Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/418

 the governor and his wife and daughter, Eliza B., formed a jolly party when they met on the boat on the evening of December 1st. On the way down the Delaware there was a good dinner to eat, and there were mirth and jollity and the company of fair women. Alas! the gaiety soon ended and the women soon disappeared, to be seen no more until we reached Savannah. A storm raged at sea. The boat, a fruit vessel, was only about half-loaded. When we were off Hatteras the vessel was thrown around by the waves in a way such as I had never seen before. Mrs. Pennypacker was thrown out of her chair and returned home with a black eye. I got up in the night and was tossed into a corner with some crockery and badly bruised. All were seasick except my daughter and myself. One morning I started to go from the saloon down to the dining-room for breakfast, but the brass covering of the stairway was going in five different directions with great rapidity and I called to the steward to bring my breakfast up to the saloon. Along one side stood a sofa. He put a small table in front of the sofa and, placing the tray on the table, held them secure while I sat on the sofa and ate. Presently came a great lurch. First went the steward, the table and tray following, then the governor and then the sofa, and they were all piled up promiscuously together against the wall at the far side of the room. I ate another breakfast sitting on the floor propped against the wall for support.

In Savannah the lazy darkies, the magnolias, the moss hanging over the trees, the suavity of the man who meets you, are all very attractive. We arrived at 7.30 A. M. and hastened to the De Soto Hotel, where we were welcomed in a speech by Mayor Myers, to which I responded. Then we were taken in automobiles through the country to Bethesda, an orphan school for boys founded by George Whitefield and still flourishing. There I stood on the steps of the building and addressed the boys. Afterward we were taken to Bannon Lodge, where the mayor gave us a luncheon 400