EXTRACTS OF LETTERS FROM AND TO THE NEW WORLD.
[Eric to his Mother.]
On board the BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
Our ship bears the name which my father always uttered with peculiar fervor.
My mother!
I am transformed into a life full of novel excitement. I have seen the sea for the first time. Now I am living upon it, and I seem to be writing to you from another world.
A joyful event ushered us out of the Fatherland.
As we drew near the shore, on the first evening, I espied a broad, benevolent, comfortable-looking man, at the window of the corner-house at the landing. He bowed to me, I returned the salutation, but did not recognize him. But when we were on board, he came up to us; it was Master Ferdinand, whom I had helped out at the musical festival.
I quickly told him our story, and he, with a despatch which could only have been inspired by disinterested kindness, collected his fellow artists, together with some cultivated amateurs of the town, and we sang and played far into the night.
With music in our souls we left the Rhine,—we left Germany.