d join in any such ceremony; I therefore merely told the house
servants that if they would come to the sitting-room at eleven o'clock, I
would read prayers to them, and that they might tell any of their friends
or any of the people that I should be very glad to see them if they liked
to come. Accordingly, most of those who live at the Point, i.e. in the
immediate neighbourhood of the house, came, and it was encouraging to see
the very decided efforts at cleanliness and decorum of attire which they
had all made. I was very much affected and impressed myself by what I was
doing, and I suppose must have communicated some of my own feeling to
those who heard me. It is an extremely solemn thing to me to read the
Scriptures aloud to any one, and there was something in my relation to the
poor people by whom I was surrounded that touched me so deeply while thus
attempting to share with them the best of my possessions, that I found it
difficult to command my voice, and had to stop several times in order to
do so. When I had done, they all with one accord uttered the simple words,
'We thank you, missis,' and instead of overwhelming me as usual with
petitions and complaints, they rose silently and quietly, in a manner that
would have become the most orderly of Christian congregations accustomed
to all the impressive decorum of civilised church privileges. Poor people!
They are said to have what a very irreligious young English clergyman once
informed me I had--a '_turn_ for religion.' They seem to me to have a
'turn' for instinctive good manners too; and certainly their mode of
withdrawing from my room after our prayers bespoke either a strong feeling
of their own or a keen appreciation of mine.

I have resumed my explorations in the woods with renewed enthusiasm, for
during my week's absence they have become more lovely and enticing than
ever: unluckily, however, Jack seems to think that fresh rattlesnakes have
budded together with the tender spring foliage, and I see that I shall
either have to give up my wood walks and rides, or go without a guide.
Lovely blossoms are springing up everywhere, weeds, of course, wild
things, impertinently so called. Nothing is cultivated here but cotton;
but in some of the cotton fields, beautiful creatures are peeping into
blossom, which I suppose will all be duly hoed off the surface of the
soil in proper season: meantime I rejoice in them, and in the splendid
magnificent thistles, which would be