X s " 
 
 6 
 
Ihey re coming ! Ihey re comicg ! v?as the cry " 
 
 p 68. 
 
A NEW HOME- WHO LL FOLLOW? 
 
 GLIMPSES OP WESTERN LIFE. 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. MARY CLAVERS, 
 
 AN ACTUAL SETTLER. 
 
 Ladies or fair ladies I would wish you or I would request you, or I would 
 entreat you, not to fear not to tremble ; my life for yours. 
 
 MIDSUMMER-NIGHT S DRLAM. 
 
 A show, as it were, of an accompanable solitariness, and of a civil wildness. 
 
 SIDNEY S ARCADIA. 
 
 FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 REVISED BY THE AUTHOR, 
 AND ILLUSTRATED BY ENGRAVINGS 
 
 FROM DESIGNS BY F. O. C. DARLEY. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 C. S. FRANCIS & CO., 252 BROADWAY. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 J. II. FRANCIS, 128 WASHINGTON STREET. 
 1850. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, 
 
 BY CHARLES S. FRANCIS, 
 
 the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
 Southern District of New York. 
 
 PRINTED BY 
 
 MUNKOE fe F KAN CIS, 
 Boston. 
 
PS 
 
 ft\\ 
 
 N4 
 
 185 P 
 
 PREFACE, 
 
 I AM glad to be told by those who live in the world, 
 that it has lately become fashionable to read prefaces. 
 I wish to say a few words, by way of introduction, to 
 a work which may be deemed too slight to need a pre 
 face, but which will doubtless be acknowledged to re 
 quire some recommendation. 
 
 I claim for these straggling and cloudy crayon sketches 
 of life and manners in the remoter parts of Michigan the 
 merit of general truth of outline. Beyond this I ven 
 ture not to aspire. I felt somewhat tempted to set forth 
 my little book as being entirely what it is very nearly a 
 veritable history ; an unimpeachable transcript of reality ; 
 a rough picture, in detached parts, but pentagraphed 
 from the life ; a sort of * Emigrant s Guide ; considering 
 with myself that these my adventurous journey ings and 
 tarry ings beyond the confines of civilization might fairly 
 be held to confer the traveller s privilege. But conscience 
 prevailed, and I must honestly confess, that there be 
 glosses, and colorings, and lights, if not shadows, for 
 
 3 
 
 988243 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 which the author is alone accountable. Journals, pub 
 lished entire and unaltered, should be Parthian darts, 
 sent abroad only when one s back is turned. To throw 
 them in the teeth of one s every-day associates might 
 diminish one s popularity rather inconveniently. I would 
 desire the courteous reader to bear in mind, however, 
 that whatever is quite unnatural, or absolutely incredible, 
 in the few incidents which diversify the following pages, 
 is to be received as literally true. It is only in the most 
 common-place parts (if there be comparisons) that I have 
 any leasing-making to answer for. 
 
 It will of course be observed that Miss Mitford s charm 
 ing sketches of village life must have suggested the form 
 of my rude attempt. I dare not flatter myself that any 
 one will be led to accuse me of further imitation of a 
 deservedly popular writer. And with such brief salvo, I 
 make my humble curtsey. M. c. . 
 
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 The improvements which have taken place in the social 
 aspect of the great West since these unvarnished records 
 were written, may lead some who observe the present to 
 doubt the truthfulness of such delineations of the past ; but 
 much observation subsequent to the publication of this 
 book, and much after reflection upon it, suggest to me 
 nothing to be retracted or altered in the sketches, as an 
 honest portraiture of rural life in a new country. 
 
 No peculiarity of custom or expression is here intro 
 duced which was not drawn directly from fact, and if 
 the picture lack verity in any particular, it is not through 
 exaggeration, but the opposite. Indeed, the immediate 
 appropriation of the book in a dozen different parts of 
 the country, before the authorship was known, is a suf 
 ficient voucher for its truth. 
 
 I am, therefore, much pleased to be able to present a 
 New Edition ; the fourth public favor has called for, 
 with illustrations by a pencil which never fails to add 
 
 grace to any subject, however homely. 
 
 C. M. K. 
 
 NEW YORK, November, 1849. 
 
