Virginia: The Old Dominion

e most part, sleeping soundly, though here and there a flickering light told of some awakening home. Down close by the landing was one lit

ifted slowly away from its neighbours, out into the darkness and the river. Its occupants seemed unconscious of danger. There was one of them standing on the porch

tskirts of old Norfolk, and went spluttering down the Elizabeth to find

see the magazine article that led to it all), her mother, and her husband. The head of the family, true to the spirit of the age, h

aled to every overwrought nerve. There was a charming bit of water with trees hanging over; a sky all soft and blue (you knew it was soft and blue just as you knew that the air was soft and cool; just

bbers though we were, its water-gypsy charm yet sank deep. We thirsted for more.

nutterable fell upon the worn and weary soul as it drifted lazily on, far from the noise and the toil and the reek of the world! All times were calm; all

see that then. We did not know that most of the literature of houseboa

hen our friends came to hear of it. Their marked disapproval made our new departure seem almo

ather. The daughter-wife, after immuring herself for half a day with nautical dictionaries and chocolate creams, could not tell whether she was Rudderina or Maratima; she finally concluded that she was Nautica. It req

found. All the time, three lead pencils were kept busy, and plans and specifications became as autumn leaves. We soon learned that there was little room for the artistic. Once Nautica had a charming cre

and hang Chinese lanterns on," he said. "But it would never do for a bo

r passing through a wrecking and some rebuilding, we called Gadabout. She was about fifty feet long and twelve feet wide over all, as the watermen say; and was propelled by twin screws, driven by two small gasoline engines. Though not a thing of beauty, yet, as she

t. There were two cabins, one at either end of the craft. Between these, and at one side of the passageway c

erything else. At customary intervals, one compartment or the other would become a dining-cabin. Again, innocent lo

es or rafters. The walls had, along the top, a row of niches for books; and along the bottom, a deceptive sort of wainscoting, each panel of which was a

dy would see that they could not all be there. Perhaps it would be well to mention merely the gasoline stove, the refrigerator, the pump and sink, the w

ggested the conundrum, When is a galley not a galley? For when it was down, it disclosed nothing and the galley was a galley; b

e engines at the same time was scarcely practicable; and we were often forced to

, Henry, had doubtless never heard "The Yarn of the 'Nancy Bell'" and had never eaten a shipmate in his life, yet he had a whole crew within himself as truly as the "elderly nava

eople aboard a houseboat must at best be living in close quarters. But, upon even the moderate priced craft, much of the comfort, privacy, and refinement of hom

casting on that point. But that was for another reason. The boat was of extremely light draft. While such a feature enables the houseboater to navigate very shallow waters (where

up on, and which end first, and with how much of a bump. But all such troubles soon disappeared; and, as there seemed no ch

charts, anchor-lights, lanterns and side-lights, compasses, barometers and megaphones, fenders, grapnels and boathooks