Then there are _heaps_, as we Southerners say, of droll little children
running about, some of them quite nicely dressed, with no servant to
take care of them; and yesterday, on the rocks that look out upon the
ocean, I met a little boy who could scarcely walk tottling along beside
one but little older, as independent and happy as if he might not at any
time fall and hit his little white head against one of the sharp stones.
They say that some of our most distinguished Congressmen, and even our
United States Senators, have been brought up in this way, and though I
don't see how these boys can ever learn to be polished gentlemen when
they mix with all sorts of children, yet some of them are as
intelligent as if they had done nothing but read all their lives, and as
brave as their sailor fathers.
Yesterday a fishing-vessel came in, which had been out for several
months, and I spied a little fellow clambering down a ladder, placed up
to one of the tall chimneys, as fast as he could go, and then, starting
out the door like lightning, he was by the water-side before the boat
touched the shore, and his mother was not far behind him.
But how I am carried away by what is around me! I forget that you don't
even know how I came to be here, and while I am writing are perhaps
wondering all the time if I am not playing a trick upon you, after all,
and dating from some place where I never expect to be.
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