You may not be able to understand it, or to appreciate how a small party
of our passengers came to regard her as almost a sacred thing, but there
are a few that know the spell, and who will ever bless the page that tells
the tale! Thither we went when the winds blew harder and the waves rolled
higher, when our heads became heavier and our steps unsteady! She hung at
or near the center of the ship, where there was the least rocking or
swinging of all places in the whole vessel. During day-time we lay down
beneath her shade, and at night, we would sit by her side relating to
each other our feelings and experiences, &c. When sea-sickness had left
our company, we agreed upon that place as our general rendezvous by day
and by night, for the remainder of the voyage. There we spent our days and
there we met every night! If our sleep was interrupted by a storm at the
midnight hour, thither would we go for relief! A thousand recollections
gather around that boat, and bind our hearts together there, as with so
many cords; because our hearts meet there in fond remembrance, therefore
will we never forget the place.



Stepping Ashore.


I had bid adieu to all my acquaintances before leaving the steamer, and
consequently went ashore quite by myself. I did not experience that
piercing thrill through my system as I had expected to, on touching the
firm earth again; for we had seen the shore so long before we could land,
that all its novelty had disappeared.