obloquy, in spite of our dexterity, as I tore my dress,
and very nearly fell flat on my face in the process. Our row home was
perfectly enchanting; for though the morning's wind and (I suppose) the
state of the tide had roughened the waters of the great river, and our
passage was not as smooth as it might have been, the wind had died away,
the evening air was deliciously still, and mild, and soft. A young slip of
a moon glimmered just above the horizon, and 'the stars climbed up the
sapphire steps of heaven,' while we made our way over the rolling,
rushing, foaming waves, and saw to right and left the marsh fires burning
in the swampy meadows, adding another coloured light in the landscape to
the amber-tinted lower sky and the violet arch above, and giving wild
picturesqueness to the whole scene by throwing long flickering rays of
flame upon the distant waters.

_Sunday, the 14th._--I read service again to-day to the people. You cannot
conceive anything more impressive than the silent devotion of their whole
demeanour while it lasted, nor more touching than the profound thanks with
which they rewarded me when it was over, and they took their leave; and
to-day they again left me with the utmost decorum of deportment, and
without pressing a single petition or complaint, such as they ordinarily
thrust upon me on all other occasions, which seems to me an instinctive
feeling of religious respect for the day and the business they have come
upon, which does them infinite credit.

In the afternoon I took a long walk with the chicks in the woods; long at
least for the little legs of S---- and M----, who carried baby. We came
home by the shore, and I stopped to look at a jutting point, just below
which a small sort of bay would have afforded the most capital position
for a bathing house. If we stayed here late in the season, such a
refreshment would become almost a necessary of life, and anywhere along
the bank just where I stopped to examine it to-day, an establishment for
that purpose might be prosperously founded.

I am amused, but by no means pleased, at an entirely new mode of
pronouncing which S---- has adopted. Apparently the negro jargon has
commended itself as euphonious to her infantile ears, and she is now
treating me to the most ludicrous and accurate imitations of it every time
she opens her mouth. Of course I shall not allow this, comical as it is,
to become a habit. This is the way the southern ladies acquire the