"Home, sweet home!"—Author, chap. i.
Yes, it was all a dream! And so one must descend forthwith from grand castles in the air to the humble cottages of reality. I was most decidedly out of humour, for the time, with this sudden change from the sublimely great, to what was, by comparison at least, the ridiculously small; nor were things made any better to my wounded ideal, when White himself bobbed his rough old head between the curtains of my little berth, to say that this was the second arousing he had already given me to make haste, there being now no time to lose in securing a promising spot opening that presented itself for passing outside the photosphere. I rose of course, but I was in more or less of a growling, disappointed mood during all my morning's toilet.
But passing presently into the main cabin, my thoughts began at last to be agreeably diverted, for almost the first object to greet my eyes was my bundle of letters on the table, by mail, just in from
