One woman, totally deaf, came to me afterwards and said: "Bless you. I
come jist to see you. I'd rather see you than the Queen." Another
introduced her little girl named Harriet Beecher Stowe, and another,
older, named Eva. She said they had traveled fifty miles to hear me
read. An incident like that appeals to one's heart, does it not?
The people of Bangor were greatly embarrassed by the horse disease;
but the mayor and his wife walked over from their house, a long
distance off, to bring me flowers, and at the reading he introduced
me. I had an excellent audience notwithstanding that it rained
tremendously, and everybody had to walk because there were no horses.
The professors called on me, also Newman Smith, now a settled minister
here.
Everybody is so anxious about you, and Mr. Fay made me promise that
you and I should come and spend a week with them, next summer. Mr.
Howard, in Portland, called upon me to inquire for you, and everybody
was so delighted to hear that you were getting better.
It stormed all the time I was in Portland and Bangor, so I saw nothing
of them. Now I am in a palace car riding alongside the Kennebec, and
recalling the incidents of my trip. I certainly had very satisfactory
houses; and these pleasant little visits, and meetings with old
acquaintance, would be well worth having, even though I had made
nothing in a pecuniary sense.
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