And time sped on, and brought the day when a letter came to them, dated at Liverpool, and announcing that General A——, with his family, and Miss Garnet, would sail within a few days, in the ship _Amphytrite_, bound from that port to Norfolk. Therefore, it was expected that within a few days after, if not before the arrival of the letter, the _Amphytrite_ would be in port. General Garnet, accompanied by Dr. Hardcastle, left Mount Calm immediately for Norfolk, to welcome his daughter, if the ship had come; to wait for her if it had not. Mrs. Garnet remained at home to receive her, in fond, impatient expectation. She had Elsie’s bed chamber decorated, and a fire made in it every day, and the parlors lighted and warmed, and the tea table set for the whole party every evening. At last, one night,—a week after they had left home,—while she was standing before the parlor fire, trimming a lamp on the chimney-piece, and wondering sadly if she were not merely imagining that her long-lost daughter was expected home, a carriage drove rapidly up the shaded avenue, steps were let down, people came, a little bustle ensued, hasty steps and joyous voices were heard. Alice ran out, and, in an instant, the mother, weeping, laughing, exclaiming, had caught, and was hugging her daughter laughing to her bosom. Yes, Elsie herself!—Elsie, warm, alive, real, and such an armful of bright, rosy, joyous life, and love and reality! I leave you to imagine the joy of the party around the tea-table that night, where all were too joyful to eat—or the late hour at which they separated for the night and retired to their several rooms, where each one was too happy to sleep. The next morning, happy, joyous Elsie had to hold a sort of levee for the benefit of the colored folks. Every negro in the house, or on the plantation, who had known her before she went away, had to come and shake hands with her, and welcome her back. And every little one that had grown from infancy to childhood during her absence, and to whom she was a sort of fabulous demigoddess, or, it might be, one of the angels, had to come and stare at her and be patted on the head, and get its paper of sugar-plums or its toy. And then, later in the day, when her trunks and boxes arrived in the wagon, and were unpacked, she had to distribute her presents and tokens of remembrance to all and each of the colored people.