"What?" said I, in great surprise, "don’t you know that there are 10,000 serpents among the grasses and shrubs out in the woods? Don’t you want to go back to our sweet little church on Vine street, in Buffalo? And don’t you want to visit the Gibsons, at Richmond Hill, once more?" "Oh, yes, mamma," she replied, "I want to go back to class to the church on Vine street, Buffalo, and I want to dig up potatoes, and pull down apples and peaches at Richmond Hill, where those good Gibsons live, in Western Canada." "But," resumed my oldest daughter, "you say, mamma, that there are 10,000 serpents in this part of the Sunny South; is that so?" "Yes," I replied, whilst I cut another orange in two, "there are more than 10,000, I suppose; but take all the hundreds of species in the world, there is not one species in a hundred that is poisonous at all; and they will seldom or never sting anybody, if one does not go in their way, or trample on them in the woods. They generally get out of the way. But tell me, my dear, what makes you so fond of the South?" "Indeed, mamma, I can hardly tell, unless it be that there is such a sweet and delicious feeling about all our surroundings here. Why, the very winds themselves seem to be fond of blowing about in this place." "Yes," put in the younger; "the very winds are fond of blowing about in this place." These latter remarks were heard by some of the family and guests, and we all raised a loud laugh, whilst the youngest added: "Sister, please pass me another of those small, sweet oranges! I don’t see for the very life of me why we could not live in the State of Louisiana. And then, mamma says the snakes are not very dangerous, and we could be careful, and look out for them." "Oh, yes," rejoined her sister; "we could be careful, and look out for them. And would not the good Lord Himself protect us against them?" "No doubt he would," remarked the other, "if Christianity can protect us against serpents about New Orleans." By this time we were in a great state of merriment over the two girls, and rose from the breakfast table as if we had been leaving a successful entertainment, and walked out to see the garden. After we had made the rounds of the garden, and regaled our senses with all that was most delicious in the Sunny South, we came back to the house, when a member of this good family placed before us on the sitting-room table, one of the New Orleans morning papers, which contained the following article. I think the good reporter who wrote this most grandiloquent article on myself, family and connections must either have been drinking too much wine, or else he is on the point of getting married! I can account for such high praise in no other way. But let us hear what he has got to say: "ARRIVAL OF MRS. THOMAS LINCOLN AND HER TWO DAUGHTERS.