“It was reported that I had fired the cottage.  I well knew with whom this charge originated, and I had good reasons for believing that the match that fired our house came from the same source.

“Our condition was such that we concluded to leave the place where so much had been endured, and those who had strewn our path with what they intended for thorns and brambles.

“We left.  We journeyed to Liverpool, and engaged a passage in a New York packet for the United States.  It was a beautiful morning when we set sail, and everything seemed reviving in the possessing of life.  Our ship’s flags looked like smiling guardians as they fluttered above us, and all on board the ‘White Wing’ were happy.  There were about three hundred passengers.  There were old and young; some travelling on business, some for a place they might call their home, some for pleasure, and a few for the improvement of their health.  There were entire families, and, in some cases, those of three generations.  How varied were the hopes that filled their souls! how different the objects that led them forth over the deep and trackless sea, exposing themselves to countless perils!

“Evelina and myself mused thus as we sat on the deck at twilight of the first day out, and watched the movements, and listened to the various expressions that fell from the lips of the crowded passengers.

“She always had a bright gleam of religious, philosophical thought, with which to illumine every hour of our existence, and radiate, with heavenly joy, our every conversation.  ’There are not more dangers here than on land,’ said she; ’to be true to our inner consciousness, we must say that wherever we are we are exposed to peril, and wherever we are we are protected from evil.  I have known a man to cross the ocean a hundred times, and fall at last at his own door, and by it become maimed for life.  There is no such a thing as an accident.  Every result has a legitimate cause.  Everything acts in obedience to undeviating laws of God.  We complain when we fall, but the same law that causes us to fall guides planets in their course, and regulates every motion of every object.  It is only when we disobey these laws that evil comes, and every transgression receives its own penalty.  It is impossible that it should be otherwise.’

“We soon became acquainted with a number of the passengers, and passed very many pleasant and profitable hours together.  Evelina was the light of every circle, and the days flew by on rapid wings.  The ship had made a rapid passage, and we were fast nearing our destined haven.

“One Sabbath evening a storm commenced.  The wind blew a hurricane.  Everything on deck was lashed, and the sea rolled and pitched our vessel about as though it had been but a feather on its surface.  We had all day expected the storm, and were prepared for it.  As night advanced the storm increased.  The rain fell in torrents, and the darkness was most intense.  After a while, the lightning came, and the thunder reverberated with terrific peals over us.  There were shrieks and wailings aboard our vessel, and many a brave heart quailed beneath the terror upon us.