This wedded
pair have no children, and Oakum has so long accompanied her husband on
his voyages that I suppose by this time she could command a ship as well
as he. They sat till pretty late, diffusing cheerfulness all about them,
and then, "Come, Oakum," cried the Captain, "we must hoist sail!" and up
rose Oakum to the ceiling, and moved tower-like to the door, looking down
with a benignant smile on the poor little pygmy women about her. "Six
feet," did I say? Why, she must he seven, eight, nine; and, whatever be
her size, she is as good as she is big.
June 11th.--Monday night (9th), just as I was retiring, I received a
telegraphic message announcing my wife's arrival at
SOUTHAMPTON.
So, the next day, I arranged the consular business for an absence of ten
days, and set forth with J-----, and reached Birmingham, between eight
and nine, evening. We put up at the Queen's Hotel, a very large
establishment, contiguous to the railway. Next morning we left
Birmingham, and made our first stage to Leamington, where we had to wait
nearly an hour, which we spent in wandering through some of the streets
that had been familiar to us last year. Leamington is certainly a
beautiful town, new, bright, clean, and as unlike as possible to the
business towns of England. However, the sun was burning hot, and I could
almost have fancied myself in America. From Leamington we took tickets
for Oxford, where we were obliged to make another stop of two hours; and
these we employed to what advantage we could, driving up into town, and
straying hither and thither, till J-----'s weariness weighed upon me, and
I adjourned with him to a hotel.
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