Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/365

 on the ground floor, besides eating-room, kitchen, &c. All the chambers are in the upper stories, and there are always one or two (sometimes more) guest-chambers. The guest-chamber, in an American house in the city, is the same thing as for us, in Sweden, to have a guest-chamber in our country-houses. Every house here, whether in town or country, must have its room in which to lodge the stranger. And now if a stranger comes hither from a foreign land, quite alone, and not very large either, it is not a very difficult thing to lodge her in the guest-chamber; and in this way the whole country is one great home, with guest-chambers for mamma's daughter. Finding there the comforts of my own home, finding there motherly mistresses of families; sisters and brothers with whom I have lived and conversed, and live and converse as openly and familiarly as with my own family—all this has made me feel that the kingdom of heaven is not after all so far from earth, at least not from the homes of earth; else otherwise how should one be able to keep up an intercourse with people altogether strangers, as unreservedly and as delightfully as one could with the angels of God?

I am thus now writing to you from a good, beautiful, and happy home, which comprises three generations, old Mr. M. and his wife, still handsome and active: their only son, a highly esteemed banker of Maçon, and his gentle and motherly wife and their children. The whole family is remarkably cordial, earnest and pious, as I often find families in this country to be, and in the practice of morning and evening devotion, which I like much, although I sometimes think that the prayers are too long. The two eldest daughters are handsome, sweet young girls, and sing better than ladies generally do in this country. A quiet sorrow broods over the family from the late decease of a dearly beloved daughter and sister, whose loss seems especially to weigh upon the mother's heart.