A NEW HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Here are seen 
 
 No traces of man s pomp and pride ; no silks 
 Rustle, nor jewels shine, nor envious eyes 
 Encounter. ***** 
 
 Oh, there is not lost 
 
 One of earth s charms ; upon her bosom yet 
 After the flight of untold centuries 
 The freshness of her far beginning lies. 
 
 BRYANT. 
 
 OUR friends in the settlements have expressed so much 
 interest in such of our letters to them as happened to con 
 vey any account of the peculiar feaj;uf^.jifi Western K jfe, dud 
 have asked so many questions, touching particulars which 
 we had not thought worthy of jpejitfp^J&fit! I have oacu 
 for some time past contemplating the possibility of some 
 thing like a detailed account of our experiences. And I 
 have determined to give them to the world, in a form not 
 very different from that in which they were originally 
 recorded for our private delectation ; nothing doubting, that 
 a veracious history of actual occurrences, an unvarnished 
 transcript of real characters, and an impartial record of 
 every-day forms of speech (taken down in many cases from 
 the lips of the speaker) will be pronounced graphic by at 
 least a fair proportion of the journalists of the day. 
 
 1 
 
8 A NEW HOME, 
 
 It is true there are but meagre materials for anything 
 that might be called a story. I have never seen a cougar 
 nor been bitten by a rattlesnake. The reader who has 
 patience to go with me to the close of my desultory 
 sketches, must expect nothing beyond a meandering recital 
 of common-place occurrences mere gossip about every 
 day people, little enhanced in value by any fancy or inge 
 nuity of the writer ; in short, a very ordinary pen-drawing ; 
 which, deriving no interest from coloring, can be valuable 
 only for its truth. 
 
 A home on the outskirts of civilization habits of society 
 which allow the maid and her mistress to do the honors in 
 complete equality, and to make the social tea visit in loving 
 conjunction such a distribution of the duties of life as 
 compels all, without distinction, to rise with the sun or 
 before him to breakfast with the chickens then, 
 
 " Count the slow clock, and dine exact at noon" 
 
 to be ready for tea at four, and for bed at eight may 
 certainly be expected to furnish some curious particulars for 
 the consideration of^ those whose daily course almost reverses 
 this primitive a?m*rige*raent who call night day and day 
 
 3 apt occasionally to forget, when speak 
 ing of a particular class, that those creatures are partakers 
 with themselves of a common nature. 
 
 I can only wish, like other modest chroniclers, my 
 respected prototypes, that so fertile a theme had fallen into 
 worthier hands. If Miss Mitford, who has given us such 
 charming glimpses of Aberleigh, Hilton Cross, and the 
 Loddon, had, by some happy chance, been translated to 
 Michigan, what would she not have made of such materials 
 as Tinkerville, Montacute, and the Turnip ? 
 
 When my husband purchased two hundred acres of wild 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 9 
 
 land on the banks of this to-be-celebrated stream, and drew 
 with a piece of chalk on the bar-room table at Danforth s 
 the plan of a village, I little thought I was destined to make 
 myself famous by handing down to posterity a faithful 
 record of the advancing fortunes of that favored spot. 
 
 The madness of the people in those days of golden 
 dreams took more commonly the form of city-building ; 
 but there were a few who contented themselves with plan 
 ning villages, on the banks of streams which certainly never 
 could be expected to bear navies, but which might yet be 
 turned to account in the more homely way of grinding or 
 sawing operations which must necessarily be performed 
 somewhere, for the well-being of those very cities. It is of 
 one of these humble attempts that it is my lot to speak, and 
 I make my confession at the outset, warning any fashion 
 able reader, who may have taken up my book, that I intend 
 to be decidedly low. 
 
 Whether the purchaser of our village would have been as 
 moderate under all possible circumstances, I am not prepared 
 to say, since, never having enjoyed a situation under govern 
 ment, his resources have not been unlimited ; and for this 
 reason any remark which may be hazarded in the course of 
 these my lucubrations touching the more magnificent plans 
 of wealthier aspirants, must be received with some grains 
 of allowance. II est plus ais d etre sage pour les autres, 
 que de 1 etre pour soi-meme. 
 
