This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

LETTER TWENTY-ONE.


Plymouth Sound,

April 7th, 1839.

My Beloved Sister,

Mr. Marshall's clerk brought your letter on board this morning. It rejoices Clarinda and myself to learn from it that all of you are still pretty well in health. I was very glad of the money. Had three half-pence when I received it, and no more. Am a great deal better than when I wrote my last. Clarinda also is a great deal better.

We fare very well, considering all things, on board the Strathfieldsaye, but the steerage of an emigrant ship is of necessity a most miserably uncomfortable place to me. I am more solitary and companionless than I ever was in all my life in this stagnant crowd of human beings. Some of them are of the most indecent and brutish description. My hopes of ultimate success are as good as ever, and it is worth

83