It was good to see his assured military air, as he
walked back and forth while we moved out of the beautiful harbor. He
made motions with his hand with such an air of majesty and conscious
power. His smile is charming, and his voice fine. The enunciation of
Mr. Crampton, the minister, is also wonderfully fine. Mr. Crampton
says that these steamers have run for seventeen years, and that not
one accident has happened, and not a man been lost, except that once a
steamer was lost in a fog, but all the passengers and crew were safely
got off. Una enjoys herself very much, and reads the "Tanglewood
Tales," and walks and races on the upper deck with Julian, this fine
cold morning. It is glorious, glorious,--this blue surrounding sea,
and no land.
Your affectionate daughter,
SOPHIA.
WATERLOO HOUSE, LIVERPOOL, July 17, Sunday morning.
Here we are, dear father, in England; and I cannot realize it, because
a moment ago we were in Boston Harbor, and how can I be three thousand
miles afar? If we had had more difficulty, storms, and danger, I could
realize it better; but it seems like a pleasure excursion on a lake. I
sit in a parlor, with one great, broad window from ceiling to floor, a
casement opening upon a balcony, which commands a handsome street. It
does not look like Boston, and, Mr. Hawthorne says, not like New York,
but--like Liverpool. People are going to church, and the bells are
chiming in a pleasant jangle. Every gentleman has an umbrella under
his arm; for it is bright sunshine one moment, and a merry little
shower the next.
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