1841 September 29, Boston, to Father, Philadelphia

              Boston 9 mo 29. 1841

Dear Father I commenced a letter last evening but found my poor head so confused with the [shaking] it had for two or three days past that I was obliged to stop which I did the more readily as Uncle Alfred had written by the afternoons mail to inform you of our safe arrival. It takes a long time to get over the effects of such a rocking as we have had. We walk like sailors on land calculating (we are now in Yankee land) how much the floor has pitched since we raised our foot. which our brains turn round & round as if we had partaking rather immediately of the contents of the bottle. I never understood before the full force of the expression "half seas over." Yesterday we all had some fever & were a good deal flushed. We hung out our sight as the Temperance people say at our noses. Uncle A & Tom were afraid theirs would pull & U. A. had a plaster on his last night but in spite of all they look rather suspicious this morning. We are at a Temperance house which may go somewhat towards saving our credit. We had as pleasant a passage here as we could have looked for. The summer weather, moonlights nights & favorable winds would have made the trip a delightful one if we had not been so sick. The winds we were remarkably favored with. They shifted almost at the exact times we wanted them to & while speaking vessel out for two or three [weeks] it was gratifying to think that we were performing the same passage in almost as few days. But we were terribly sick. Twas all we went for I suppose. Still too much of a good thing &c. The Easterly winds which had prevailed for the two weeks previous had given a motion to the sea which it was in no hurry to get over & the sea gave us a motion we did not get over in a hurry either. We took three meals in the cabin & after that lived on three square inches of brandy, four cents worth of peppermint lozenges one or two crackers & a few shavings of dried beef, spare feast. but such as boyish appetite nevertheless disdained and we were compelled to leave the greater past of even that in the hands of old Father Neptune. He exacted his tribute rigorously & had we