The Oaks, St. Helena, December 13, 1863.
I think I see you this Sunday evening all round the stove in the back room upstairs talking over Christmas, and whether I am setting out in the Arago that sails to-morrow is perhaps one of the subjects you are discussing. If nothing detained me like the terrible necessity that does detain me, I suppose I should now have my trunk ready and be sleeping with one eye open so as to watch the dawn and be up in time for the first ferry. But it would be against your approval if I did set out, for it is storming yet, with wind that shakes the house, and lightning; and for several days the sea will be so rough that if I tried it I feel sure I should arrive in Philadelphia more dead than alive. Even after the storm is over the sea will be high, for it is an easterly storm and has lasted now three or four days.
