Fair Winds

Fair winds carried us swiftly North. What joy to feel the breeze at one's back, to see the flying spray and study the curious leaps of fishes and those jovial sea-companions, the dolphin, sporting in the bow wave of the graceful ship! With the doctor's care, I am much restored and feel like myself again, in health and vigor. There are coolies aboard, bound for New York, no doubt serving an iron master in a distant Hong, but they are desirous of reading, a cleanly, polite and civil group. I have been teaching them their letters, - they are teaching me some of their complicated picto-grams! - and showing them how to read English. They are very eager and quick to learn, especially the young ones, but their accent is comical. The Oriental tongue cannot be brought to pronounce certain words, and their speech sounds like a curious sing-song no matter how assiduously I drill them in proper American pronunciation. The Doctor tells me that these good people, who have become quite dear to me, are likely to labor like slaves in some dark Hong in New York, Philadelphia or Boston, until the end of their days for some distant master in China, and will only be returned home in a box, at their death, by a Chinese Burial Society to the Heavenly Kingdom, which is China!