followed upon it.&nbsp; It must be remembered
+that they had there none of those appurtenances which are so
+necessary to make woe decent and misfortune comfortable.&nbsp;
+They sat through the night in the small hut, and in the morning
+they came forth with their clothes still wet and dirty, with
+their haggard faces, and weary stiff limbs, encumbered with the
+horrid task of burying that loved body among the forest
+trees.&nbsp; And then, to keep life in them till it was done, the
+brandy flask passed from hand to hand; and after that, with slow
+but resolute efforts, they reformed the litter on which the
+living woman had been carried thither, and took her body back to
+the wild plantation at Padregal.&nbsp; There they dug for her her
+grave, and repeating over her some portion of the service for the
+dead, left her to sleep the sleep of death.&nbsp; But before they
+left her, they erected a pallisade of timber round the grave, so
+that the beasts of the forest should not tear the body from its
+resting-place.</p>
+<p>When that was done Arkwright and his brother made their slow
+journey back to San Jos&eacute;.&nbsp; The widowed husband could
+not face his darling&rsquo;s mother with such a tale upon his
+tongue as that.</p>
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RETURNING HOME***</p>
+<pre>
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Returning Home, by Anthony Trollope
+#26 in our series by Anthony Trollope
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+Title: Returning Home
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+Author: Anthony Trollope
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+This etext was produced by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk,
+from the 1864 Chapman and Hall "Tales of all Countries" edition.
+
+
+
+
+
+RETURNING HOME
+
+by Anthony Trollope
+
+
+
+
+It is generally supposed that people who live at home,--good
+domestic people, who love tea and their arm-chairs, and who keep the
+parlour hearth-rug ever warm,--it is generally supposed that these
+are the people who value home the most, and best appreciate all the
+comforts of that cherished institution.  I am inclined to doubt
+this.  It is, I think, to those who live farthest away from home, to
+those who find the greatest difficulty in visiting home, that the
+word conveys the sweetest idea.  In some distant parts of the world
+it may be that an Englishman acknowledges his permanent resting
+place; but there are many others in which he will not call his daily
+house, his home.  He would, in his own idea, desecrate the word by
+doing so.  His home is across the blue waters, in the little
+northern island, which perhaps he may visit no more; which he has
+left, at any rate, for half his life; from which circumstances, and
+the necessity of living, have banished him.  His home is still in
+England, and when he speaks of home his thoughts are there.
+
+No one can understand the intensity of this feeling who has not seen
+or felt the absence of interest in life which falls to the lot of
+many who have to eat their bread on distant soils.  We are all apt
+to think that a life in strange countries will be a life of
+excitement, of stirring enterprise, and varied scenes;--that in
+abandoning the comforts of home, we shall receive in exchange more
+of movement and of adventure than would come in our way in our own
+tame country; and this feeling has, I am sure, sent many a young man
+roaming.  Take any spirited fellow of twenty, and ask him whether he
+would like to go to Mexico for the next ten years!  Prudence and his
+father may ultimately save him from such banishment, but he will not
+refuse without a pang of regret.
+
+Alas! it is a mistake.  Bread may be earned, and fortunes, perhaps,
+made in such countries; and as it is the destiny of our race to
+spread itself over the wide face of the globe, it is well that there
+should be something to gild and paint the outward face of that lot
+which so many are called upon to choose.  But for a life of daily
+excitement, there is no life like life in England; and the farther
+that one goes from England the more stagnant, I think, do the waters
+of existence become.
+
+But if it be so for men, it is ten times more so for women.  An
+Englishman, if he be at Guatemala or Belize, must work for his
+bread, and that work will find him in thought and excitement.  But
+what of his wife?  Where will she find excitement?  By what pursuit
+will she repay herself for all that she has left behind her at her
+mother's fireside?  She will love her husband.  Yes; that at least!
+If there be not that, there will be a hell, indeed.  Then she will
+nurse her children, and talk of her--home.  When the time shall come
+that her promised return thither is within a year or two of its
+accomplishment, her thoughts will all be fixed on that coming
+pleasure, as are the thoughts of a young girl on her first ball for
+the fortnight before that event comes off.
+
+On the central plain of that portion of Central America which is
+called Costa Rica stands the city of San Jose.  It is the capital of
+the Republic,--for Costa Rica is a Republic,--and, for Central
+America, is a town of some importance.  It is in the middle of the
+coffee district, surrounded by rich soil on which the sugar-cane is
+produced, is blessed with a climate only moderately hot, and the
+native inhabitants are neither cut-throats nor cannibals.  It may be
+said, therefore, that by comparison with some other spots to which
+Englishmen and others are congregated for the gathering together of
+money, San Jose may be considered as a happy region; but,
+nevertheless, a life there is not in every way desirable.  It is a
+dull place, with little to interest either the eye or the ear.
+Although the heat of the tropics is but little felt there on account
+of its altitude, men and women become too lifeless for much
+enterprise.  There is no society.  There are a few Germans and a few
+Englishmen in the place, who see each other on matters of business
+during the day; but, sombre as life generally is, they seem to care
+little for each other's company on any other footing.  I know not to
+what point the aspirations of the Germans may stretch themselves,
+but to the English the one idea that gives salt to life is the idea
+of home.  On some day, however distant it may be, they will once
+more turn their faces towards the little northern island, and then
+all will be well with them.