 When I made my first visit to these remote and lonely 
 regions, the scattered woods through which we rode for 
 many miles were gay in their first gosling-green suit of 
 half-opened leaves, and the forest odors which exhaled with 
 the dews of morning and evening, were beyond measure 
 delicious to one long in populous cities pent. I desired 
 
10 A NE W HOME, 
 
 much to be a little sentimental at the time, and feel 
 tempted to indulge to some small extent even here but I 
 forbear ; and shall adhere closely to matters more in keep 
 ing with my subject. 
 
 I think, to be precise, the time was the last, the very last 
 of April, and I recollect well that even at that early season, 
 by availing myself with sedulous application, of those times 
 when I was fain to quit the vehicle through fear of the 
 perilous mud-holes, or still more perilous half-bridged 
 marshes, I picked upwards of twenty varieties of wild- 
 flowers some of them of rare and delicate beauty ; and 
 sure I am, that if I had succeeded in inspiring my compa 
 nion with one spark of my own floral enthusiasm, our 
 hundred miles of travel would have occupied a week s time. 
 
 The wild-flowers of Michigan deserve a poet of their own. 
 Shelley who sang so quaintly of the pied wind-flowers and 
 the tulip tall, would have found many a fanciful compari 
 son and deep-drawn meaning for the thousand gems of the 
 road-side. Charles Lamb could have written charming 
 volumes about the humblest among them. Bulwer would 
 find means to associate the common three-leaved white lily 
 so closely with the Past, the Present, and the Future the 
 Wind, the Stars, and the Tripod of Delphos, that all future 
 botanists, and eke all future philosophers, might fail to 
 unravel the linked sweetness. We must have a poet of 
 our own. 
 
 Since I have casually alluded to a Michigan mud-hole, I 
 may as well enter into a detailed memoir on the subject, for 
 the benefit of future travellers, who, flying over the soil on 
 railroads, may look slightingly back upon the achievements 
 of their predecessors. In the settlements, a mud-hole is 
 considered as apt to occasion an unpleasant jolt a break- 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 1 1 
 
 ing of the thread of one s reverie or in extreme cases, a 
 temporary stand-still, or even an overturn of the rash and 
 unwary. Here, on approaching one of these characteristic 
 features of the West (how much does that expression 
 mean to include ? I have never been able to discover its 
 limits) the driver stops alights walks up to the dark 
 gulf and around it, if he can get around it. He then seeks 
 a long pole and sounds it, measures it across to ascertain 
 how its width compares with the length of his wagon tries 
 whether its sides are perpendicular, as is usually the case 
 if the road is much used. If he find it not more than three 
 feet deep, he remounts cheerily, encourages his team, and 
 in they go, with a plunge and a shock, rather apt to damp 
 the courage of the inexperienced. If the hole be narroAv, 
 the hinder wheels will be quite lifted off the ground by the 
 depression of their precedents, and so remain until by un 
 wearied chiruping and some judicious touches of the string 
 the horses are induced to struggle as for their lives ; and if 
 the Fates are propitious they generally emerge on the 
 opposite side, dragging the vehicle, or, at least, the fore- 
 wheels, after them. When I first penetrated the interior/ 
 (to use an indigenous phrase,) all I knew of the wilds was 
 from Hoffman s Tour, or Captain Hall s graphic deline 
 ations. I had some floating idea of driving a barouche-and- 
 four any where through the oak-openings and seeing 
 the murdered Banquos of the forest haunting the scenes 
 of their departed strength and beauty. But I confess these 
 pictures, touched by the glowing pencil of fancy, gave me 
 but incorrect notions of a real journey through Michigan. 
 
 Our vehicle was not perhaps very judiciously chosen at 
 least we have since thought so. It was a light, high-hung 
 carriage of the description commonly known as a buggy 
 
12 A NEW HOME, 
 
 or shandrydan names, of which I would be glad to learn 
 the etymology. I seriously advise any of my friends, who 
 are about flitting to Wisconsin or Oregon, to prefer a heavy 
 lumber wagon, even for the use of the ladies of the family ; 
 very little aid or consolation being derived from making a 
 genteel appearance in such cases. 
 
