Then
it was that I began to understand how tired I really was. These
long sleeps I kept up for a month after we landed on the other
side. It was such an unusual feeling to wake up in the morning
and realize that I had no engagements; did not have to take a
train at a certain hour; did not have an appointment to meet some
one, or to make an address, at a certain hour. How different all
this was from the experiences that I have been through when
travelling, when I have sometimes slept in three different beds
in a single night!
When Sunday came, the captain invited me to conduct the religious
services, but, not being a minister, I declined. The passengers,
however, began making requests that I deliver an address to them
in the dining-saloon some time during the voyage, and this I
consented to do. Senator Sewell presided at this meeting. After
ten days of delightful weather, during which I was not seasick
for a day, we landed at the interesting old city of Antwerp, in
Belgium.
The next day after we landed happened to be one of those
numberless holidays which the people of those countries are in
the habit of observing. It was a bright, beautiful day. Our room
in the hotel faced the main public square, and the sights
there--the people coming in from the country with all kinds of
beautiful flowers to sell, the women coming in with their dogs
drawing large, brightly polished cans filled with milk, the
people streaming into the cathedral--filled me with a sense of
newness that I had never before experienced.
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