EMERGENCIES AND POLICEMEN--FENCHURCH STREET STATION--THIRD CLASS TO
CUSTOM HOUSE--A SHIP FOREST.
Policemen are very useful people. I do not know how we should have got
from the London Bridge Pier to the Fenchurch Street Station if it had
not been that Fred told me he knew one could ask policemen the way to
places. There is nothing to pay, which I was very glad of, as the
canvas bag was getting empty.
Once or twice they helped us through emergencies. We had to go from
one footpath to another, straight across the street, and the street
was so full of carts and cabs and drays and omnibuses, that one could
see that it was quite an impossibility. We did it, however, for the
policeman made us. I said, "Hadn't we better wait till the crowd has
gone?" But the policeman laughed, and said then we had better take
lodgings close by and wait at the window. So we did it. Fred said the
captain once ran in a little cutter between two big ships that were
firing into him, but I do not think that can have been much worse than
running between a backing dray, full of rolling barrels, and a hansom
cab pulled up and ramping like a rocking-horse at the lowest point of
the rockers.
When we were safely on the other pavement we thanked the policeman
very much, and then went on, asking our way till we got to Fenchurch
Street.
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