+
+To a certain Englishman there, and to his dear little wife, this
+prospect came some few years since somewhat suddenly.  Events and
+tidings, it matters not which or what, brought it about that they
+resolved between themselves that they would start immediately;--
+almost immediately.  They would pack up and leave San Jose within
+four months of the day on which their purpose was first formed.  At
+San Jose a period of only four months for such a purpose was
+immediately.  It creates a feeling of instant excitement, a
+necessity for instant doing, a consciousness that there was in those
+few weeks ample work both for the hands and thoughts,--work almost
+more than ample.  The dear little wife, who for the last two years
+had been so listless, felt herself flurried.
+
+"Harry," she said to her husband, "how shall we ever be ready?"  And
+her pretty face was lighted up with unusual brightness at the happy
+thought of so much haste with such an object.  "And baby's things
+too," she said, as she thought of all the various little articles of
+dress that would be needed.  A journey from San Jose to Southampton
+cannot in truth be made as easily as one from London to Liverpool.
+Let us think of a month to be passed without any aid from the
+washerwoman, and the greatest part of that month amidst the
+sweltering heats of the West Indian tropics!
+
+In the first month of her hurry and flurry Mrs. Arkwright was a
+happy woman.  She would see her mother again and her sisters.  It
+was now four years since she had left them on the quay at
+Southampton, while all their hearts were broken at the parting.  She
+was a young bride then, going forth with her new lord to meet the
+stern world.  He had then been home to look for a wife, and he had
+found what he looked for in the younger sister of his partner.  For
+he, Henry Arkwright, and his wife's brother, Abel Ring, had
+established themselves together in San Jose.  And now, she thought,
+how there would be another meeting on those quays at which there
+should be no broken hearts; at which there should be love without
+sorrow, and kisses, sweet with the sweetness of welcome, not bitter
+with the bitterness of parting.  And people told her,--the few
+neighbours around her,--how happy, how fortunate she was to get home
+thus early in her life.  They had been out some ten,--some twenty
+years, and still the day of their return was distant.  And then she
+pressed her living baby to her breast, and wiped away a tear as she
+thought of the other darling whom she would leave beneath that
+distant sod.
+
+And then came the question as to the route home.  San Jose stands in
+the middle of the high plain of Costa Rica, half way between the
+Pacific and the Atlantic.  The journey thence down to the Pacific
+is, by comparison, easy.  There is a road, and the mules on which
+the travellers must ride go steadily and easily down to Punta
+Arenas, the port on that ocean.  There are inns, too, on the way,--
+places of public entertainment at which refreshment may be obtained,
+and beds, or fair substitutes for beds.  But then by this route the
+traveller must take a long additional sea voyage.  He must convey
+himself and his weary baggage down to that wretched place on the
+Pacific, there wait for a steamer to take him to Panama, cross the
+isthmus, and reship himself in the other waters for his long journey
+home.  That terrible unshipping and reshipping is a sore burden to
+the unaccustomed traveller.  When it is absolutely necessary,--then
+indeed it is done without much thought; but in the case of the
+Arkwrights it was not absolutely necessary.  And there was another
+reason which turned Mrs. Arkwright's heart against that journey by
+Punt' Arenas.  The place is unhealthy, having at certain seasons a
+very bad name;--and here on their outward journey her husband had
+been taken ill.  She had never ceased to think of the fortnight she
+had spent there among uncouth strangers, during a portion of which
+his life had trembled in the balance.  Early, therefore, in those
+four months she begged that she might not be taken round by Punt'
+Arenas.  There was another route.  "Harry, if you love me, let me go
+by the Serapiqui."  As to Harry's loving her, there was no doubt
+about that, as she well knew.
+
+There was this other route by the Serapiqui river, and by Greytown.
+Greytown, it is true, is quite as unhealthy as Punt' Arenas, and by
+that route one's baggage must be shipped and unshipped into small
+boats.  There are all manner of difficulties attached to it.
+Perhaps no direct road to and from any city on the world's surface
+is subject to sharper fatigue while it lasts.  Journeying by this
+route also, the traveller leaves San Jose mounted on his mule, and
+so mounted he makes his way through the vast primeval forests down
+to the banks of the Serapiqui river.  That there is a track for him
+is of course true; but it is simply a track, and during nine months
+of the twelve is so deep in mud that the mules sink in it to their
+bellies.  Then, when the river has been reached, the traveller seats
+him in his canoe, and for two days is paddled down,--down along the
+Serapiqui, into the San Juan River, and down along the San Juan till
+he reaches Greytown, passing one night at some hut on the river
+side.  At Greytown he waits for the steamer which will carry him his
+first stage on his road towards Southampton.  He must be a
+connoisseur in disagreeables of every kind who can say with any
+precision whether Greytown or Punt' Arenas is the better place for a
+week's sojourn.
+
+For a full month Mr. Arkwright would not give way to his wife.  At
+first he all but conquered her by declaring that the Serapiqui
+journey would be dangerous for the baby; but she heard from some one
+that it could be made less fatiguing for the baby than the other
+route.  A baby had been carried down in a litter strapped on to a
+mule's back.  A guide at the mule's head would be necessary, and
+that was all.  When once in her boat the baby would be as well as in
+her cradle.  What purpose cannot a woman gain by perseverance?  Her
+purpose in this instance Mrs. Arkwright did at last gain by
+persevering.
