Jenny had been fed and watered and “hitched up,” and we prepared to start. I clambered into the back seat of the wagon, then the dressing-table was lifted in and placed in front of me. Luckily its legs were long enough, so the weight did not rest on my legs, else I could never have taken it. Our laps were filled with the frail china; the candlesticks, lamps, and two warming-pans were placed on the floor of the wagon, and we started, leaving the two dreary figures and the dreary house behind us. All the way down the steep hills I had to hold the table to keep it off the occupants of the front seat, and all the way up the steep hills it lay heavily in my lap; but at last we reached the country station and packed our china and brass in two market-baskets which Mr. Simmons brought us from his “store.” We could hear the sallies of country wit from the loafers at the station at Mr. Simmons and his strange load, and his indignant and most offensively personal and profane answers in return. Then we received a baggage-check for the dressing-table, and finally entered the train rather conscious that two warming-pans and two newspaper-covered market-baskets are hardly ordinary or desirable travelling luggage. A few days later, when cleaning the inside of the dressing-table, the following letter was found. It had been caught and held by a splinter of wood under the top of the table, and had evidently lain untouched for years. It was folded in the old-fashioned way, dated May 12, 1810, and addressed to Madam Janet Hartington. It read thus: D^R AND RESPECT^{ED} MOTHER The letter which I wrote you some three months ago on the s’bj’ct of my proposed marriage was answered by you, and the answer duly rec^d by me. The two letters I wrote you since on the same s’bj’ct have rec^d no answer. And now it is too late to receive any further advice on the matter, for I wish to most Respectfully inform you that I married the object of my choice a week past to-day in Kings Chapel in Boston. There were but few present, as was Oriana’s wish. The plans you wrote me, most Respect^{ed} Mother, for the advancement and future prospects of our family, interested me much, and I quite concur in them all. And no one could be more fully fitted to assist me in my career than my Oriana. Her graceful and ladylike deportment fit her to adorn any circle no matter how exalted. She is quite ready to become a most dutifull and obedient daughter to you and I trust, my D^r Mother, the fact of her being an orphan will open your heart to her; and then the wish you have always had, viz, to have a daughter, may thus find its fullfillment.