"Then the merit-roll will be read and the elections take place to-morrow, on the first day of the month," continued the principal. "We will now go up to Åbo."
The students applauded, and left the steerage. The boatswains piped all hands into the boats, and in half an hour the squadron of barges and cutters were pulling in single file up the narrow river.
CHAPTER IV.
TWO HOURS A IN ÅBO, AND THE BANGWHANGERS.
In the captain's gig was Dr. Winstock, with whom Captain Lincoln always delighted to walk or ride on shore, and whom he always invited to take a seat in the stern-sheets of his boat. The doctor had inherited a considerable fortune, which placed him above the necessity of practising in his profession, and he had travelled all over Europe. He had not been an idle wanderer abroad, going from place to place in search of mere amusement; but he had been a diligent inquirer into the system of government, the history, the agricultural and manufacturing interest, and the manners and customs of the countries he visited. He was, therefore, as he was often called, a walking encyclopædia of information; and for this reason Lincoln sought his company.
"Of course you have been in Finland before, Dr. Winstock," said Lincoln, as soon as the gig took her place in the line.
"I have," replied the surgeon. "Several years ago I went from Copenhagen to Christiania, rode across the country in a cariole to Bergen, and from there made the trip by steamer to the North Cape, where I saw the sun at midnight. I came by steamer along the coast to Frederiksværn, and from there to Gottenburg, and through Sweden. At Stockholm I embarked in the steamer Aura, which starts at two o'clock in the morning now, as she did then."
"I went on board of a steamer of the same line in Stockholm—I forget her name."