I was so wet when I got back to Mitchell's toward the evening, that I
had simply to divest myself of my shoes, socks, and trousers, and
leave them behind for the benefit of New York city. No fire could
have dried them ere I had to start; and to pack them in their present
condition was to spread ruin among my other possessions. With a
heavy heart I said farewell to them as they lay a pulp in the middle
of a pool upon the floor of Mitchell's kitchen. I wonder if they are
dry by now. Mitchell hired a man to carry my baggage to the station,
which was hard by, accompanied me thither himself, and recommended me
to the particular attention of the officials. No one could have been
kinder. Those who are out of pocket may go safely to Reunion House,
where they will get decent meals and find an honest and obliging
landlord. I owed him this word of thanks, before I enter fairly on
the second and far less agreeable chapter of my emigrant experience.
CHAPTER II - COCKERMOUTH AND KESWICK - A FRAGMENT - 1871
VERY much as a painter half closes his eyes so that some salient
unity may disengage itself from among the crowd of details, and what
he sees may thus form itself into a whole; very much on the same
principle, I may say, I allow a considerable lapse of time to
intervene between any of my little journeyings and the attempt to
chronicle them.
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