CHAPTER I.For months the great pleasure excursion to Europe and the Holy Land waschatted about in the newspapers everywhere in America and discussed atcountless firesides. It was a novelty in the way of excursions--its likehad not been thought of before, and it compelled that interest whichattractive novelties always command. It was to be a picnic on a giganticscale. The participants in it, instead of freighting an ungainly steamferry--boat with youth and beauty and pies and doughnuts, and paddling upsome obscure creek to disembark upon a grassy lawn and wear themselvesout with a long summer day's laborious frolicking under the impressionthat it was fun, were to sail away in a great steamship with flags flyingand cannon pealing, and take a royal holiday beyond the broad ocean inmany a strange clime and in many a land renowned in history! They were tosail for months over the breezy Atlantic and the sunny Mediterranean;they were to scamper about the decks by day, filling the ship with shoutsand laughter--or read novels and poetry in the shade of the smokestacks, or watch for the jelly-fish and the nautilus over the side, and theshark, the whale, and other strange monsters of the deep; and at nightthey were to dance in the open air, on the upper deck, in the midst of aballroom that stretched from horizon to horizon, and was domed by thebending heavens and lighted by no meaner lamps than the stars and themagnificent moon--dance, and promenade, and smoke, and sing, and makelove, and search the skies for constellations that never associate withthe "Big Dipper" they were so tired of; and they were to see the ships oftwenty navies--the customs and costumes of twenty curious peoples--thegreat cities of half a world--they were to hob-nob with nobility and holdfriendly converse with kings and princes, grand moguls, and the anointedlords of mighty empires! It was a brave conception; it was the offspringof a most ingenious brain. It was well advertised, but it hardly neededit: the bold originality, the extraordinary character, the seductivenature, and the vastness of the enterprise provoked comment everywhereand advertised it in every household in the land. Who could read theprogram of the excursion without longing to make one of the party? I willinsert it here. It is almost as good as a map. As a text for this book, nothing could be better: EXCURSION TO THE HOLY LAND, EGYPT, THE CRIMEA, GREECE, AND INTERMEDIATE POINTS OF INTEREST. BROOKLYN, February 1st, 1867 The undersigned will make an excursion as above during the coming season, and begs to submit to you the following programme: A first-class steamer, to be under his own command, and capable of accommodating at least one hundred and fifty cabin passengers, will be selected, in which will be taken a select company, numbering not more than three-fourths of the ship's capacity. There is good reason to believe that this company can be easily made up in this immediate vicinity, of mutual friends and acquaintances. The steamer will be provided with every necessary comfort, including library and musical instruments. An experienced physician will be on board.