Our hostess had peeped at the shocking creatures, as she called them, and she seemed glad enough when they had gone.

"How far off," said she, "will they get to

day?"

van of guests we were soon driven to the porch, on which the moon was pouring out the richest rays that ever danced in her round saloon. A lone whippoorwill was singing, though that bird is very rare on the West of the Ridge. The Indians had been stalking about and looking suspiciously at every thing, until, by our pipes, they were brought like myself into a state of delicious repose. We looked like a company of Dutchmen on Manhattan island, except that, in "Really," answered I, "your nerves are too the light of the moon, the Indian peculiarities were so distinct. The lunar rays shed alternate feeble to keep an inn. Your philanthropy does You must expect gleams on their bracelets, their beaded sandals not seem to bear you out. and the fantastic knots into which the hair on such things, their heads was cut.

"I do not know," said I, "but they will take a long tramp before night-fall.”

"To what tribe," said I to the interpreter, "do these Indians belong, for they are stouter than usual?"

"To the Osage nation," he replied, "and we chose the tallest, as we had business with Uncle Sam."

"When a boy," I remarked, "I remember reading of that tribe or nation in the explorations of Lewis and Clarke, but Prairies and Prairie dogs were the sum and substance of their journals. Still my imagination was fed on the large desert flowers which skirted the Missouri, and on the honey extracted by the Prairie bees. But these Indians are well dressed."

"True," he rejoined, "Uncle Sam has bled rather freely of late, after making them bleed at every pore."

"I did not sleep a wink,” she remarked, "the whole night; and if but a mouse moved, it made me tremble from head to foot."

For at this wayside lodge the angler calls,
The rambling sportsman, and the travelling Jew,
And Indians sleep within these rustic walls,
Whilst Blue Ridge flowers drink in the nightly dew."

'Has the pastor complained," inquired I, "of any want of attention on my part?"

66

He

He complains heavily," she replied, "that you do not spend a night at the manse. raises his daughters not to dance and reel: but to enlarge their minds and improve their taste. A five minutes talk with Norah Morrison is worth a long talk with those horrid beasts of prey, in whom you took such vast delight."

"Glad to hear that," I replied, "for the In- "A stop," said I, "shall soon be put to the dians once owned this Shenandoah valley, now complaints of the pastor, for it is my intention in burdened with crops of wheat and flowers that the morning to ride over to the manse." more than rival the roses which spring on the At this my landlady was pleased, and she island of Rhodes, and where the birds sing more sweetly than the colibri of Brazil. But at present they own not an inch of this rural sea, on whose margin their sires culled wampum shells, and from whose chrystal caves they pulled the spar and bead. But," continued I, "are these Indians all of the same rank?"

are both men of influence."

promised to meet me at the kirk the day after, when we would return in company. Accordingly, the writer set out next day and ambled over the intervening space to the abode of a man highly revered by his flock.

"What a fine country," we involuntarily exclaimed on riding up to the gate of the manse. "The one," he replied, "who sits there is a What mountains visible too from the door of the chief, and the one next him is the prophet. They parsonage !—a wide, open, panoramic view with which the eye of the imagination played in proThe interpreter gave me a mass of informa- tracted dalliance. The eye seemed to caress the tion about the Indian country, and the next morn- prospect and the prospect returned the fondness, ing, after shooting at a few pieces of silver which and this billing and cooing went on till night were set up as targets, they filed off by a short cut through the woods. In the name of the chief the interpreter gave me a calumet, which had a large bowl, and he also gave me a wam- conversation. pum belt, for which my thanks were conveyed in the following lines from Gertrude of Wyoming;

Peace be to thee; my words this belt approve,
The paths of peace my steps have always led.

closed the panorama.

"Are you fond of books?" said Norah Morrison, and she seemed disposed to fall into easy

"I did not come here," said I, "to study books, but to think."

"We were in hopes," she rejoined, "that you had come among us to take off the tameness of our mountain scenery by pen or pencil."

"You cannot mean," said I, "to detract from this glorious manifestation of themselves, made by your mountains, by calling them tame."

