an excerpt from:
The Death & Letters of Alice James: Selected Correspondence
by Alice James

to Annie Ashburner. September 26, 1873
Cambridge Sept. 26th/73

My dear Nanny
I stand convicted of every crime which you may feel pleased to heap upon me, my conduct has been of the basest I most readily admit, especially as I have so much to tell you of all our wonderful adventures of the summer. To begin with we went through with more than the usual amount of anguish & despair last spring, to know what to do with ourselves for the fatal months of July & August, when the family were inspired with the bright idea of betaking themselves to the provinces. I was sent off the first of July with Aunt Kate as an advance guard. We joined en route some cousins from New York & betook ourselves to Quebec, where we passed ten days very pleasantly at the Misses Lane’s boarding house, wh. has lately been made famous by Mr. Howells story of "A chance acquaintance," which perhaps you may have read & perhaps not; if you have you will be interested to know that I slept in the room in which "Kitty" is supposed to have dwelt, & wh. looks into the Ursuline convent. Whilst in Quebec we went up the Saguenay, pass ing two most delightful days. I don’t know, but I have a vague idea that you have done all this, but what I know you haven’t done, is, what we subsequently did, that is go down the Gulf of St. Lawrence, & whilst I have a drop of blood in my veins you never shall, for its an experience to which I would hardly condemn my worst enemy. We started from Quebec in a boat that had previously been a blockade runner. It was only 28 feet wide & there were 130 passengers on board all Canadians who are by nature several degrees lower than the lowest middle-class English, & art has yet done nothing for them. My dear, we were five days & nights on board & I am alive to tell the tale, a fact of wh. I am prouder than of anything in my adventurous career.

We landed at Pictou a little town in Nova Scotia at 4 o’cl’ck of a Sunday morning, in a little sail boat, it had been pouring pitch forks all night, but fortunately held up at that moment. There were some twenty or thirty passengers, each trying to get ahead of the other at a certain Mrs. Taylor’s who was our only hope in the way of lodgings. We at last all met in Mrs. T’s parlor, the front door open but not a soul up to receive us. There we sat waiting our doom, with Aunt Kate who was our leader, flourishing very vigorously & audibly in the face of the others a certain telegram which she had sent & which wd. of course secure us rooms, when, lo! a maid of all work made her appearance, saying that there was not a room to be had in the house, telegram or no telegram; then you should have seen the stampede of women in water-proofs, umbrellas & bags tearing through the desolate little town in the early dawn seeking for where to lay their heads. We finally found a spot over a gin-shop which had nothing in itself or its landlady, but necessity to recommend it, but which turned out to be on further acquaintance much better than it looked. We had with us a pleasant young Englishman & his wife a Dr. Tredell by name, who helped to beguile the day, but such a wife! I may truly say, that never before have I seen feminine folly, till I made her acquaintance, I hope I shan’t forget all about her before we meet, for my pen is quite unequal to the task of doing her justice. We went from Pictou to Prince Edward’s Island which we had heard was an Earthly Paradise, but which we found a dirty desolate hole, where we lived for three nights and days over another (much more odoriferous than the first) gin-shop. From this sweet spot we went to Halifax & from there to St. John, where I met the parents who came from Cambridge to meet us, where we stayed for four weeks enjoying the lovely cool weather & an excellent hotel, but little else the town being desolate & dreary to the last degree; but notwithstanding all our hardships yr. humble servant has flourished like a young bay-tree, & is now enjoying an amount of strength wh. she has not known for a long time. We had a good many laughs too over our troubles wh. I only wish you could have shared (the laughs not the troubles). I am afraid you have not had a very lively summer, but hope you will go to Florence for the winter. Wm. sends his regards & hopes he may have the pleasure of seeing you before very long. The Ashfield summer seems to have been a success. Charles, yr. cousin, is less attractive I think than ever. Mother sends love to yr. mother & yr. self and wishes much that she could see you sometimes. With remembrances to every one believe me always

Yr. loving friend,

Alice James