POSTSCRIPT TWO YEARS AFTER.

POSTSCRIPT TWO YEARS AFTER.

We are now as happy as we can desire,--our son is returned. According to
my wishes, he had made out Captain Johnson and Lieutenant Bell, our
first visitors, whom the storm had driven from us, but who were still
determined to see us again. My son found them preparing for another
voyage to the South Seas. He at once seized the opportunity of
accompanying them, impatiently desirous to revisit the island, and to
bring to us Henrietta Bodmer, now become his wife. She is a simple,
amiable Swiss girl, who suits us well, and who is delighted to see once
more her kind aunt, now become her mother.

My wife is overjoyed; this is her first daughter-in-law, but Jack and
Francis, as well as Sophia and Matilda, are growing up; and moreover, my
dear wife, who has great ideas of married happiness, hopes to induce
Emily to consent to be united to Fritz at the same time as her daughters
are married. Fritz would feel all the value of this change; his
character is already softened by her society, and though she is a few
years older than he is, she is blessed with all the vivacity of youth.
Mr. Willis approves of this union, and we hope he will live to solemnize
the three marriages. Ernest and Henrietta inhabit the Grotto Ernestine,
which his brothers fitted up as a very tasteful dwelling. They had even,
to gratify their brother, raised on the rock above the grotto a sort of
observatory, where the telescope is mounted, to enable him to make his
astronomical observations. Yet I perceive his passion for exploring
distant planets is less strong, since he has so much to attach him
to this.

I give this conclusion of my journal to Captain Johnson, to take into
Europe, to be added to the former part. If any one of my readers be
anxious for further particulars respecting our colony and our mode of
life, let him set out for the Happy Island; he will be warmly welcomed,
and may join with us in Ernest's chorus, which we now sing with
additional pleasure,--

All we love around us smile,
Joyful is our Desert Isle.




DECEMBER, 1850.