Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/393

Rh wild young girls, who had made, on their own account, a pleasure-party, and now ran about here and there, chattering, calling to one another, and laughing; and on deck, a few gentlemen, planters, who were polite and wished to talk, but talked only of “cotton, cotton, cotton,” and how the world was beginning to busy itself about American cotton. I fled away from these worshippers of cotton, and endeavoured to be alone with the river and the primeval forest, and with the light and shadows within it. There was with the troop of young girls also a youth, a handsome young man, a brother or relative of some of them. Later on in the evening he had to leave the vessel, and then the wild young girls took hold of him, embraced and kissed him, the one after the other, in fun and amid laughter, whilst he, half annoyed and half amused, endeavoured to get loose from them. What impression would that young man carry away with him of that night's scene? Not esteem for woman. One of the elder gentlemen on deck, shook his head at the young girls behaviour; “They make a fool of that young man!” said he to me. It was not till late in the night that I could get to sleep for the noise which these girls made.

The next day was Sunday, and life seemed to celebrate a holy-day, so still and so festively-adorned appeared all nature. The wild, young girls had become quiet, and assembled before the door of my cabin, which was open towards the river. They were evidently in a state of mind to hear something serious. The peace of the Sabbath rested upon them. Had now some sower, commissioned of Heaven, sown the seed of truth and the comprehension of the higher life in the souls of these young girls, the seed would assuredly have fallen in good ground. I have faith in the inborn, pure earnestness of woman's nature, and its kinship with the highest spiritual life, and it grieved me when I saw it running wild as in this case. Not that I think a moment of wildness is &emsp;