+
+And then their preparations for the journey went on with much
+flurrying and hot haste.  To us at home, who live and feel our life
+every day, the manufacture of endless baby-linen and the packing of
+mountains of clothes does not give an idea of much pleasurable
+excitement; but at San Jose, where there was scarcely motion enough
+in existence to prevent its waters from becoming foul with
+stagnation, this packing of baby-linen was delightful, and for a
+month or so the days went by with happy wings.
+
+But by degrees reports began to reach both Arkwright and his wife as
+to this new route, which made them uneasy.  The wet season had been
+prolonged, and even though they might not be deluged by rain
+themselves, the path would be in such a state of mud as to render
+the labour incessant.  One or two people declared that the road was
+unfit at any time for a woman,--and then the river would be much
+swollen.  These tidings did not reach Arkwright and his wife
+together, or at any rate not till late amidst their preparations, or
+a change might still have been made.  As it was, after all her
+entreaties, Mrs. Arkwright did not like to ask him again to alter
+his plans; and he, having altered them once, was averse to change
+them again.  So things went on till the mules and the boats had been
+hired, and things had gone so far that no change could then be made
+without much cost and trouble.
+
+During the last ten days of their sojourn at San Jose, Mrs.
+Arkwright had lost all that appearance of joy which had cheered up
+her sweet face during the last few months.  Terror at that terrible
+journey obliterated in her mind all the happiness which had arisen
+from the hope of being soon at home.  She was thoroughly cowed by
+the danger to be encountered, and would gladly have gone down to
+Punt' Arenas, had it been now possible that she could so arrange it.
+It rained, and rained, and still rained, when there was now only a
+week from the time they started.  Oh! if they could only wait for
+another month!  But this she said to no one.  After what had passed
+between her and her husband, she had not the heart to say such words
+to him.  Arkwright himself was a man not given to much talking, a
+silent thoughtful man, stern withal in his outward bearing, but
+tender-hearted and loving in his nature.  The sweet young wife who
+had left all, and come with him out to that dull distant place, was
+very dear to him,--dearer than she herself was aware, and in these
+days he was thinking much of her coming troubles.  Why had he given
+way to her foolish prayers?  Ah, why indeed?  And thus the last few
+days of their sojourn in San Jose passed away from them.  Once or
+twice during these days she did speak out, expressing her fears.
+Her feelings were too much for her, and she could not restrain
+herself.  "Poor mamma," she said, "I shall never see her!"  And then
+again, "Harry, I know I shall never reach home alive."
+
+"Fanny, my darling, that is nonsense."  But in order that his spoken
+word might not sound stern to her, he took her in his arms and
+kissed her.
+
+"You must behave well, Fanny," he said to her the day before they
+started.  Though her heart was then very low within her, she
+promised him that she would do her best, and then she made a great
+resolution.  Though she should be dying on the road, she would not
+complain beyond the absolute necessity of her nature.  She fully
+recognised his thoughtful tender kindness, for though he thus
+cautioned her, he never told her that the dangers which she feared
+were the result of her own choice.  He never threw in her teeth
+those prayers which she had made, in yielding to which he knew that
+he had been weak.
+
+Then came the morning of their departure.  The party of travellers
+consisted of four besides the baby.  There was Mr. Arkwright, his
+wife, and an English nurse, who was going to England with them, and
+her brother, Abel Ring, who was to accompany them as far as the
+Serapiqui River.  When they had reached that, the real labour of the
+journey would be over.
+
+They had eight mules; four for the four travellers, one for the
+baby, a spare mule laden simply with blankets, so that Mrs.
+Arkwright might change in order that she should not be fatigued by
+the fatigue of her beast, and two for their luggage.  The portion of
+their baggage had already been sent off by Punt' Arenas, and would
+meet them at the other side of the Isthmus of Panama.
+
+For the last four days the rain had ceased,--had ceased at any rate
+at San Jose.  Those who knew the country well, would know that it
+might still be raining over those vast forests; but now as the
+matter was settled, they would hope for the best.  On that morning
+on which they started the sun shone fairly, and they accepted this
+as an omen of good.  Baby seemed to lay comfortably on her pile of
+blankets on the mule's back, and the face of the tall Indian guide
+who took his place at that mule's head pleased the anxious mother.
+
+"Not leave him ever," he said in Spanish, laying his hand on the
+cord which was fastened to the beast's head; and not for one moment
+did he leave his charge, though the labour of sticking close to him
+was very great.
+
+They had four attendants or guides, all of whom made the journey on
+foot.  That they were all men of mixed race was probable; but three
+of them would have been called Spaniards, Spaniards, that is, of
+Costa Rica, and the other would be called an Indian.  One of the
+Spaniards was the leader, or chief man of the party, but the others
+seemed to stand on an equal footing with each other; and indeed the
+place of greatest care had been given to the Indian.
+
+For the first four or five miles their route lay along the high road
+which leads from San Jose to Punt' Arenas, and so far a group of
+acquaintances followed them, all mounted on mules.  Here, where the
+ways forked, their road leading through the great forests to the
+Atlantic, they separated, and many tears were shed on each side.
