Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/37

Rh sea, favourable wind, and in the evening the ocean full of phosphoric light and stars, and heaven full of stars also, shining out from amid poetical clouds. It was a glorious evening. I was on deck till quite late, and watched the fireworks which our keel called forth from the deep along the whole track of the ship. We sailed, as it were, in an element of bright silver, from which the most splendid constellation of golden stars sprang forth incessantly.

The day before had been cloudy; the heavens and the sea had been grey; the waves lead-coloured. But when we came into the large, beautiful haven of New York, which inclosed us like an open embrace, the sun broke through the clouds, strong and warm, and everything far around was illuminated. It was a glorious reception by the New World; besides this, there was a something so singularly full of vitality, so exuberantly young, which struck me deeply: there was in it something of that first life of youth, such as is felt at fifteen or sixteen. I drank in the air as one might drink in water, whilst I stood on deck looking out upon the new shore which we were rapidly approaching.

The shore is low. A forest of masts, as yet, hid New York from my sight; one only saw its towers and its smoke; and right and left in the harbour lay, with its green hills and groups of beautiful villas and houses, the large islands, Long Island, and to the left Staten Island, which seemed to me higher and more woody than the rest of the coast. The harbour is magnificent; and our arrival was festively beautiful, thanks to sun and wind!

A very agreeable family of the name of B——, from Georgia, took charge of me and mine with the utmost kindness, and I accompanied them to the Astor House, where we immediately obtained rooms. The pale girl and myself took up our quarters in a room four stories high; we could not manage it otherwise.

I had not been a quarter of an hour in the Astor