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 not remind you again of it, all letters (whenever we go) should have time to reach, us two or three days before the ship goes, as we must be on board at least a day before she sails from Gravesend, which is about twenty-six miles from London.

I hope none of you are unhappy at the thought of my leaving you, or will think much about me when I am gone. However I may fare on the opposite side of the globe, I do not think it can much more darken my prospects of the future. It is hard for me to think that I have seen my dear father and mother, in all probability, for the last time, but the thought is brightened by the humiliating recollection that I have been more a burden than a help to them, and the hope that if we never meet again in this world of change, we shall in a happier and changeless one. Give my best love to them, and tell my brothers to love them, and be more dutiful to them than I have been, and give my love to my sisters, Maria and Eliza. I wish you all a very happy Christmas, though I shall not be with you on that day. I shall think of you all a thousand times in the solitude of our little room in the heart of London, and I hope to spend many a Christmas day with you, my brothers