Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/338

Rh be able to endure it?” And now I stood serene and vigorous by the Mississippi, with the Great West open before me, with a rich future, and the whole world bright! I thanked God!

On our return to Galena, the carriage broke down. The young clergyman sprang out, pulled forth some rope and a knife, and began to work in good earnest, as he said, merrily—

“You must know, Miss Bremer, that coach-building belongs, here in the West, to our theology.”

The emigrants to the West must, to a certain degree, experience the trouble and the renunciation of the early pilgrim-fathers. And in order to succeed, they require their courage and perseverance.

But people pass through these necessary stages much more quickly now than they did then. The beautiful, excellent American homes, with verandahs and trees and gardens, which begin to adorn the hills round Five-River prove this. The good home and the church, and the labours of Christian love, encroach daily more and more upon the fields and the life of heathenism. I do not now mean of the Indian, but of the white man.

I shall to-day go on board the good steam-boat Minnesota, to descend the Mississippi as far as St. Louis. Perhaps I may make a pause by the way at the town of Rock Island, to visit the Swedish settlement of Eric Jansen, at Bishop's Hill, a few miles from the town.

Among the agreeable memories of my stay at Galena, I shall long retain that of a banker, Mr. H., who showed me so much kindness, such brotherly or fatherly consideration and care for me, that I shall ever think of him and of his city with gratitude.

The newspapers of the West are making themselves merry over the rapturous reception which the people of New York have given Jenny Lind. In one newspaper article I read: