By way of returning thanks and giving glory to God for the victorious end of the war, a regular reception was given to us one night at the A. M. E. Church on Vine street, when every member was present, and there was such a time of rejoicing and general jollification as I thought had never been exceeded since the world began. We were also called upon for short speeches; hymns of praise and triumph were sung, and, indeed, there was a high time generally. "O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever!" For the space of a whole month thereafter we just spent the whole time receiving friends at our house, and entertaining them, and going out and being entertained by them in turn. It was just one round of the purest pleasure, in which there was neither danger nor alloy. Tom had to do an infinite deal of talking, relating his wars and battles in the Sunny South, and the girls and I supplemented the same by giving our experiences of the Rivers Ohio and Mississippi, and the grand sea voyage all the way from New Orleans to New York. People were greatly taken with the two girls, as they were just as bright as two buttons. After all this turmoil was over, we all sighed for some fresh air in the country, and new scenes altogether. The glorious Gibsons of Canada had been writing incessantly ever since we spent that never-to-be-forgotten month at Richmond Hill, and had most urgently insisted upon us three coming back the second time after Tom’s return to Buffalo—and for us to bring Tom along with us. And Tom himself was not only willing but he was most anxious to go, for the tongues of our children had been going ding-dong hammer and tongs, about the glories of Richmond Hill and Western Canada. And when it was at last decided that we would take the road, and the day of our departure from Buffalo had been set, nothing would satisfy our anxious children but that they should write a conjoint letter to the Gibsons about our coming to Canada. And this they did in their own way, and with such an incredible amount of enthusiasm that the good Gibsons have been laughing over it ever since.