form to this, that had been found in a bee-hive; the material
was much coarser, and, if I remember right, had but two cases instead of
six.

I have always felt a great desire to see the nest of a humming-bird, but
hitherto have been disappointed. This summer I had some beds of
mignionette and other flowers, with some most splendid major
convolvuluses or "morning gloves," as the Americans call them; these
lovely flowers tempted the hummingbirds to visit my garden, and I had
the pleasure of seeing a pair of those beautiful creatures, but their
flight is so peculiar that it hardly gives you a perfect sight of their
colours; their motion when on the wing resembles the whirl of a
spinning-wheel, and the sound they make is like the hum of a wheel at
work; I shall plant flowers to entice them to build near us.

I sometimes fear you will grow weary of my long dull letters; my only
resources are domestic details and the natural history of the country,
which I give whenever I think the subject has novelty to recommend it to
your attention. Possibly I may sometimes disappoint you by details that
appear to place the state of the emigrant in an unfavourable light; I
merely give facts as I have seen, or heard them stated. I could give you
many flourishing accounts of settlers in this country; I could also
reverse the picture, and you would come to the conclusion that there are
many arguments to be used both for and against emigration. Now, the
greatest argument, and that which has the most weight, is NECESSITY, and
this will always turn the scale in the favour of emigration; and that
same imperative dame Necessity tells me it is _necessary_ for me to draw
my letter to a conclusion.

Farewell, ever faithfully and affectionately, your attached sister.

LETTER XVII.

Ague.--Illness of the Family.--Probable Cause.--Root-house.--Setting in
of Winter.--Insect termed a "Sawyer."--Temporary Church.

November the 28th, 1834.

You will have been surprised, and possibly distressed, by my long
silence of several months, but when I tell you it has been occasioned by
sickness, you will cease to wonder that I did not write.

My dear husband, my servant, the poor babe, and myself, were all at one
time confined to our beds with ague. You know how severe my sufferings
always were at home with intermittents, and need not marvel if they were
no less great in a country where lake-fevers and all kinds of
intermittent fevers abound.

Few p