This note relieved me of all fear, but now it had become no small undertaking for me to go to Europe. To go alone would be very expensive; but to take my family, consisting now of a wife and three children, was much more so. Hence, I put it off year after year, still writing and begging them to visit me. When the late lamented Dr. Fisk[30] was in England, he visited my mother and brother, and related to them some of the facts in my life, which he had often heard me mention. She sent me two silver table spoons, which had belonged to my father, by the Doctor’s hands. My mother wrote about this visit of that “great, good man” with evident satisfaction. At last, I received a letter from home, which decided me to undertake the often postponed and long delayed voyage to my native land. This letter stated that there was a young man in Albany, with whose friends they were all well acquainted, and that he was about to visit his mother. I found this gentleman, whose name was William Warrington, and agreed to join him with my family in his intended voyage. This agreement made, we set about making preparations for the undertaking. If the reader desires to know the events of that visit, he must consult the ensuing chapter. [Illustration: (Decorative Separator)] CHAPTER XIV Weighed down under a pressure of despondency, arising partly from temporary illness, and partly from the greatness of the enterprise I had undertaken, and whose event was so uncertain, I left Wilbraham on Thursday morning, June 3d, 1841. A pleasant passage, by the way of Springfield and Hartford, brought us into New York early the next morning. By the following Monday, the 7th of June, we were all snugly stowed in a state-room of the second cabin[31] on board the splendid packet-ship, _George Washington_, bound for Liverpool. Before we sailed, however, I was fleeced of seven dollars by the cook of the ship. As passengers in the _second_ cabin, we had the privilege of furnishing ourselves with provisions. For the sum just mentioned, the cook had agreed to do all our cooking at the galley, insisting, however, on being paid in advance, because, he averred, several passengers, on former occasions, had obtained his services and failed to pay him; besides, he wanted to leave all the money he could with his wife. These arguments were, of course, unanswerable, and I paid him the sum demanded. Judge, then, of my surprise, when, a few minutes before we hauled off, the captain engaged another cook; the first having suddenly made himself among the missing. Should the reader ever have occasion to voyage, he may profit by the remembrance of this anecdote.