 At the first encounter of such a mud-hole as I have 
 attempted to describe, we stopped in utter despair. My 
 companion indeed would fain have persuaded me that the 
 many wheel tracks which passed through the formidable 
 gulf were proof positive that it might be forded. I insisted 
 with all a woman s obstinacy that I could not and would 
 not make the attempt, and alighted accordingly, and tried to 
 find a path on one side or the other. But in vain, even 
 putting out of the question my paper-soled shoes sensible 
 things for the woods. The ditch on each side was filled 
 with water and quite too wide to jump over ; and we were 
 actually contemplating a return, when a man in an immense 
 bear-skin cap and a suit of deer s hide, sprang from behind 
 a stump just within the edge of the forest. He poled 
 himself over the ditch in a moment, and stood beside us, 
 rifle in hand, as wild and rough a specimen of humanity as 
 one would wish to encounter in a strange and lonely road, 
 just at the shadowy dusk of the evening. I did not scream, 
 though I own I was prodigiously frightened. But our 
 stranger said immediately, in a gentle tone and with a 
 French accent, Me watch deer you want to cross ? On 
 receiving an answer in the affirmative, he ran in search of 
 a rail, which he threw over the terrific mud-hole aided 
 me to walk across by the help of his pole showed my 
 husband where to plunge waited till he had gone safely 
 through, and slow circles dimpled o er the quaking mud 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 13 
 
 then took kimself off by the way he came, declining 
 any compensation with a most polite rien ! rien ! This 
 instance of true and genuine and generous politeness I 
 record for the benefit of all bearskin caps, leathern jerkins, 
 and cowhide boots, which ladies from the eastward world 
 may hereafter encounter in Michigan. 
 
 Our journey was marked by no incident more alarming 
 than the one I have related, though one night passed in a 
 wretched inn, deep in the timbered land as all woods 
 are called in Michigan was not without its terrors, owing 
 to the horrible drunkenness of the master of the house, 
 whose wife and children were in constant fear of their lives 
 from his insane fury. I can never forget the countenance of 
 that desolate woman, sitting trembling, and with white 
 compressed lips, in the midst of her children. The father 
 raving all night, and coming through our sleeping apart 
 ment with the earliest ray of morning in search of more of 
 the poison already boiling in his veins. The poor wife 
 could not forbear telling me her story her change of lot 
 from a well-stored and comfortable home in Connecticut to 
 this wretched den in the wilderness herself and children 
 worn almost to shadows with the ague, and her husband 
 such as I have described him. I may mention here, that 
 not very long after, I heard of this man in prison in Detroit, 
 for stabbing a neighbor in a drunken brawl, and ere the 
 year was out, he died of delirium tremens, leaving his 
 family destitute. So much for turning our fields of golden 
 grain into fire water a branch of business in which 
 Michigan is fast improving. 
 
 Our ride being a deliberate one, I felt, after the third 
 day, a little wearied, and began to complain of the sameness 
 of the oak openings, and to wish we were fairly at our 
 2 
 
14 A NEW HOME, 
 
 journey s end. We were crossing a broad expanse of what 
 seemed, at a little distance, a smooth shaven lawn of the 
 most brilliant green, but which proved on trial little better 
 than a quaking bog embracing within its ridgy circum 
 ference all possible varieties of 
 
 Muirs and mosses, slaps and styles 
 
 I had just indulged in something like a yawn, and wished 
 that I could see our hotel. At the word, my companion s 
 face assumed rather a comical expression, and I was pre 
 paring to inquire somewhat testily what there was so 
 laughable I was getting tired and cross, reader when 
 down came our good horse to the very chin in a bog-hole, 
 green as Erin on the top, but giving way on the touch, and 
 seeming deep enough to have engulfed us entirely, if its 
 width had been proportionate. Down came the horse 
 and this was not all down came the driver ; and I could 
 not do less than follow, though at a little distance our 
 good steed kicking and floundering covering us with 
 hieroglyphics, which would be readily deciphered by any 
 Wolverine we should meet, though perchance strange to 
 the eyes of our friends at home. This mishap was soon 
 amended. Tufts of long marsh grass served to assoilzie 
 our habiliments a little, and a clear stream which rippled 
 through the marsh aided in removing the eclipse from our 
 faces. We journeyed on cheerily, watching the splendid 
 changes in the west, but keeping a bright look out for bog- 
 holes. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Think us no churls, nor measure our good minds 
 By this rude place \ve live in. 
 