+What might be the future life of the Arkwrights had not been
+absolutely fixed, but there was a strong hope on their part that
+they might never be forced to return to Costa Rica.  Those from whom
+they now parted had not seemed to be dear to them in any especial
+degree while they all lived together in the same small town, seeing
+each other day by day; but now,--now that they might never meet
+again, a certain love sprang up for the old familiar faces, and
+women kissed each other who hitherto had hardly cared to enter each
+other's houses.
+
+And then the party of the Arkwrights again started, and its steady
+work began.  In the whole of the first day the way beneath their
+feet was tolerably good, and the weather continued fine.  It was one
+long gradual ascent from the plain where the roads parted, but there
+was no real labour in travelling.  Mrs. Arkwright rode beside her
+baby's mule, at the head of which the Indian always walked, and the
+two men went together in front.  The husband had found that his wife
+would prefer this, as long as the road allowed of such an
+arrangement.  Her heart was too full to admit of much speaking, and
+so they went on in silence.
+
+The first night was passed in a hut by the roadside, which seemed to
+be deserted,--a hut or rancho as it is called in that country.
+Their food they had, of course, brought with them; and here, by
+common consent, they endeavoured in some sort to make themselves
+merry.
+
+"Fanny," Arkwright said to her, "it is not so bad after all; eh, my
+darling?"
+
+"No," she answered; "only that the mule tires one so.  Will all the
+days be as long as that?"
+
+He had not the heart to tell her that as regarded hours of work,
+that first day must of necessity be the shortest.  They had risen to
+a considerable altitude, and the night was very cold; but baby was
+enveloped among a pile of coloured blankets, and things did not go
+very badly with them; only this, that when Fanny Arkwright rose from
+her hard bed, her limbs were more weary and much more stiff than
+they had been when Arkwright had lifted her from her mule.
+
+On the second morning they mounted before the day had quite broken,
+in order that they might breakfast on the summit of the ridge which
+separates the two oceans.  At this spot the good road comes to an
+end, and the forest track begins; and here also, they would, in
+truth, enter the forest, though their path had for some time been
+among straggling trees and bushes.  And now, again, they rode two
+and two, up to this place of halting, Arkwright and Ring well
+knowing that from hence their labours would in truth commence.
+
+Poor Mrs. Arkwright, when she reached this resting-place, would fain
+have remained there for the rest of the day.  One word, in her low,
+plaintive voice, she said, asking whether they might not sleep in
+the large shed which stands there.  But this was manifestly
+impossible.  At such a pace they would never reach Greytown; and she
+spoke no further word when he told her that they must go on.
+
+At about noon that day the file of travellers formed itself into the
+line which it afterwards kept during the whole of the journey, and
+then started by the narrow path into the forest.  First walked the
+leader of the guides, then another man following him; Abel Ring came
+next, and behind him the maid-servant; then the baby's mule, with
+the Indian ever at its head; close at his heels followed Mrs.
+Arkwright, so that the mother's eye might be always on her child;
+and after her her husband; then another guide on foot completed the
+number of the travellers.  In this way they went on and on, day
+after day, till they reached the banks of the Serapiqui, never once
+varying their places in the procession.  As they started in the
+morning, so they went on till their noon-day's rest, and so again
+they made their evening march.  In that journey there was no idea of
+variety, no searching after the pleasures of scenery, no attempts at
+conversation with any object of interest or amusement.  What words
+were spoken were those simply needful, or produced by sympathy for
+suffering.  So they journeyed, always in the same places, with one
+exception.  They began their work with two guides leading them, but
+before the first day was over one of them had fallen back to the
+side of Mrs. Arkwright, for she was unable to sit on her mule
+without support.
+
+Their daily work was divided into two stages, so as to give some
+hours for rest in the middle of the day.  It had been arranged that
+the distance for each day should not be long,--should be very short
+as was thought by them all when they talked it over at San Jose; but
+now the hours which they passed in the saddle seemed to be endless.
+Their descent began from that ridge of which I have spoken, and they
+had no sooner turned their faces down upon the mountain slopes
+looking towards the Atlantic, than that passage of mud began to
+which there was no cessation till they found themselves on the banks
+of the Serapiqui river.  I doubt whether it be possible to convey in
+words an adequate idea of the labour of riding over such a path.  It
+is not that any active exertion is necessary,--that there is
+anything which requires doing.  The traveller has before him the
+simple task of sitting on his mule from hour to hour, and of seeing
+that his knees do not get themselves jammed against the trees; but
+at every step the beast he rides has to drag his legs out from the
+deep clinging mud, and the body of the rider never knows one moment
+of ease.  Why the mules do not die on the road, I cannot say.  They
+live through it, and do not appear to suffer.  They have their own
+way in everything, for no exertion on the rider's part will make
+them walk either faster or slower than is their wont.
+
+On the day on which they entered the forest,--that being the second
+of their journey,--Mrs. Arkwright had asked for mercy, for
+permission to escape that second stage.  On the next she allowed
+herself to be lifted into her saddle after her mid-day rest without
+a word.  She had tried to sleep, but in vain; and had sat within a
+little hut, looking out upon the desolate scene before her, with her
+baby in her lap.  She had this one comfort, that of all the
+travellers, she, the baby, suffered the least.  They had now left
+the high grounds, and the heat was becoming great, though not as yet
+intense.  And then, the Indian guide, looking out slowly over the
+forest, saw that the rain was not yet over.  He spoke a word or two
+to one of his companions in a low voice and in a patois which Mrs.
