Our journey was slow but not tedious. Had our progress been only
half so rapid, I should have been satisfied. It was love alone
that my heart wanted. I craved for nothing but the just requital
of my own passion. I had no complaint, no affliction, when I could
persuade myself that I had not thrown away my affections upon the
ungrateful and undeserving. Assured now of the love of the beloved
one, all the intense devotion of my soul was re-awakened; and the
deepest shadows of the forest, gloomy and desolate as they were,
along the waste tracts of Georgia and Alabama--in that earlier
day--enlivened by the satisfied spirit within, seemed no more than
so many places of retreat, where security and peace, combining in
behalf of Love, had given him an exclusive sovereignty.
The rude countryman encountered us, and his face beamed with
cheerfulness and good humor. The song of the black softened the toils
of labor, in the unfinished clearings; and even the wild red man,
shooting suddenly from out the sylvan covert, wore in his visage
of habitual gravity, an air of resignation which took all harshness
from his uncouth features.
Such, under the tuition of well-satisfied hearts, was our mutual
experience of the long journey which we had taken when we reached
the end of it. This we did in perfect safety. We found our friend,
Kingsley, prepared for and awaiting us. He had procured us pleasant
apartments in a neat cottage in the suburbs, where we were almost
to ourselves. Our landlady was an ancient widow, without a family.
She occupied but a single apartment in her house, and left the
use of the rest to her lodgers. This was an arrangrment with which
I was particularly gratified. Her cottage lay half way up on the
side of a hill which was crowned with thick clumps of the noblest
trees. Long, winding, narrow foot-paths, carried us picturesquely
to the summit, where we had a bird's-eye view of the town below,
the river beyond--now darting out from the woods and now hiding
securely beneath their umbrage--and fair, smooth, lawn-looking
fields, which glowed at the proper season with the myriad green and
white pinnies of corn and cotton. At the foot of the cottage lay
a delightful shrubbery, which almost covered it up from sight. It
was altogether such a retreat as a hermit would desire. It reminded
me somewhat of the lovely spot which we had left. A pleasant walk
of a mile lay between it and the town where I proposed to practice,
and this furnished a necessity for a certain degree of exercise,
which, being unavoidable, was of the most valuable kind. Altogether,
Kingsley had executed his commission with a taste and diligence
which left me nothing to complain of.
He was delighted at my coming.