Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/326

Rh pleasure of which I had to thank both Mrs. H. and the Moon. Neither of them deceived me.

Mrs. H. was somewhat sea-sick, but was still amid the throng of the steam-boat the same amiable, perfect lady, as in the drawing-room and the myrtle groves of Belmont; and the moon was, as soon as she arose on the sea, the same amiable planet, as she had formerly shown herself to me. The clouds, it is true, did not vanish, but they stood, as it were still, or withdrew in picturesque groups. The waves, it is true, still heaved, but not tempestuously; it lightened incessantly and splendidly amid the clouds, but there was no thunder. It was as if the severe countenance of the moon had stayed the tumult of the elements. I gazed at the moon and enjoyed that grand, excited, but not stormy, life in the heavens, and on the sea amid the shadows of night.

The following day we went on shore, and proceeded by railroad through North Carolina, which seemed to be one continued stretch of pine-wood, with some open spaces for the cultivation of cotton and maize, a flat, uniform, and poor country, except as regards the sap of the pine forests, whence the State derives its popular name, “Old Tar and Turpentine.” The north-western portions of the State are hilly, and are possessed of much natural beauty. Mrs. H. told me that “Old Tar and Turpentine” was not renowned for anything excepting for its politeness and simple manners. When other states in the Union refused to pay the debt to England which they had agreed to pay together (some loan affair, which was unsuccessful), “Old Tar and Turpentine” set them an example of punctuality and integrity, and paid its quota of the debt without any ado. North Carolina has been, although a Slave State, one of the principal abodes of the Quaker sect in America, and has always been celebrated for its patriarchal life and manners.

Two places at which we stopped by the way were in