Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/325

Rh as dear to me as a sister, and from her family with a pang which I endeavoured to stifle, because parting is inevitable.

It was in the afternoon of the 12th of June that I left Charleston and South Carolina, where I had enjoyed so much kindness. The sea was rough, and the vessel so crowded with passengers that I regretted in silence that my wish to be with Mrs. H. had caused me to select this vessel, and not rather to have delayed my journey a couple of days longer. I feared now to incommode others, and to be incommoded myself. But Mrs. H— became my comfort and my help. As she was acquainted with the negro-woman who waited in the ladies' saloon, she induced the old woman to make us up two beds on the soft sofas near the window, because all the cabins in the vessel were occupied, and by this means we escaped the heat of the cabins and enjoyed during the night fresh air from the saloon window.

As night approached the sea became rougher, and the clouds assumed a more stormy aspect; the air was oppressively hot, the passage was one of danger, and the vessel had not the best reputation.

But I consoled myself with thinking, “when the moon rises!” For I have an inborn faith in the moon as my friend. She attracted my glance to her when I was but a child, and before I could say any other word, before I could say father or mother, I said “Moon!” My first verses were dedicated to the Moon. They were poor enough; but the celestial presence which I saluted as the consoler of the fortunate and the unfortunate, has been in her turn equally propitious to me, and never yet during my sea voyages, has she failed with her rising to dissipate the clouds, and to calm the restless winds and waves. I have always, therefore, endeavoured to arrange my voyages that they should be during moonlight nights, and I had accordingly so arranged my present voyage, for the