+Arkwright did not understand, and then going after the husband, told
+him that the heavens were threatening.
+
+"We have only two leagues," said Arkwright, "and it may perhaps hold
+up."
+
+"It will begin in an hour," said the Indian, "and the two leagues
+are four hours."
+
+"And to-morrow," asked Arkwright.
+
+"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow it will still rain," said
+the guide, looking as he spoke up over the huge primeval forest.
+
+"Then we had better start at once," said Arkwright, "before the
+first falling drops frighten the women."  So the mules were brought
+out, and he lifted his uncomplaining wife on to the blankets which
+formed her pillion.  The file again formed itself, and slowly they
+wound their way out from the small enclosure by which the hut was
+surrounded;--out from the enclosure on to a rough scrap of undrained
+pasture ground from which the trees had been cleared.  In a few
+minutes they were once more struggling through the mud.
+
+The name of the spot which our travellers had just left is
+Carablanco.  There they found a woman living all alone.  Her husband
+was away, she told them, at San Jose, but would be back to her when
+the dry weather came, to look up the young cattle which were
+straying in the forest.  What a life for a woman!  Nevertheless, in
+talking with Mrs. Arkwright she made no complaint of her own lot,
+but had done what little she could to comfort the poor lady who was
+so little able to bear the fatigues of her journey.
+
+"Is the road very bad?" Mrs. Arkwright asked her in a whisper.
+
+"Ah, yes; it is a bad road."
+
+"And when shall we be at the river?"
+
+"It took me four days," said the woman.
+
+"Then I shall never see my mother again," and as she spoke Mrs.
+Arkwright pressed her baby to her bosom.  Immediately after that her
+husband came in, and they started.
+
+Their path now led away across the slope of a mountain which seemed
+to fall from the very top of that central ridge in an unbroken
+descent down to the valley at its foot.  Hitherto, since they had
+entered the forest, they had had nothing before their eyes but the
+trees and bushes which grew close around them.  But now a prospect
+of unrivalled grandeur was opened before them, if only had they been
+able to enjoy it.  At the bottom of the valley ran a river, which,
+so great was the depth, looked like a moving silver cord; and on the
+other side of this there arose another mountain, steep but unbroken
+like that which they were passing,--unbroken, so that the eye could
+stretch from the river up to the very summit.  Not a spot on that
+mountain side or on their side either was left uncovered by thick
+forest, which had stood there untouched by man since nature first
+produced it.
+
+But all this was nothing to our travellers, nor was the clang of the
+macaws anything, or the roaring of the little congo ape.  Nothing
+was gained by them from beautiful scenery, nor was there any fear
+from the beasts of prey.  The immediate pain of each step of the
+journey drove all other feelings from them, and their thoughts were
+bounded by an intense desire for the evening halt.
+
+And then, as the guide had prophesied, the rain began.  At first it
+came in such small soft drops that it was found to be refreshing,
+but the clouds soon gathered and poured forth their collected waters
+as though it had not rained for months among those mountains.  Not
+that it came in big drops, or with the violence which wind can give
+it, beating hither and thither, breaking branches from the trees,
+and rising up again as it pattered against the ground.  There was no
+violence in the rain.  It fell softly in a long, continuous,
+noiseless stream, sinking into everything that it touched,
+converting the deep rich earth on all sides into mud.
+
+Not a word was said by any of them as it came on.  The Indian
+covered the baby with her blanket, closer than she was covered
+before, and the guide who walked by Mrs. Arkwright's side drew her
+cloak around her knees.  But such efforts were in vain.  There is a
+rain that will penetrate everything, and such was the rain which
+fell upon them now.  Nevertheless, as I have said, hardly a word was
+spoken.  The poor woman, finding that the heat of her cloak
+increased her sufferings, threw it open again.
+
+"Fanny," said her husband, "you had better let him protect you as
+well as he can."
+
+She answered him merely by an impatient wave of her hand, intending
+to signify that she could not speak, but that in this matter she
+must have her way.
+
+After that her husband made no further attempt to control her.  He
+could see, however, that ever and again she would have slipped
+forward from her mule and fallen, had not the man by her side
+steadied her with his hand.  At every tree he protected her knees
+and feet, though there was hardly room for him to move between the
+beast and the bank against which he was thrust.
+
+And then, at last, that day's work was also over, and Fanny
+Arkwright slipped from her pillion down into her husband's arms at
+the door of another rancho in the forest.  Here there lived a large
+family adding from year to year to the patch of ground which they
+had rescued from the wood, and valiantly doing their part in the
+extension of civilisation.  Our party was but a few steps from the
+door when they left their mules, but Mrs. Arkwright did not now as
+heretofore hasten to receive her baby in her arms.  When placed upon
+the ground, she still leaned against the mule, and her husband saw
+that he must carry her into the hut.  This he did, and then, wet,
+mud-laden, dishevelled as she was, she laid herself down upon the
+planks that were to form her bed, and there stretched out her arms
+for her infant.  On that evening they undressed and tended her like
+a child; and then when she was alone with her husband, she repeated
+to him her sad foreboding.
+
+"Harry," she said, "I shall never see my mother again."
+
+"Oh, yes, Fanny, you will see her and talk over all these troubles
+with pleasure.  It is very bad, I know; but we shall live through it
+yet."