 CYMBELINE. 
 
 THE sun had just set when we stopped at the tavern, 
 and I then read the cause of my companion s quizzical look. 
 My hotel was a log-house, of diminutive size, with cor 
 responding appurtenances ; and from the moment we 
 entered its door I was in a fidget to know where we could 
 possibly sleep. I was then new in Michigan. Our good 
 hostess rose at once with a nod of welcome. 
 
 Well ! is this Miss Clavers ! (my husband had been 
 there before) well ! I want to know ! why do tell if you 
 have been upsot in the mash ? why I want to know ! and 
 did n t ye hurt ye none ? Come, gals, fly round, and let s 
 git some supper. 
 
 But you 11 not be able to lodge us, Mrs. Danforth, said 
 I, glancing at three young men and some boys, who appeared 
 to have come in from their work, and who were lounging on 
 one side of the immense open chimney. 
 
 Why, bless your heart ! yes I shall ; don t you fret 
 yourself ; I 11 give you as good a bed as anybody need 
 want. 
 
 I cast an exploring look, and now discovered a door 
 opposite the fire. 
 
 Jist step in here, said Mrs. Danforth, opening this door, 
 
16 ANEWHOME, 
 
 jist come in and take off your things, and lop down, if 
 you re a mind to, while we re a getting supper. 
 
 I followed her into the room, if room it might be called, 
 a strip partitioned off, just six feet wide, so that a bed was 
 accurately fitted in at each end, and a square space remained 
 vacant between the two. 
 
 We ve been getting this room made lately, and I tell 
 you it s real nice, so private like ! said our hostess, with a 
 complacent air. Here, she continued, in this bed the 
 gals sleeps, and that s my bed and the old man s ; and 
 then here s a trundle-bed for Sally and Jane, and suiting 
 the action to the word, she drew out the trundle-bed as far 
 as our standing- place would allow, to show me how con 
 venient it was. 
 
 Here was my grand problem still unsolved ! If me and 
 the old man, and the girls, and Sally and Jane, slept in this 
 strip, there certainly could be no room for more, and I 
 thought with dismay of the low-browed roof, which had 
 seemed to me to rest on the tops of the window-frames. 
 And, to make a long story short, though manifold were the 
 runnings up and down, and close the whisperings, before all 
 was ready, I was at length ushered up a steep and narrow 
 stick ladder into the sleeping apartment. Here, surrounded 
 by beds of all sizes spread on the floor, was a bedstead, 
 placed under the peak of the roof in order to gain space 
 for its height ; and round this state-bed, for such it 
 evidently was, although not supplied with pillows at each 
 end, all the men and boys I had seen below stairs were to 
 repose. Sundry old quilts were fastened by forks to the 
 rafters in such a way as to serve as a partial screen, and 
 with this I was obliged to be content. Excessive fatigue is 
 not fastidious. I called to mind some canal-boat expe- 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 17 
 
 riences, and resigned myself to the honey-heavy dew of 
 slumber. 
 
 I awoke with a sense of suffocation started up all was 
 dark as the Hall of Eblis. I called ; no answer came ; I 
 shrieked ! and up ran one of the gals. 
 
 * What on airth s the matter ? 
 
 1 Where am I ? What ails me ? said I, beginning to feel 
 a little awkward when I heard the damsel s voice. 
 
 Why, I guess you was scairt, wa n t ye ? 
 
 Why am I in the dark ? Is it morning ? 
 
 Morning? why, the boys has been gone away this hour, 
 and, you see, there a n t no winder up here, but I 11 take 
 down this here quilt, and then I guess you 11 be able to see 
 some. 
 
 She did so, and I began to discern 
 
 A faint shadow of uncertain light, 
 
 which, after my eyes had become somewhat accustomed to 
 it, served very well to dress by. 
 
 Upon descending the ladder, I found our breakfast pre 
 pared on a very neat-looking table, and Mrs. Danforth with 
 her clean apron on, ready to do the honors. 
 
