BY THE AUTHOR OF "A NEW HOME." "Where are the advantages, beyond the means, first, of mere subsistence, C. S. FRANCIS & CO., 252 BROADWAY. BOSTON: J. H. FRANCIS, 128 WASHINGTON ST. * B HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY FROM THE FAMILY OF Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1342, By C. S. FRANCIS & Co., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. PREFACE. SOME great man of antiquity said that if one were carried up to the skies, and permitted to behold all the wonders of heaven and earth, his pleasure would not be complete until he had returned to the lower world to recount what he had seen. And it must be true, for, even on the most petty scale, the feeling to which he alludes is constantly discoverable. We cannot migrate from one point on this little ball to another, without a disposition to give those we have left behind an idea of what is to most of them an unseen world. The first plunge into print costs indeed a desperate effort; but when the instinctive shivering is once conquered, the chilly element loses half its terrors, especially if we see kind hands outstretched on all sides to encourage our attempt. That such has been my own fortune, I gratefully acknowledge. ` --- The following pages constitute rather a continuation than a sequel to the sketches offered to the public more than two years ago, under the title of "A new Homewho'll follow?" I say a continuation, not that I mean to threaten, in this day of the decline and fall of Annuals, a Western Biennial but simply to reserve my right to prate further in the same strain if I should feel thereunto prompted. I am credibly informed that ingenious malice has been busy in finding substance for the shadows which were |