+
+"You will, of course; and you will take baby home to her."
+
+"And face her without you!  No, my darling.  Three more days'
+riding, or rather two and a half, will bring us to the river, and
+then your trouble will be over.  All will be easy after that."
+
+"Ah, Harry, you do not know."
+
+"I do know that it is very bad, my girl, but you must cheer up.  We
+shall be laughing at all this in a month's time."
+
+On the following morning she allowed herself to be lifted up,
+speaking no word of remonstrance.  Indeed she was like a child in
+their hands, having dropped all the dignity and authority of a
+woman's demeanour.  It rained again during the whole of this day,
+and the heat was becoming oppressive as every hour they were
+descending nearer and nearer to the sea level.  During this first
+stage hardly a word was spoken by any one; but when she was again
+taken from her mule she was in tears.  The poor servant-girl, too,
+was almost prostrate with fatigue, and absolutely unable to wait
+upon her mistress, or even to do anything for herself.  Nevertheless
+they did make the second stage, seeing that their mid-day resting
+place had been under the trees of the forest.  Had there been any
+hut there, they would have remained for the night.
+
+On the following day they rested altogether, though the place at
+which they remained had but few attractions.  It was another forest
+hut inhabited by an old Spanish couple who were by no means willing
+to give them room, although they paid for their accommodation at
+exorbitant rates.  It is one singularity of places strange and out
+of the way like such forest tracks as these, that money in small
+sums is hardly valued.  Dollars there were not appreciated as
+sixpences are in this rich country.  But there they stayed for a
+day, and the guides employed themselves in making a litter with long
+poles so that they might carry Mrs. Arkwright over a portion of the
+ground.  Poor fellows!  When once she had thus changed her mode of
+conveyance, she never again was lifted on to the mule.
+
+There was strong reason against this day's delay.  They were to go
+down the Serapiqui along with the post, which would overtake them on
+its banks.  But if the post should pass them before they got there,
+it could not wait; and then they would be deprived of the best canoe
+on the water.  Then also it was possible, if they encountered
+further delay, that the steamer might sail from Greytown without
+them, and a month's residence at that frightful place be thus made
+necessary.
+
+The day's rest apparently did little to relieve Mrs. Arkwright's
+sufferings.  On the following day she allowed herself to be put upon
+the mule, but after the first hour the beasts were stopped and she
+was taken off it.  During that hour they had travelled hardly over
+half a league.  At that time she so sobbed and moaned that Arkwright
+absolutely feared that she would perish in the forest, and he
+implored the guides to use the poles which they had prepared.  She
+had declared to him over and over again that she felt sure that she
+should die, and, half-delirious with weariness and suffering, had
+begged him to leave her at the last hut.  They had not yet come to
+the flat ground over which a litter might be carried with
+comparative ease; but nevertheless the men yielded, and she was
+placed in a recumbent position upon blankets, supported by boughs of
+trees.  In this way she went through that day with somewhat less of
+suffering than before, and without that necessity for self-exertion
+which had been worse to her than any suffering.
+
+There were places between that and the river at which one would have
+said that it was impossible that a litter should be carried, or even
+impossible that a mule should walk with a load on his back.  But
+still they went on, and the men carried their burden without
+complaining.  Not a word was said about money, or extra pay;--not a
+word, at least by them; and when Arkwright was profuse in his offer,
+their leader told him that they would not have done it for money.
+But for the poor suffering Senora they would make exertions which no
+money would have bought from them.
+
+On the next day about noon the post did pass them, consisting of
+three strong men carrying great weights on their backs, suspended by
+bands from their foreheads.  They travelled much quicker than our
+friends, and would reach the banks of the river that evening.  In
+their ordinary course they would start down the river close upon
+daybreak on the following day; but, after some consultation with the
+guides, they agreed to wait till noon.  Poor Mrs. Arkwright knew
+nothing of hours or of any such arrangements now, but her husband
+greatly doubted their power of catching this mail despatch.
+However, it did not much depend on their exertions that afternoon.
+Their resting-place was marked out for them, and they could not go
+beyond it, unless indeed they could make the whole journey, which
+was impossible.
+
+But towards evening matters seemed to improve with them.  They had
+now got on to ground which was more open, and the men who carried
+the litter could walk with greater ease.  Mrs. Arkwright also
+complained less, and when they reached their resting-place on that
+night, said nothing of a wish to be left there to her fate.  This
+was a place called Padregal, a cacao plantation, which had been
+cleared in the forest with much labour.  There was a house here
+containing three rooms, and some forty or fifty acres round it had
+been stripped of the forest trees.  But nevertheless the adventure
+had not been a prosperous one, for the place was at that time
+deserted.  There were the cacao plants, but there was no one to pick
+the cacao.  There was a certain melancholy beauty about the place.
+A few grand trees had been left standing near the house, and the
+grass around was rich and park-like.  But it was deserted, and
+nothing was heard but the roaring of the congos.  Ah me!  Indeed it
+was a melancholy place as it was seen by some of that party
+afterwards.
+
+On the following morning they were astir very early, and Mrs.
+Arkwright was so much better that she offered to sit again upon her
+mule.  The men, however, declared that they would finish their task,
+and she was placed again upon the litter.  And then with slow and
+weary step they did make their way to the river bank.  It was not
+yet noon when they saw the mud fort which stands there, and as they
+drew into the enclosure round a small house which stands close by
+the river side, they saw the three postmen still busy about their
+packages.
