The selection was a rare one, and was mentioned by Master Lewis as being exceptionally creditable. George Howe and Leander Towle presented acceptable exercises on "Norman Industries" and "Peasant Customs." The last topic seemed to excite Tommy Toby to try to throw some farther light on this romantic and interesting country. "Would you like to know what lovely-looking creatures these Norman peasant girls are, and how they look?" said he. "Well, they look [going to the blackboard and drawing with a crayon a moment] just like those." [Illustration: {NORMAN PEASANT GIRLS.}] "I am very gratified," said Master Lewis, "at the amount of historic study our proposed tour has already stimulated. One must read and study _to see_. Dr. Johnson used the comparison that 'some people would see more in a single ride in a Hempstead stage-coach than others would in a tour round the world.' Thoreau said,-- 'If with fancy unfurled You leave your abode, You may go round the world By the old Marlboro' road.' "You might have added many charming stories to those already told. In Calais, the last town of the Gallic dominions of the Plantagenets, we shall visit the scene of the siege of Edward III. and of the immortal Five who offered their lives as a ransom for their city, and whom good Queen Philippa spared. At Falaise, we may see the ruin of the castle from whose window Duke Robert, the father of the Conqueror, first saw Arletta, the tanner's daughter, and was enchanted with her beauty. At Rouen, we shall stand in the square where the Maid of Orleans was burned, and, in all places, in contrast with the dark romances of the past, will appear sunny hills, bowery valleys, and picturesque streams. "I think it was Victor Hugo who said that 'Europe was the finest nation on the earth, France the finest country, and Normandy the finest part of France.' I do not ask you to accept his opinion, but Normandy is very beautiful." Meetings of the Club were held every two weeks. The boys tried to learn the secret which Tommy had been instructed to select. But he claimed that he had been instructed also to keep it. "It would not be creditable to the Club to tell it now," he said. CHAPTER IV. ON THE ATLANTIC. The Steerage.--Pilot Boats.--Tommy meets Rough Weather.--His Letter and Postscript.--Queer Passengers.--Games and Story-telling.--Story of Joan of Arc.--Signalling at Sea.--Land! An ocean steamer! Though a speck upon the waters, what a world it seems! What symmetry, what strength, what a triumph of human skill! What a cheerful sense of security one feels as one looks upon the oak and the iron, and hears the wind whistle through the motionless forest of cordage! There society in all its grades is seen, and human nature in all its phases.