"My meaning is," she replied, "that description would augment by association this lovely vale not surpassed by any in Italy, but then it looks drowsy because no Raffaelle has ever collected its lights and colors, and no poet comes at the head of the pilgrims who pass through it in

caravans,

66

When summer, with a matron grace,
Retreats to cool and woodland shades."

But," rejoined I, "my powers with the pencil are very circumscribed, and as to poetry, my hopes of being a poet are extremely dim."

"Would it not suit better at the church?" enquired the pastor.

“It would not,” answered the New Englander. "The building is too large, and the roof too high for the lark-like voices which are to take part in the concert.”

"Be it just as you please," answered the pastor, who was a man remarkably mild. He carried below its brow a soft blue eye, and he was very lowly and unpretending in his demeanor. He had not even a touch of self-complacency, and the next morning he mounted not a showy horse and rode off with us to his church. The church was like those which prevail in the valley. It was large and commodious, and filled to overflowing. Horses in great numbers were tied in the woods. Some were grey and others sorrel, chesnut and mouse-colored. Among the arrivals we noticed that of my landlady, who rode up to a block, and the writer, after helping her off, fastened her steed to the bough of an oak. Just then we heard the sound of music in the church, and our pastor, after going through the preliminary services, delivered a discourse which "Would you would have done honor to Fenelon, the bishop of Clermont. His eloquence was mild and per

"Poetry," said she, "however it may be decried, adds much to our enjoyments. It has created a sea equal to the circumference of the world. One it seems to me would like to dash about this sea forever, using the imagination for a skiff, and looking down to its mosaic grottoes, or upward to those orbs which turn over and over again in its heavenly vaults." "But its islands," I remarked. not like to visit its islands?"

"By all means," she replied, "for they are suasive. It put me in mind of the town called so green, or rather they are evergreens which Scarborough, in the shire of York, which is built have risen, and new ones are still rising on the on an elevation, and the hill is overspread by a face of that sea. How many old abbeys, cas-green plain, and in the centre is a well covered tles and chateaux may be found even in one voyage to the English, Scotch, or Swiss, or Italian parts of this immense ocean."

with velvet moss, from which the thirsty inhahitants are supplied. To his flock the mouth of pastor Morrison was at least a kind of oriental well, and after church he asked me to return with him, but my obligations to my hostess were paramount. It turned out a quiet Sabbath evening, and never had our Inn a more pleasant look among the larkspurs and sun flowers which were set out on its premises.

"You talk," said I, "very much like an ornithologist who called at our inn some weeks ago." "We heard of him," said she, "and could not help laughing immoderately at the success of the Yankee, in palming himself off as a lover of that science which drew forth such constant and brilliant eloquence from Buffon, and which has Our little establishment, for several days, asquickened into a pedestrian race the footsteps of sumed an air of unusual tranquillity. The writer Wilson, and which has spread out ten thousand was left in full command of his time. Scarcely a silver, and purple, and orange wings to the ever-team enlivened the road, several of which slowly moving pencil of Audubon."

passed along every day; the horses ornamented By this time I began to think that the com- with jingling bells and red winkers. In the mean mendation which my hostess had bestowed on time the attentions of my hostess were redoubled the talk of Norah Morrison was not extravagant. to make me comfortable. The cherry season She was about twenty-two, and had a very open had passed away, but we had peaches in abunand benevolent expression of countenance. She dance and apricots of delicious flavor. The had never seen a city, but yet her manners were weather had become extremely hot, and cool soft, and prepossessing, and sprightly. Our talk, buttermilk was a beverage quite grateful. Much however, was interrupted by the entrance of the of my time was spent in the summer-house. It pastor and of my friend Emmons. was pleasant to hide one's self beneath its crowd

66

"Did you succeed," said I to the latter, "in ed leaves among the fierce heats of July. getting a school?" Pilgrimage," said I, to our hostess, "seems to slacken."

66

Several," he replied, "and my thanks are due for that introductory note you gave me to pastor Morrison. It is my purpose, too, in four weeks to hold a concert at the Forest Inn."

"It is something," she said, "like a brook— that dries up in very hot weather; but after awhile its murmur will recommence."

"The dust," said I, "is enough to blind man ed among planets and constellations and comets, and horse and prevent intercourse."

