nt and great natural resources, and these
inducements were sufficient for us. My parents readily consented to my
emigration, and, having made the necessary preparations, my father took
my friend Eustrom and myself down to the coast with his own horses, in
the first part of May, 1851. It was a memorable evening, and I shall
never forget the last farewell to my home, in driving out from the court
into the village street, how I stood up in the wagon, turned towards the
dear home and waved my hat with a hopeful hurrah to the "folks I left
behind." A couple of days' journey brought us to a little seaport, where
we took leave of my father and boarded a small schooner for the city of
Gothenburg.

At that time there were no ocean steamers and no emigrant agents; but we
soon found a sailing vessel bound for America on which we embarked as
passengers, furnishing our own bedding, provisions and other
necessaries, which our mothers had supplied in great abundance. About
one hundred and fifty emigrants from different parts of Sweden were on
board the brig Ambrosius. In the middle of May she weighed anchor and
glided out of the harbor on her long voyage across the ocean to distant
Boston.

We gazed back at the vanishing shores of the dear fatherland with
feelings of affection, but did not regret the step we had taken, and our
bosoms heaved with boundless hope. At the age of eighteen, the strong,
healthy youth takes a bright and hopeful view of life, and so did we.
Many and beautiful were the air-castles we built as we stood on deck,
with our eyes turned towards the promised land of the nineteenth
century. To some of these castles our lives have given reality, others
are still floating before us.

CHAPTER II.

Arrival at Boston--Adventures between Boston and New York--Buffalo--An
Asylum--Return to New York--A Voyage--On the Farm in New Hampshire.

The good brig Ambrosius landed us in Boston on June 29, 1851, but during
the voyage about one-half of the passengers were attacked by small-pox
and had to be quarantined outside the harbor. My good friend and I were
fortunate enough to escape this plague; but instead of this I was taken
sick with the ague on our arrival at Boston.

Now, then, we were in America! The new, unknown country lay before us,
and it seemed the more strange as we did not understand a word of the
English language. For at that time the schools of Sweden paid no
attention to English, so that although I