Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/327

Rh the pine forest, and this was, as is usual in the Southern States, rich in many varieties of trees. I counted above fourteen in one of the forest woods.

Mrs. H. was to me on this journey as she always is, a fountain of refreshment and delight. I have never met with any one, either man or woman, who possessed in so high a degree the power of calling others out in conversation. We accompany each other like two birds flying up and down, between heaven and earth, from star to star, from land to land, from tree to tree, from flower to flower. I learn much from her. She spends with her husband, the esteemed naturalist, Holbrook, her sister, Miss L., and her handsome old mother, a beautiful life, rich in domestic affection.

Towards the evening of this day we reached the little village of Weldon, on the boundaries between North Carolina and Virginia, and where the wild, foaming river, Roanoke, rolls along its waves, dividing the two States.

I went down to the falls in the evening twilight, and saw them foaming and rushing along. The fire-flies danced glimmering under the gloomy arch of the trees. Nature was here romantic, wild, and beautiful, and the whole district was as desolate and silent as if no human beings were to be found there.

We passed a comfortable night at the hotel, and although I was suffering from headache, yet to my joy, I was well enough to proceed on my journey the next day, by a slow accommodation railway-train, which conveyed us very easily and excellently through the fields of Virginia, to Richmond, the capital of the State, and which contains thirty thousand inhabitants, half of whom are blacks. Its situation is romantic, among hills and valleys, on the banks of the River St. James. And there am I now. I was obliged to take leave of my travelling companions last evening, as they continued their journey early this morning to Saratoga, whither