+
+"Thank God!" said Arkwright.
+
+"Thank God, indeed!" said his brother.  "All will be right with you
+now."
+
+"Well, Fanny," said her husband, as he took her very gently from the
+litter and seated her on a bench which stood outside the door.  "It
+is all over now,--is it not?"
+
+She answered him by a shower of tears, but they were tears which
+brought her relief.  He was aware of this, and therefore stood by
+her, still holding her by both her hands while her head rested
+against his side.  "You will find the motion of the boat very
+gentle," he said; "indeed there will be no motion, and you and baby
+will sleep all the way down to Greytown."  She did not answer him in
+words, but she looked up into his face, and he could see that her
+spirit was recovering itself.
+
+There was almost a crowd of people collected on the spot,
+preparatory to the departure of the canoes.  In the first place
+there was the commandant of the fort, to whom the small house
+belonged.  He was looking to the passports of our friends, and with
+due diligence endeavouring to make something of the occasion, by
+discovering fatal legal impediments to the further prosecution of
+their voyage, which impediments would disappear on the payment of
+certain dollars.  And then there were half a dozen Costa Rican
+soldiers, men with coloured caps and old muskets, ready to support
+the dignity and authority of the commandant.  There were the guides
+taking payment from Abel Ring for their past work, and the postmen
+preparing their boats for the further journey.  And then there was a
+certain German there, with a German servant, to whom the boats
+belonged.  He also was very busy preparing for the river voyage.  He
+was not going down with them, but it was his business to see them
+well started.  A singular looking man was he, with a huge shaggy
+beard, and shaggy uncombed hair, but with bright blue eyes, which
+gave to his face a remarkable look of sweetness.  He was an uncouth
+man to the eye, and yet a child would have trusted herself with him
+in a forest.
+
+At this place they remained some two hours.  Coffee was prepared
+here, and Mrs. Arkwright refreshed herself and her child.  They
+washed and arranged their clothes, and when she stepped down the
+steep bank, clinging to her husband's arm as she made her way
+towards the boat, she smiled upon him as he looked at her.
+
+"It is all over now,--is it not, my girl?"--he said, encouraging
+her.
+
+"Oh, Harry, do not talk about it," she answered, shuddering.
+
+"But I want you to say a word to me to let me know that you are
+better."
+
+"I am better,--much better."
+
+"And you will see your mother again; will you not; and give baby to
+her yourself?"
+
+To this she made no immediate answer, for she was on a level with
+the river, and the canoe was close at her feet.  And then she had to
+bid farewell to her brother.  He was now the unfortunate one of the
+party, for his destiny required that he should go back to San Jose
+alone,--go back and remain there perhaps some ten years longer
+before he might look for the happiness of home.
+
+"God bless you, dearest Abel," she said, kissing him and sobbing as
+she spoke.
+
+"Good-bye, Fanny," he said, "and do not let them forget me in
+England.  It is a great comfort to think that the worst of your
+troubles are over."
+
+"Oh,--she's all right now," said Arkwright.  "Good-bye, old boy,"--
+and the two brothers-in-law grasped each other's hands heartily.
+"Keep up your spirits, and we'll have you home before long."
+
+"Oh, I'm all right," said the other.  But from the tone of the
+voices, it was clear that poor Ring was despondent at the thoughts
+of his coming solitude, and that Arkwright was already triumphing in
+his emancipation.
+
+And then, with much care, Fanny Arkwright was stowed away in the
+boat.  There was a great contest about the baby, but at last it was
+arranged, that at any rate for the first few hours she should be
+placed in the boat with the servant.  The mother was told that by
+this plan she would feel herself at liberty to sleep during the heat
+of the day, and then she might hope to have strength to look to the
+child when they should be on shore during the night.  In this way
+therefore they prepared to start, while Abel Ring stood on the bank
+looking at them with wishful eyes.  In the first boat were two
+Indians paddling, and a third man steering with another paddle.  In
+the middle there was much luggage, and near the luggage so as to be
+under shade, was the baby's soft bed.  If nothing evil happened to
+the boat, the child could not be more safe in the best cradle that
+was ever rocked.  With her was the maid-servant and some stranger
+who was also going down to Greytown.
+
+In the second boat were the same number of men to paddle, the Indian
+guide being one of them, and there were the mails placed.  Then
+there was a seat arranged with blankets, cloaks, and cushions, for
+Mrs. Arkwright, so that she might lean back and sleep without
+fatigue, and immediately opposite to her her husband placed himself.
+"You all look very comfortable," said poor Abel from the bank.
+
+"We shall do very well now," said Arkwright.
+
+"And I do think I shall see mamma again," said his wife.
+
+"That's right, old girl;--of course you will see her.  Now then,--we
+are all ready."  And with some little assistance from the German on
+the bank, the first boat was pushed off into the stream.
+
+The river in this place is rapid, because the full course of the
+water is somewhat impeded by a bank of earth jutting out from the
+opposite side of the river into the stream; but it is not so rapid
+as to make any recognised danger in the embarkation.  Below this
+bank, which is opposite to the spot at which the boats were entered,
+there were four or five broken trees in the water, some of the
+shattered boughs of which showed themselves above the surface.
