Temperance > Autobiography and personal recollections of John B. Gough

DEPARTURE FOR AMERICA.
329
London,—much to my regret,—or I should swell my book
far beyond the bounds prescribed, and perhaps prove
tedious to my readers.
CHAPTER XXVI.
DEPARTURE FOR AMERICA.
We had a pleasant passage from Liverpool to Boston,
and reached home on the evening of August 22d,—my
birthday,—after an absence of three years and thirty-
eight days. On our arrival at Worcester we learned that
my wife’s eldest brother, Luke, had met with a fatal acci¬
dent on the Erie Railroad, and was buried two weeks
before; and that her remaining brother, Charles, was very
ill with typhoid brain fever. The joy of our return home
was mingled with sadness. I tried to comfort Mary as
well as I was able, but it was a heavy blow to her.
On the 3d of September our neighbours and friends in¬
vited us to a reception picnic in a grove, which was very
pleasant. Mrs. Gough’s brother being in a nervous state
from the effects of the fever, it was deemed advisable for
a change that he should be brought to our house. Ac¬
cordingly we prepared for him, and on Saturday, Septem¬
ber 15th, he arrived, apparently but little fatigued by the
journey of twelve miles from Bolton; but on Sunday
morning he died very suddenly,—only twenty hours after
his arrival,—and the same afternoon was conveyed back
to Bolton.
I had received the following document, which was in¬
tended to be sent me before I left England, but had been
delayed till my return, when it was presented to me at