e spared to
send out good correspondents of position and ability; no money grudged
to bring home information, even if special modes of conveyance have to
be organised. Surely, in times of peace, a tithe of this expenditure
would not be wasted in making our colonies and the "mother" country
better acquainted with each other--to the future benefit of both?

I may be wrong, certainly, for we are all of us liable to error. You
know--

"Different peoples has different opinions--
Some likes apples and some likes inions!"

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