o that renewal of energy
and vigor so essential after times of labor and exertion. It seemed to
me as though, the period of exertion past, I was regaining in rest and
repose the power for future action; and I canvassed every act of
the past to teach me more of my own heart, and to instruct me for my
guidance in life after.

"You can land now, whenever you please," said the skipper to me, as by a
faint moonlight we moved along the waveless sea. "We can put you ashore
at any moment here."

I started with as much surprise as though the thought had never occurred
to me; and without replying, I leaned over the bulwark, and gazed at the
faint shadows of tall headlands about three miles distant.

"How do you call that bluff yonder?" said I, carelessly.

"Wicklow Head."

"Wicklow Head! Ireland!" cried I, with a thrill of ecstasy my heart had
never felt for many a day before. "Yes, yes; land me there,--now, at
once!" said I, as a thousand thoughts came rushing to my mind, and hopes
too vague for utterance, but palpable enough to cherish.

With the speed their calling teaches, the crew lowered the boat, and as
I took my place in the stern, pulled vigorously towards the shore. As
the swift bark glided along the shallow sea, I could scarce restrain
my impatience from springing out and rushing on land. Without family or
friend, without one to welcome or meet me, still it was home,--the only
home I ever had.

The sharp keel grated on the beach; its sound vibrated within my heart.
I jumped on shore; a few words of parting, and the men backed their
oars; the boat slipped fast through the water. The cutter, too, got
speedily under weigh again, and I was alone. Then the full torrent of my
feelings found their channel, and I burst into tears. Oh! they were not
tears of sorrow; neither were they the outpourings of excessive joy.
They were the utterance of a heart loaded with its own unrelieved
griefs, who now found sympathy on touching the very soil of home. I felt
I was no longer friendless. Ireland, my own dear native country, would
be to me a place of kindred and family, and I fell upon my knees, and
blessed it.

Following a little path, which led slantingly up the cliff, I reached
the top as day was beginning to break, and gained a view of the country.
The range of swelling hills, dotted with cottages and waving with
wood; the fields of that emerald green one sees not in other lands;
the hedge-rows bounding the little farms,-