"But there is a cloud rising," observed my landlady—and sure enough, upon examining the horizon, we found every indication of a rain.

though doubtless the dairy-maid would be a good deal interested in the Milky Way."

"I bow," said the astronomer, "to your superior judgment; but will thank you for a note to the next town."

It proved to be a lavish one for the time it lasted. It refreshed every thing, and when passed, the sun rolled over the valley a bow of uncommon tints; and it made me think of Tom Campbell's lines to that superb arch which so often adorns the sky. But the coolness, as contrasted with the previous heat, was superb. All the woods seemed to unlock delightful grottoes, and "A chest of curiosities," he observed. the birds escaped from their nests to the glades, "For the sight of which you wish to be paid. and the melody lasted till evening led in its pio- Nature has marked you for a Jew: but from your neer star. After enjoying the night till a rea- partaking with us in our meal, we doubt not that sonable hour, I was about retiring, when three you have been engrafted into the stock of Chrisarrivals put a temporary stop to my purpose. tianity. Where were you born?" They were disposed of in the best way possible, considering the time at which they had come. The morning revealed their faces: but they appeared to be more concerned about business and money, than about holding colloquies.

"That shall be freely given," I replied, "for it is the duty of all to help on a man of expanded intellect; and especially where all his views are celestial."

"And now, friend Levon, we must attend to your claims."

"Friend Clemmons," said I, "you seem to be somewhat fidgety. What's your will?”

In Poland," he replied.

"And where did you become a Christian?" "In England," he rejoined.

"And of what is this curiosity-shop composed?"

"Some pebbles," he replied, "from the brook Kedron a bottle of water from the Jordan"My will is, he replied," "to sell a Map of the some leaves from the Mount of Olives-some World, and one of the United States, and an en-spars from Mount Tabor-some sprigs from the graved plate of all our Presidents." plain of Sharon-and sundry other things too numerous to be mentioned."

Let us look at your goods."

At that, he unrolled several finely-colored maps. "My purse," said I, "is extremely low, but our hostess is a friend to learning, and a first-rate geographer, and your articles are worth what you ask-that is, ten dollars for the large map, and two dollars and fifty cents for the smaller, and thirty-seven-and-a-half cents for the heads of our rulers. They will make pretty and useful ornaments for our inn. Let your charges always be fair, for Cowper says in his Tyrocinium,

Truth is not local-God alike pervades The world of traffic and the quiet shades.'"

But just at that moment, our landlady made her appearance.

"Credat Judæus," said I. "Are they genuine, for much money has been made out of the relics of Palestine. If I thought so, I should esteem a guinea but a small compensation for the sight." You are quite skeptical," he remarked, "but these things were collected by my own hand. My feet have stood in the dust of Jerusalem, and on the margin of Gennesareth, and among the crags of Olivet, and on the summit of Tabor. This eye has roved over the fallen glories of the land that once flowed with milk and honey, and watched the smoke that curled from the pipes of turbaned Turks."

"Enough," said I; "let others call your people dogs, usurers, Shylocks; but such a sin shall not be laid to my charge. Unlock your chest:" and my hostess, and her domestics, and a few neighbors came in to see; after which the three pilgrims went on their way.

“You must,” said I, "shell out twelve dollars and eighty-seven-and-a-half cents for these chattels. Examine them, for they are worth the money. The vender is in a hurry,” and at that, she went to her drawer and produced the silver. We needed now several more passers-by to "And now, friend Pritchett, let us hear some-swell our coterie to the same number that asthing from you."

sembled in Southwark, and among whom Chau

“My vocatiou,” said he, "is to lecture on Mod-cer employed his comic pencil. For this reason ern Astronomy, and to show off birds and animals by the Magic Lantern."

the writer was disconcerted to see our next traveller arriving alone. He was far as possible “It is my opinion,” said I, “that you had bet- from being communicative, for he either was, or ter go on to Buchanan, or Fincastle, where there pretended to be dumb. There was no ingenuity are men of science. This inn is so lonely. The by which we could extort from him even a word. blacksmith might come in, or a dairy-maid, or a Have you no tongue ?" said I to the man ; harvester-but each of them would be bewilder-but he looked with a vacant stare. We imme

diately supposed that his taciturnity resulted from would be sweet. My hut took fire, and this cart want of acquaintance with our language, and we is my all." tried various expedients with him to ascertain whether this were the fact. There was a copy

By this time we had lifted out the child.

