Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/363

Rh one of the prettiest of which I may be found with the amiable and highly esteemed family of a banker, named M., who came up to me in the church, after divine service at Maçon, and invited me to his house.

Everywhere throughout this country, in the south as well as in the north of the United States, do I meet with the same cordiality, the same incomparable hospitality. And my little travelling fairy goes everywhere with me, and makes everything happen for the best; and should anything go contrary, I consider that is for the best also, and doubt not but it is so, or will be. The morning after to-morrow I intend returning to Savannah; I cannot now extend my journey farther west, into Alabama, as I wished to do, on account of the heat of the season. I must contrive to reach Washington before I am melted.

The 8th.—When do I think of going home, my Agatha? Whenever you and mamma wish it next month, next week, in the morning! My own wishes, it is true, have been for some time a little expansive; but they can be restrained. I have, however, wished to remain in this hemisphere through another winter, that I might see certain portions of it and certain things which otherwise I cannot see, and thus obtain a glimpse of the tropical glory in Cuba. I wish to leave certain impressions time to mature; certain old ones time to fall off under the influence of the New World. The indisposition under which I suffered last winter has deprived me of at least three months, for during that time I was merely half alive, often merely in a state of suffering. But as I have said, my child, this is a floating wish ready to be done away with on the least call from home; and in that case we shall see each other next autumn. No feeling of inward necessity like that which bade me come hither, bids me now remain here over the winter. And my wish to stay here will, on the first earnest call of my beloved ones, dissolve into that of returning to them; and