little out of temper, perhaps, and showing it; and the cranes squeaking and groaning with the weight of the unwieldy casks as they are lifted over the hold of the ship which is to bring them away! There is a good deal of trouble in a West Indian port.

Where was she built? she come from? I see your mind, and I will She is a large, good

"But what about the ship? What size is she? Where does that all these questions are in answer them from last to first. sized ship. She was built, and came from London, and I am afraid you would never have put that nice lump into your tea without her. St. Lucia, as I told you, is a long distance from us here, and that ship has brought over every pound of sugar that Harriet bought at the shop. You can have no true idea how great she is. Let me see, how can I give you one in the fewest words? Perhaps this will do. She consumed the wood of some hundreds of trees, and took more than building.

a year in Now, fancy what labor it was to cut down these trees in the forest, and haul and prepare them for the ship's carpenters in the dockyard. And then try and think of the men, by dozens, cutting, shaping, chopping, planing, fitting, month after month, as the ship slowly rises from her keel and grows into form. And when all this is done, she is at best only the hull or shell of a ship. The mast-maker has to come and measure, and set up his masts; and the sail-maker, and the rope-maker, and workers in paint, and pitch, and tar, and coopers, and

caulkers with tow, and I know not how many more, before the ship even looks like one, much less ready to be launched on the waters.

"The iron, too, that is used in her is very great, and comes out in all manner of shapes,-anchors, chains, bolts, clamps, bands; and is forged into these various uses by much labor and many men. The ore has perhaps been drawn at immense cost from Welsh mines, and smelted first into rough bars of iron before it has come into the ship's foundry. All below the water-mark is sheathed, or covered with broad plates of copper. That perhaps came from different mines in Cornwall.

the trouble.

But all adds to

"As soon as the ship is on the water, other trades are called into play. The furniture-maker comes with his goods, many of them drawn from a great distance. His crockery is probably from Staffordshire, his blankets from Oxfordshire, his tallow from Russia, and his lampoil from whales near the North Pole.

"Then there are the provision merchants, and spirit merchants, and a whole tribe of men, to give food, comfort, and good living; and when all is ready, the captain, officers, and crew come on board, and she is prepared to sail over the deep.

"But here she is at last, in harbour at St. Lucia; and the blacks have finished their working song; the last hogshead is shipped; after weeks of labor, things are put straight; the crew has been got together, and she slowly sails forth into the broad Atlantic.

"Now you begin to think you will soon get your sugar. She has a three weeks' sail or so to London, you say, and then there is no more trouble.

Do you

“I fear you must not go on quite so fast. remember, when we were at Walmer last autumn, hearing of the Goodwin Sands, and seeing the Deal boatmen ? They are a fine set of fellows, brave and skilful to an extraordinary degree. Well, among them is a body of men called 'pilots,' whose duty it is to steer vessels through this dangerous sea, and who alone are allowed to do so. They get their living by this, and we cannot well get our sugar without them. More trouble! They have come out in boats, and sailed about perhaps for a week or ten days, to get employment on some returning ship. They have taken ours under their care, and carried it in safety into the smooth water of the Thames; and no doubt it has sailed smartly with the tide up to London.

"All is now joy, bustle, and gladness. The owner of the ship is glad that it has returned safe; the captain is glad, for he will be trusted again; the sailors are glad, for they will go ashore and see their wives and friends; and the wives and friends have just the same feelings towards the sailors."

"Now then, papa, we shall have the sugar."

"Where from? the ship? You would not keep her out in the middle of the river, I hope. She has a nice comfortable home prepared for her in the docks."

"The docks ?"

"Yes, there is a long succession of East and West India Docks, London, Victoria, and St. Katharine's. They are all magnificent basins, opening out of the river, surrounded with vast buildings and warehouses, and cased or lined, at enormous labor, with timber and granite. Thousands of persons were employed in forming them, and thousands now work and gain their living in them. And your sugar will be entrusted to the owners of them, and be carefully stored in one of these buildings. So that here is all the trouble of unlading with crane and capstan which we had just now at St. Lucia, and carting, and stowing away, and marking, and writing down into books, until it is fairly locked up or bonded in these stores.

Indeed, I do not see that it is a bit more in Harriet's power to make her jam with, than when it was put into hogsheads by the black hands of the negroes. For now we have quite a new class of persons to deal with; and we cannot possibly get at it until they have all had their turn, and added to all the trouble which we have just gone through."

"Who are they, papa ?"

"First the merchants. All the sugar in the ship has been sent-consigned, as it is called-to one of this class. Many letters have already passed between him and the planter about it, carried over by other ships; and I dare say he has sent over a good sum of money to lessen the great expense of making it; and now he has to sell it for him, and send him the rest of the money. So there is

all

your sugar in the docks until the merchant sees that he can sell it at a good price. Perhaps all sugar is cheap; and then he will not sell it till it becomes dear; and so it may remain there for weeks, and even months, and he is going here and there, and looking out day after day for the best time to remove it and bring it to market.

"But though he has it to sell, he cannot do so himself. No, there is still more trouble. The merchant has an office, and a number of clerks, who are writing and running about all day; and when he wants to sell it he must employ a man called a broker, who has also his office and clerks, who very likely write and run about just as much. So the merchant gets small parcels of sugar out of the hogsheads, called samples, and sends them to the broker, and he sets them out on little boards in his office; and any one that wishes to buy sugar sees from these what kind it is, whether good or not. Then the broker sends these to a sale room, and has an auction, and all the people who choose come and bid for it; and if the merchant likes, it is sold to him who will give the most for it.

"Well, it is sold at last, and a good thing too. But let us just look in and ask who has bought it. Oh, I see-Mr. Smith, the great sugar refiner."

Yes, to be sure. It is only brown sugar as yet. It has to be refined, and made white, and formed into loaves, before Harriet would use it for her jam. And there are his large horses and heavy wagons drawing it out of the docks, and taking it to his refining house at Shadwell.