"HOMEWARD BOUND."
There's Jack has made a wondrous marriage;
There's laughing Tom is laughing yet;
There's brave Augustus drives his carriage;
There's poor old Fred in the "Gazette;"
On James's head the grass is growing;
Good Lord! the world has wagged apace
Since here we set the claret flowing,
And drank, and ate the Bouillabaisse.
Min's letters! Ah, how I expected them, awaited them, devoured them!--
from the first tender response that came in answer to mine, to the last
little darling oblong-enveloped, dainty hand-written missive I
received--ere I shook off the dust of the "Empire City" from my New-
World-wearied feet, and left Sandy Hook behind me!
It would be a vain task, should I attempt to describe to you the agony
of suspense in which I watched every week for the arrival of the
European mail; for, I'm sure, that Sir Samuel Cunard himself could not
have evinced so deep an interest in the safety of his steamers as I did;
no, not even if they had been uninsured, and the underwriters declined
all offers of "risk" premiums, be they never so high and tempting!
Long before the regular _Scotia_, the _Java_, or the _Russia_ could, in
their several turns, possibly have achieved the ocean passage, I was on
the look out for them; prophesying all manner of disasters in the event
of their being delayed; and overjoyed, with a frenzied rapture, should
they be signalled in advance of their anticipated time! And then, when
they had glided up New York Bay and anchored in the Hudson, how rapidly
would my eager impatience bear me to the dingy old Post office "down
town," where I would sometimes have to wait for hours before the letters
were sorted and delivered!
Should there be none for me, I was in despair--imagining all the various
calamities, probable and improbable, that might have happened--although
I might have heard from England only a few days previously; while,
should I obtain a dearly-prized note from my darling, I was in ecstasy--
only to be on the look out for the next mail a moment afterwards!