+These are called snags, and are very dangerous if they are met with
+in the course of the stream; but in this instance no danger was
+apprehended from them, as they lay considerably to the left of the
+passage which the boats would take.  The first canoe was pushed off
+by the German, and went rapidly away.  The waters were strong with
+rain, and it was pretty to see with what velocity the boat was
+carried on some hundred of yards in advance of the other by the
+force of the first effort of the paddle.  The German, however, from
+the bank holloaed to the first men in Spanish, bidding them relax
+their efforts for awhile; and then he said a word or two of caution
+to those who were now on the point of starting.
+
+The boat then was pushed steadily forward, the man at the stern
+keeping it with his paddle a little farther away from the bank at
+which they had embarked.  It was close under the land that the
+stream ran the fastest, and in obedience to the directions given to
+him he made his course somewhat nearer to the sunken trees.  It was
+but one turn of his hand that gave the light boat its direction, but
+that turn of the hand was too strong.  Had the anxious master of the
+canoes been but a thought less anxious, all might have been well;
+but, as it was, the prow of the boat was caught by some slight
+hidden branch which impeded its course and turned it round in the
+rapid river.  The whole lengths of the canoe was thus brought
+against the sunken tree, and in half a minute the five occupants of
+the boat were struggling in the stream.
+
+Abel Ring and the German were both standing on the bank close to the
+water when this happened, and each for a moment looked into the
+other's face.  "Stand where you are," shouted the German, "so that
+you may assist them from the shore.  I will go in."  And then,
+throwing from him his boots and coat, he plunged into the river.
+
+The canoe had been swept round so as to be brought by the force of
+the waters absolutely in among the upturned roots and broken stumps
+of the trees which impeded the river, and thus, when the party was
+upset, they were at first to be seen scrambling among the branches.
+But unfortunately there was much more wood below the water than
+above it, and the force of the stream was so great, that those who
+caught hold of the timber were not able to support themselves by it
+above the surface.  Arkwright was soon to be seen some forty yards
+down, having been carried clear of the trees, and here he got out of
+the river on the farther bank.  The distance to him was not above
+forty yards, but from the nature of the ground he could not get up
+towards his wife, unless he could have forced his way against the
+stream.
+
+The Indian who had had charge of the baby rose quickly to the
+surface, was carried once round in the eddy, with his head high
+above the water, and then was seen to throw himself among the broken
+wood.  He had seen the dress of the poor woman, and made his effort
+to save her.  The other two men were so caught by the fragments of
+the boughs, that they could not extricate themselves so as to make
+any exertions; ultimately, however, they also got out on the further
+bank.
+
+Mrs. Arkwright had sunk at once on being precipitated into the
+water, but the buoyancy of her clothes had brought her for a moment
+again to the surface.  She had risen for a moment, and then had
+again gone down, immediately below the forked trunk of a huge tree;-
+-had gone down, alas, alas! never to rise again with life within her
+bosom.  The poor Indian made two attempts to save her, and then came
+up himself, incapable of further effort.
+
+It was then that the German, the owner of the canoes, who had fought
+his way with great efforts across the violence of the waters, and
+indeed up against the stream for some few yards, made his effort to
+save the life of that poor frail creature.  He had watched the spot
+at which she had gone down, and even while struggling across the
+river, had seen how the Indian had followed her and had failed.  It
+was now his turn.  His life was in his hand, and he was prepared to
+throw it away in that attempt.  Having succeeded in placing himself
+a little above the large tree, he turned his face towards the bottom
+of the river, and dived down among the branches.  And he also, after
+that, was never again seen with the life-blood flowing round his
+heart.
+
+When the sun set that night, the two swollen corpses were lying in
+the Commandant's hut, and Abel Ring and Arkwright were sitting
+beside them.  Arkwright had his baby sleeping in his arms, but he
+sat there for hours,--into the middle of the long night,--without
+speaking a word to any one.
+
+"Harry," said his brother at last, "come away and lay down.  It will
+be good for you to sleep."
+
+"Nothing ever will be good again for me," said he.
+
+"You must bear up against your sorrow as other men do," said Ring.
+
+"Why am I not sleeping with her as the poor German sleeps?  Why did
+I let another man take my place in dying for her?"  And then he
+walked away that the other might not see the tears on his face.
+
+It was a sad night,--that at the Commandant's hut, and a sad morning
+followed upon it.  It must be remembered that they had there none of
+those appurtenances which are so necessary to make woe decent and
+misfortune comfortable.  They sat through the night in the small
+hut, and in the morning they came forth with their clothes still wet
+and dirty, with their haggard faces, and weary stiff limbs,
+encumbered with the horrid task of burying that loved body among the
+forest trees.  And then, to keep life in them till it was done, the
+brandy flask passed from hand to hand; and after that, with slow but
+resolute efforts, they reformed the litter on which the living woman
+had been carried thither, and took her body back to the wild
+plantation at Padregal.  There they dug for her her grave, and
+repeating over her some portion of the service for the dead, left
+her to sleep the sleep of death.  But before they left her, they
+erected a pallisade of timber round the grave, so that the beasts of
+the forest should not tear the body from its resting-place.
+
+When that was done Arkwright and his brother made their slow journey
+back to San Jose.  The widowed husband could not face his darling's
+mother with such a tale upon his tongue as that.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Returning Home, by Anthony Trollope
+
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