Still, I think that English readers are probably just as anxious to know what is going on in India, in Australia, the West Indies, and others of our outlying settlements--where their relatives and friends, and our country-men, are spreading our nation, our language, and our civilisation--as to hear that Monsieur Thiers has gone to Switzerland, or that Prince Esselkopf is taking "the waters" at Dullberg on the Rhine! Such, is my opinion--at all events. But, Min's letters, eh? I'm just coming to them. CHAPTER TWELVE. "HOMEWARD BOUND." There's Jack has made a wondrous marriage; There's laughing Tom is laughing yet; There's brave Augustus drives his carriage; There's poor old Fred in the "Gazette;" On James's head the grass is growing; Good Lord! the world has wagged apace Since here we set the claret flowing, And drank, and ate the Bouillabaisse. Min's letters! Ah, how I expected them, awaited them, devoured them!-- from the first tender response that came in answer to mine, to the last little darling oblong-enveloped, dainty hand-written missive I received--ere I shook off the dust of the "Empire City" from my New- World-wearied feet, and left Sandy Hook behind me! It would be a vain task, should I attempt to describe to you the agony of suspense in which I watched every week for the arrival of the European mail; for, I'm sure, that Sir Samuel Cunard himself could not have evinced so deep an interest in the safety of his steamers as I did; no, not even if they had been uninsured, and the underwriters declined all offers of "risk" premiums, be they never so high and tempting! Long before the regular _Scotia_, the _Java_, or the _Russia_ could, in their several turns, possibly have achieved the ocean passage, I was on the look out for them; prophesying all manner of disasters in the event of their being delayed; and overjoyed, with a frenzied rapture, should they be signalled in advance of their anticipated time! And then, when they had glided up New York Bay and anchored in the Hudson, how rapidly would my eager impatience bear me to the dingy old Post office "down town," where I would sometimes have to wait for hours before the letters were sorted and delivered! Should there be none for me, I was in despair--imagining all the various calamities, probable and improbable, that might have happened--although I might have heard from England only a few days previously; while, should I obtain a dearly-prized note from my darling, I was in ecstasy-- only to be on the look out for the next mail a moment afterwards! I was never satisfied. I remember an official in the Ann Street Bureau asking me one day, what made me "so almight lonesome" about the "old country;" and "guessing," when I took no notice of his question, that I had "a young woman over the water." Young woman, indeed! If looks could kill, that inquisitive and ill- mannered person was a dead man on the spot! I never heard anything so impertinent in my life!