“Or rather we are a great deal better off! At Bermuda, where my regiment stopped on the way to America, the inhabitants are so tormented with high winds, that they build ‘hurricane houses’—low, flat rooms, where the families must retire when a storm comes on, as trees, houses, people, and cattle, are all whirled about with such violence, that not a life is safe on the island while it lasts.”

“That reminds me,” said Lady Harriet, “of a droll mistake made yesterday by the African camel, when he landed at Leith. His keepers were leading him along the high road to be made a show of in Edinburgh, at a time when the wind was particularly high; and the poor animal encountering such clouds of dust, thought this must be a simoon of the desert, and threw himself flat down, burying his nose in the ground, according to custom on those occasions. It was with great difficulty that he could at last be induced to face the danger, and proceed.”

“Quite a compliment to our dust,” observed Laura. “But really in such a hot day, the kangaroos and tigers [94] ]might feel perfectly at home here. Oh! how I should like to visit the Geological Gardens in London!”

“Then suppose we set off immediately!” said Major Graham, pretending to rise from his chair. “Your grandmama’s donkey-carriage holds two.”

“Ah! but you could carry the donkey-carriage more easily than it could carry you!”

“Shall I try? Well, if we go, who is to pay the turnpikes, for I remember the time, not a hundred years ago, when Harry and you both thought that paying the gates was the only expense of travelling. You asked me then how poor grandmama could afford so many shillings and sixpences.”

“We know all about every thing now though!” said Harry, nodding in a very sagacious manner. “I can tell exactly how much time it takes going by the public coach to London, and it sleeps only one night on the road.”

“Sleeps!” cried uncle David. “What! it puts on a night-cap, and goes to bed?”

“Yes! and it dines and breakfasts too, Mr. uncle David, for I heard Mrs. Crabtree say so.”

“Never name anybody, unless you wish to see her immediately,” said Major Graham, hearing a well-known tap at the door. “As sure as you mention an absent person, if he is supposed to be fifty miles off at the time, it is rather odd, but he instantly appears!”