Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/337

 and games, dancing and music, all merry and gay. After this we walked in the piazza in the warm moonlight-air till midnight. On the country side was heard the song of the negroes as they rowed their boats up the river on their return from the city, whither they had taken their small wares—eggs, fowls, and vegetables, for sale, as they do two or three times a week.

When this letter reaches you, you also will have summer and flowers, my sweet Agatha, and God be praised for it.

To-morrow I set off for Savannah, and thence to Maçon, the capital of Georgia, then to Montpellier, where I am invited by Elliott, the distinguished bishop of the Episcopal church in the Southern States, to be present at the annual examination of a ladies seminary which is under his care.

From that place I shall write more. 

 LETTER XIV. &emsp; , I did not go to Savannah the day I thought of, but went—on an excursion, to which I invite you to accompany me, but without telling you whither we go. We drive to the rail-road, we enter one of the carriages: Mrs. W. H., an agreeable, young man—I have the pleasure of introducing Mr. R. to you—and myself—and now you will accompany us. Away we go, through forest and field, eighteen miles from Charleston. It is late in the afternoon and very warm. We stop; it is in the middle of a thick wood. There is wood on all sides, and not a house to be seen. We alight from the carriages and enter a fir-wood. After we have walked for an hour along unformed paths, the wood begins to be very