When the tide did serve, and we were landed, which happened about six o'clock Sunday morning, we went through the Custom House, our countenances expressing such Christian resignation as must have indicated our character to the officials, for they never opened our baggage at all. They simply said: "Avez vous tabac ou liquers?" (observe how well we are getting on in French), and as we murmured "No," aloud, and to ourselves, "but we wish we had," they waved us on, and we were all right. [Illustration: HAVE YOU TOBACCO OR SPIRITS?] Adjoining the Custom House is a coffee room, and we entered. The repast spread out for us was just a trifle the worst that was ever seen. It was worse than anything in London, and more than that cannot be said. I suppose it is all right, and for the best. I suppose that taking us out of London at six o'clock P.M., and waiting two and a half hours in New Haven for the tide, and two hours in Dieppe harbor also, for the tide, is unavoidable. But if I ever get a chance I shall ask the manager of the line these questions: 1. Do you know the hour at which the tide comes in at New Haven? 2. Do you know the hour the tide serves to enter Dieppe? 3. If so, why not give us the five and a half hours that were consumed in useless waiting at New Haven and Dieppe, in London? 4. Has your company any interest in the ham sandwich and beer counter in New Haven? and is this delay in that most uninteresting place for the purpose of compelling the waiting passengers to leave a few more shillings in England? And I shall demand specific answers to these queries. The taste of the New Haven sandwiches is yet in my mouth. Dieppe is a pleasant little city of perhaps twenty thousand population, devoted to the carving of ivory, fishing, and swindling tourists, the latter pursuit being evidently the most prosperous. The fisher people are a picturesque lot as to costume, and are hardy withal, men, women and children. They are bold sailors, and what they do not know about water and its contents is not worth knowing. Bad as the English trains are, in France, where there is the same system, it was even worse, for we were a little shaky in our French. However, we put on a cheerful countenance, and said "_Oui_" to everything, and made believe we knew all about it, and let the guard put us where he pleased, and were soon humming along through the outskirts of Dieppe. We were just beginning to enjoy the prospect of rural scenery, when, without a note of warning, we plunged into a tunnel, which seemed to last forever, though it was only a mile long. Emerging from this, it was seen that an immense mountain had been pierced, and we were at once in the fertile valleys of picturesque Normandy. As the train hurried along there was a constant succession of pictures that would drive a poet or painter into raptures. [Sidenote: NORMANDY.]