Several gentlemen present evinced and expressed great surprise that a
blind woman should go to _see_ Mount Vernon, yet I very much doubt if any
eyes really saw more than my own. When we reached the boat, each gentleman
carried in his hand a cane cut from the woods of Mount Vernon, and one and
all returned to Washington with the consciousness of having spent a
pleasant and profitable day.

We soon left for Lynchburg, Virginia, after which we visited the towns en
route to Knoxville, Tennessee. At the latter place we had a very enjoyable
visit to the home of Parson Brownlow. He was absent in attendance upon the
Legislature, but his daughter gracefully and cordially dispensed the
hospitalities of their home, and did everything within the bounds of her
warm, sympathetic intelligence to heighten the pleasure and interest of
our visit.

Back again to Chicago, we were welcomed by Mr. Arms, whom we found
engaged in erecting machinery in the Gowan Marble Works, the largest of
the kind in the North-west. Resting in the sweet haven of home, we passed
the winter in this sanctum.




CHAPTER XXV.

"I love not man the less, but nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal."