R E Vernede

The Fair Dominion R E Vernede

Canada and its wonders might lie before us, yet it was not all joy there at the Liverpool docks, where we waited our opportunity to go on board S. S. Empress of Britain. For one thing, the sun on that August day of last year was so unusually warm that standing about with a bag amongst crowds of people who were seeing other people off was hard work; for another, I had left behind me in my Hertfordshire home my bull-mastiff, forlorn ever since I had begun packing, and not a bit deceived by the bone she had been supplied with at parting. Even while she had gnawed it, she had whined. All those other people already on the great ship, the people in the bows-the emigrants-were leaving more even than a bull-mastiff: friends-for who knew how long?-their parents in England perhaps for ever. Here were thoughts to obscure the pleasure of those who were making for a new world, thoughts to sadden those who, whether by their own choice or not, were staying behind.