mate. Never was there a fairer opportunity; they had no home to
quit, and their residence at a hotel was one of necessity, not of choice.
But Mr. Draper said it was quite impossible. What! leave his counting-
room, State Street, India Wharf, the insurance offices! leave all in the
full tide of speculation, when he was near the El Dorado for which he had
so long been toiling! when Eastern lands and Western lands, rail-roads
and steam-boats, cotton, and manufactories, were in all their glory; when
his own Clyde Mills were just going into operation! It was impossible,
wholly impossible; and Frances would not go without him. The suggestion
was given up, and she remained in the city almost wholly confined to the
atmosphere of a small room with a coal fire. Unfortunately the measles
appeared among the children at the hotel, and Mrs. Draper's were taken
sick before she knew that the epidemic was there. They had the best
attendance, but nothing supersedes a mother's devotion. Frances passed
many a sleepless night in watching over them. With the eldest the
disorder proved slight, but it was otherwise with the youngest; and when
she began to grow better, the mother drooped. It was a dreary winter for
poor Mrs. Draper, but not so for her husband. Never had there been a
season of such profits, such glorious speculations! Some _croakers_ said
it could not last; and some of our gifted statesmen predicted that an
overwhelming blow must inevitably come. But all this was nothing to
speculators; it certainly would not arrive till after _they_ had made
their millions.

Spring approached, with its uncertainty of climate; sometimes, the
streets were in rivers, and the next day frozen in masses; then came
volumes of east wind. Mrs. Draper's cough returned more frequently than
ever, and Charlotte looked too frail for earth. The physician informed
Mr. Draper that he considered it positively necessary to remove the
invalids to a milder climate, and mentioned Cuba. Mr. Draper, however,
decided that an inland journey would be best, and, inconvenient as it
was, determined to travel as far as some of the _cotton-growing_ states.
After the usual busy preparations, they set off, the wife fully realizing
that she was blighting in the bud her husband's projected speculations
for a few weeks to come, and feeling that he was making what he
considered great sacrifices.

Almost all invalids who have travelled on our continent in pursuit of