"Oh lay me down," she said, "where I can

My landlady was weeping bitterly. "The child," said she, "is dying. Send for Pastor Morrison."

of Petrarch's Sonnets at the inn, and as he seem-give thanks and die." ed to be an Italian, we showed them to him, "Poor child," thought I, "it would please me supposing he would utter articulate sounds in to heal you;" but my emotions were far too deep that melodious language. But he maintained a for utterance. dogged silence. Finding my patience exhausted, he drew from his pocket an old, worn-out paper, being a printed certificate that the individual had once lived near the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and that his cottage had been overwhelmed by a late commotion in Mount Vesuvius, and of course that he was an object of whenever there is a cloud over a house, just as charity. This great travelling story was palpa- a blind man, like Professor Sanderson, who could bly false, and we immediately denounced him as tell by touching the ground." an impostor.

"I am glad," said my landlady, "to find you so knowing."

“Would he come ?" I enquired.

"He would in a moment," she replied. "He lives in obscurity, but he can tell by intuition

"And of what service can he be to the child?" "Service," said she; "he has rolled the Star of Bethlehem into a thousand clouds."

"But," said I to the man, "it is my wish to My sensibility was now all alive, and in about talk about Naples, Mount Pausilippo, the tomb of an hour and twenty minutes, Pastor Morrison Virgil, and the ruins of those cities overwhelmed alighted at the inn. He was much affected in the year 79. I will agree to give you all the when he entered and saw that the child was dysilver contained in the circumference of this dol-ing.

lar. Birds that can sing and won't sing, must be "My dear little child," he said, as he felt her made to sing." Still this Italian stranger refused pulse, "I was just reading an account, when cali to talk. My dollar was then returned to my purse ed to you, of a medicinal spring discovered in and he beckoned to go; but all of a sudden, he gold mine. Religion then, like the gold, can fell into quite an agreeable garrulity and answer- make you rich, and like the spring, it can heal ed all my inquiries. you to enter into the bloom of Heaven.”

After this he decamped, and had the telegraph "It is mine, already," replied the child, as she been invented at that time, it would have been opened her blue eyes above her cheeks, which very well to have published him along the line of were feverish and red as the French rose. “Good his travels as a dumb man, whom six Virginia minister," she continued, "I want to be baptishillings could make loquacious.

But my apprehensions were at this time quite excited by the fact that my hostess insisted that she had heard the Banshee, or some cry that betokened her death.

zed."

"Pastor Morrison," said I, "a Christian Jew passed here some weeks ago, who, as a great favour, gave me a vial full of genuine water from the river of Jordan."

"Are you of Irish extraction?" I remarked. "Let it be brought out then," said the pastor. "Not at all," she replied; "but much of this And he used it in the celebration of the rite, valley was settled by the Scotch Irish, and they and soon after her body went into a sleep as proselyted me to their creed even in my girl- sound as death and her spirit into Paradise. We hood. Our dogs have been whining for several buried her at the foot of the garden, and her benights." reaved parents passed on to the West, but not Upon reflection, however, this piece of super- till Pastor Morrison's influence had filled the old stition gave me no concern, till one day a covered man's cart and put a new horse into gear for his cart, drawn by a poor tottering horse, drove up use.

to the door of the inn. The horse was glad In beginning this paper, it was my intention enough to stop, for he was fairly staggering to give some account of the concert held at our under his burden. The crazy vehicle was own- inn, by the Vermonter mentioned at its opening. ed by a poor man and his wife, who begged our But a recurrence to the demise of that little child help to lift from the cart a feverish daughter has made me sad. The concert happened but a about, as they said, eleven years of age. few days before my leaving, towards the close of "Whither were you going?" said I to the the summer, and went off very well. Norah Morrison was at it, and outsung all the rest. The "Any where," he answered, "to escape star- mugs on the mantel-piece were all filled with vation. The oil of whales, or stunted roots, 'pinks and hyacinths. Soon after it was enacted,

man.