sand. Consider me at Chatham for the present-on the heel of the hardy leg of Massachusetts-for here I must stop, short of my purpose when I began, but short of being tiresome, I hope, as well.

Yours, &c.

LETTER FROM CAPE COD.

Lagging Pen-Sketch of Cape Cod Landladies-Relative Consequence of Landlords-Luxury peculiar to Public Houses in this Part of the Country -Old friend of "Morris and Willis"-Strap of the Cape Spur-Land like "the Downs of England-Sea-farming and Land-farming-Solitary InnDouble Sleep-Hollow of Everett's Cape " Arm"-Pear tree over 200 years old-Native Accent and Emphasis-Overworked Woinen-Contrivance to Keep the Soil from blowing away-Bridge of Winds-Adaptability of Apple-trees-Features of this Line of Towns-Curious Attachment to Native Soil-The Venice of New England, etc., etc.

As you see, dear Morris, my pen follows me on my journey like a tired dog, but it will overtake me in time. Lag as it will, it is a rascal that sticks to its master-(I am sorry to say)-and if I were to go bed in heaven, without it, I think, I should see its tail wag with the first movement of my hand in the morning. "Love me, love my dog," however, for, like fairy drudges who treat their inevitables "like a dog," I prefer to have the abusing of him all to myself.

In travelling on Cape Cod, one remembers where he takes tea, for the teapot and the landlady are inseparable, and the landladies are pretty women, from one end of the Cape to the other.

The landlord, I noticed, is only "first mate" in this maritime country, and his wife is the indisputable Captain. As is the case all over the surface of the globe, where woman has the whole responsibility, she acquits herself admirably, and I remember no country where the landlady's duties and powers are so judiciously allotted and so well discharged as on Cape Cod-a fact particularly noticeable in America, where everybody does much more and considerably less than he ought to. My companion (Member of Congress from this District), having the "best front chamm-ber" as a matter of course, I was generally lodged in the rear, within cognizance of all the machinery of housekeeping-the trade with the pedlar, the talk with the butcher, the petting of the child, the hurrying of "them gals," and the general supervisory orders, from the gridiron in the kitchen to the remotest pillow-case up stairs, coming within unavoidable earshot-and my admiration of the landladyhood of Barnstable County, I freely own, increased with my knowledge of it. But for the view out of the window, I should not always have been sure that the vigorous handler of tongue and broom whom I saw and heard the moment before the bell rang, was the same gentle proposer of " green or black" whom I looked at over my shoulder the moment after; but there she was the same, save what changes were made, in manner and habiliment, somewhere between back-stoop and parlor. The hair, evidently was dressed in the morning for all day; and, on some habitual nail, probably, hung the cover-all polka, slipped on with the other tone of the voice, "in no time;" and, by either, the dullest stranger would know the mistress from her servant. Το the former, you looked, only when your "cup was out," or for whortleberries and milk. pass the potatoes" you must turn

To

tc the girl with no collar on.

"

It might have been only a curious

NEW HOTEL LUXURY.

53

coincidence, or it may be a professional attitude, but, when not waiting on guests, the landladies, everywhere on the Cape, presented one picture-seated thoughtfully at the side-table with the cheek resting on the thumb and two fingers. In one or two cases I noticed that it seemed to be a favorite time, when new-comers were taking tea, to receive calls from the young ladies in the neighborhood—the visitors, whom I had seen radiating toward the house from various directions, coming in without their bonnets, like members of the family, and departing, bonneted, when the meal was over. With the gentlemen about, who were "regular boarders," I observed that the landlady was, (as they express excellence in Boston,) "A. No. 1," gay, social, and, in manner, something between a sister and a great belle; and, by the way in which my companion's advances to conversation were met, I was satisfied that sociability with the landlady is an understood thing -the public houses on the Cape being thus provided with a luxury, (a lady for a stranger to talk to,) which would be a desirable addition, even to the omni-dreamings-of at the incomparable Astor.*

In the stage proprietor who was to furnish us our vehicle to

As Ireland is the next country eastward, perhaps it may be apposite to quote a passage from Thackeray's travels, descriptive of Irish innkeepers and their wives-the contrast very much in favor of the kind civility of the same class in Barnstable County, while at the same time, our own hold a much higher relative position in social rank. He says: "I saw only three landlords of inns in all Ireland. I believe these gentlemen commonly, and very naturally, prefer riding with the hounds, or other sports, to attendance on their guests; and the landladies prefer to play the piano, or have a game of cards in the parlor; for who can expect a lady tɔ be troubling herself with vulgar chance customers, or looking after Molly in the bedrooms or Tim in the cellar !!

54

CAPE COD PLOUGH.

cross to Orleans, I found one of our old "Mirror" parish, who "knew us both like a book"-all the apartments of his memory papered with the editorials of those days of quarto-and he very kindly took the place of his driver, and put us over the road with his own good whip and better company. We followed a line, that, on the booted leg of the Cape, would be defined by the strap of the spur, and a beautiful evening drive it was, with half a dozen small lakes on the road and a constant alternation of hill and valley-though we were probably indebted to a glowing twilight, and its train of stars and fragrance, for some modification of sand and barrenness. Over this ten miles of hill and water, scarce any one had ever thought it worth while to put up a fence, and, like the open Downs of Sussex in England, more beautiful ground for a free gallop could scarcely be found on the wild prairie. There are few or no farms, from Chatham across to Orleans. Here and there stands a dwelling-house, but its owner farms the more fertile Atlantic, where his plough runs easier even than through the sand, and his crops sow their own seed without troubling him.*

*The analogy between land-farming and sea-farming is hinted at by quaint old Fuller, who, in one of his sermons, thus delivers himself:-"Why doth not the water recover his right over the earth, being higher in Nature? Whence came the salt, and who first boiled it, which made so much brine? When the winds are not only wild in a storm, but even stark mad in a hurricane, who is it that restores them again to their wits and brings them asleep in a calm ? Who made the mighty whales, who swim in a sea of water, and have a sea of oil swimming in them? Who first taught the water to imitate the creatures on land, so that the sea is the stable of horsefishes, the stall of kine-fishes, the sty of hog-fishes, the kennel of dog-fishes, and in all things the sea the ape of the land? When grows the ambergrease in the sea, which is not so hard to be found where it is, as to know what it is? Was not God the first Shipwright? and all vessels on the water descended from the loins, or rather ribs, of Noah's ark? or else who durst be so bold