Page:An emigrant's home letters.djvu/54

 a good night's rest since I have been up here. What sleep I do get seems to oppress me more than refresh me, and is very broken* Being pent in a frowsy London garret, with no one to speak to, not even a dog, and breathing the same impure air from week's end to week's end, has made Clarinda very poorly, and half unhappy. Nevertheless, tell my father and mother and all who enquire after us that we are well and happy, as I believe we both shall be when we leave this irksome place.

I shall not write more than one other letter to you before we go, and that on the last day before we join the ship, because of the expense, so I shall endeavour to say all I have to say in this. I have strong hopes of getting a good situation as soon as I arrive at Sydney, as all who have hitherto gone out in Mr. Marshall's ships have been engaged within a week of the time of landing, and if I get a situation at £50 or £60 per year and provisions and a house to live in, I shall be able to send some money home in a year and a half from the present time, and enough soon to pay all I owe at Birmingham. And that will be a happy time with me. I shall write to you by the first homeward bound vessel we meet after we have been out eight or ten