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PREFACE
This little book is the result of some personal acquaintance with the element whose name it bears. Might it go forth with the voyager, over the path-less waters, and perchance, tenderly deepen the image of the friend who had made it a parting gift, it would fulfil a pleasant destiny.
Its closing portion, commencing with "The Mother's blessing on her Sailor Son," is more particularly adapted to those, whose life is on the sea. In the dim forecastle, may it be as a sunbeam, brightening the memory of home, and its loved ones, and the hope of that better home, where no storm shall drive the bark astray, or divide the true-hearted.
L.H.S.
- Hartford, Dec., 1849.
