Page:A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879).djvu/303

LETTER XVI.

 

A Harmonious Home—Intense Cold—A Purple Sun—A Grim Jest—A Perilous Ride—Frozen Eyelids—Long Mount—The Pathless Prairie—Hardships of Emigrant Life—A Trapper's Advice—The Little Thompson—Evans and Jim.

 

Dr. Hughes's, Lower Canyon, Colorado, Dec. 4.

Once again here, in refined and cultured society, with harmonious voices about me, and dear sweet, loving children whose winning ways make this cabin a true English home. "England, with all thy faults, I love thee still!" I can truly say,

"Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see,
My heart, untravelled, fondly turns to thee."

If it swerved a little in the Sandwich Islands, it is true to the Pole now! Surely one advantage of travelling is that, while it removes much prejudice against foreigners and their customs, it intensifies tenfold one's appreciation of the good at home, and, above all, of the quietness and purity of English domestic life. These reflections are forced upon me by the sweet child-voices about me, and by the exquisite consideration and tenderness which are the