Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/169

 LETTER VIII.

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New Year to all the beloved ones at home!

Thanks, my dearest little Agatha, for your letter! It was a heart-felt joy and refreshment to me; for although there was here and there a joyless shadow in it, yet a cheerful spirit breathed through the letter, which told me that you were sound both soul and body. And how amusing it was to see you go out to dine with the relations right and left! And all the little news of home; of the new servant, for instance, who stands so assiduously so rivetted to the back of your chair, and then darts in the way before you, out of sheer respect and zeal to open the doors; ah, how amusing is all this to read about, and how amusing it seems at several thousand miles distance! And that mamma should be looking so well, and Charlotte so much better—and Hagbert be so pleased amid his activity in the country—is very inspiriting.

I now again write to you in the house of Benzon, sitting in a handsome little parlour, furnished with green velvet, and with beautiful pictures and engravings on the walls; and I cannot tell you how glad I am to be here at rest for a time, a month at least, because I require repose both for soul and body, and I cannot possibly have more quiet, freedom, and comfort than I have here. I have not been so well for some time, for all that moving about and that life of visiting, with its incessant demands both on soul and body, were too much for me; and all the time I was losing sleep and freshness of mind. But thank God, both one and the other promises to return with giant strides after a few days rest, and the benefit of a sort of Chinese decoction, given me by my little lady-physician, and—“Hakon Jarl is still alive!” But people