flowers are handed to the favorite performers from the front
of the house, till the ceremony becomes embarrassing, and almost
ridiculous for the object of the demonstration. The churches at
certain festivals are hung with draperies of costly hot-house
flowers; the communion-tables heaped with them. Weddings, of
course, are natural occasions for that species of ornament, but in
America funerals are as flowery as marriage-feasts; and I have seen
there in mid-winter, with the thermometer at fifteen degrees below
zero, large crosses, and hearts, and wreaths, made entirely of
rosebuds and lilies of the valley, as part of the solemnities of a
burial service; and a young girl who died in the flowerless season
was not only shrouded in blossoms, but as her coffin was carried to
the bosom of the wintry earth, a white pall of the finest material
was thrown over it, with a great cross of double forced violets,
almost the length of the coffin, laid on it. I have had as many as
a dozen huge baskets of camellias, violets, orange-flower, and
tuberose, at one time, in my room; perishable tokens of anonymous
public and private favor, the cost of which used to fill me with
dismay: and on one occasion a table of magnificent hot-house
flowers was sent to me, of such dimensions that both sides of the
street door had to be opened to admit it. When I have deplored the
inordinate amount of money lavished upon that which could only
impart pleasure for so brief a time, I have been answered, but not
converted from my feeling of disapprobation and regret, that the
gardeners profited by this wild extravagance. In New York I have
known a guinea paid for a gentleman's button-hole rosebud, and
three guineas for half a dozen sprays of lily of the valley.

Good-by, my dearest H----. I pray for you morning and night. Is not
that thinking of you, and loving you as best I can?

Your affectionate
F. A. K.

DEAREST H----,

... We are all pretty well, but all but devoured by multitudinous
and multivarious beasts of prey--birds, I suppose they are:
mosquitoes, ants, and flies, by day; and flies, fleas, and worse,
by night. The plagues of Egypt were a joke to it. We spend our
lives in murdering hecatombs