 Seeing me looking round with inquiring eye, she said, 
 0, you m looking for a wash-dish, a n t ye? and forth 
 with put some water into a little iron skillet, and carried 
 it out to a bench which stood under the eaves, where I 
 performed my very limited ablutions al fresco, not at all 
 pleased with this part of country habits. 
 
 I bethought me of a story I had heard before we crossed 
 the line, of a gentleman travelling in Michigan, who, instead 
 of a wash-dish, was directed to the spring, and when he 
 requested a towel received for answer why, I should 
 think you had a hankercher. 
 
18 ANEW HOM E, 
 
 After breakfast I expressed a wish to accompany Mr. 
 Clavers to the village tract; but he thought a very bad 
 marsh would make the ride unpleasant. 
 
 * Lord bless ye ! said Mr. Danforth, that mash has got 
 a real handsome bridge over it since you was here last. 
 
 So we set out in the buggy and rode several miles 
 through an alternation of open glades with fine walnut trees 
 scattered over them, and bosky dells * fragrant as Araby 
 the blest at that delicious hour, when the dews filled the 
 air with the scent of the bursting leaves. 
 
 By-and-by we came to the beautiful bridge, a newly- 
 laid causeway of large round logs, with a slough of 
 despond to be crossed, in order to reach it. I would not 
 consent to turn back, however, and in we went, the buggy 
 standing it most commendably. When we reached the first 
 log our poor Rozinante stopped in utter despair, and some 
 persuasion was necessary to induce him to rear high enough 
 to place his fore-feet upon the bridge ; and when he 
 accomplished this feat, and after a rest essayed to make the 
 buggy rear too, it was neck or nothing. Yet up we went, 
 and then came the severe part of the achievement, a beau 
 tiful bridge half a mile long ! 
 
 Half a rod was enough for me ; I cried for quarter, and 
 was permitted to pick my way over its slippery eminences, 
 to the utter annihilation of a pair of Lane s shoes. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 10 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The greatness of an estate, in bulk and territory, doth fall, under measure; 
 and the greatness of finances and revenue doth fall, under computation. * 
 By all means it is to be procured, that the trunk of Nebuchadnezzar s tree of 
 monarchy be great enough to bear the branches and the boughs. 
 
 BACON. 
 
 THE morning passed in viewing and reviewing the village 
 site and the mill privilege, under the condescending 
 guidance of a regular land speculator, into whose clutches 
 .... but I anticipate. 
 
 The public square, the water lots, the value per foot of 
 this undulating surface, clothed as it then was with burr- 
 oaks, and haunted by the red deer : these were almost too 
 much for my gravity. I gave my views, however, as to 
 the location of the grand esplanade, and particularly re 
 quested that the fine oaks which now graced it might be 
 spared when the clearing process commenced. 
 
 1 Oh, certainly, mem ! said our D ousters wivel, a place 
 that s designed for a public promenade must not be divest 
 ed of shade trees ! Yet I believe these very trees were the 
 first Banquos at Montacute. The water lots, which were 
 too valuable to sell save by the foot, are still in the market, 
 and will probably remain there for the present. 
 
 This factotum, this Mr. Hazard, was an odd-looking 
 creature, with * diverse ocular foci, and a form gaunt 
 enough to personify Grahamism. His words sometimes 
 
20 ANEWHOME, 
 
 flowed in measured softness, and sometimes tumbled over 
 each other, in his anxiety to convince, to persuade, to 
 inspire. His air of earnest conviction, of sincere anxiety for 
 your interest, and, above all, of entire forgetfulness of his 
 own, was irresistible. People who did not know him 
 always believed every word he said ; at least so I have 
 since been informed. 
 
 This gentleman had kindly undertaken to lay out our 
 village, to build a mill, a tavern, a store, a blacksmith s 
 shop ; houses for cooper, miller, &c., &c., to purchase the 
 large tracts which would be required for the mill-pond, a 
 part of which land was already improved ; and all this, 
 although sure to cost Mr. Clavers an immense sum, he, 
 from his experience of the country, his large dealings with 
 saw-mills, &c., would be able to accomplish at a very 
 moderate cost. The mill, for instance, was to be a story 
 and a half high, and to cost perhaps twenty-five hundred 
 dollars at the utmost. The tavern, a cheap building of 
 moderate size, built on the most popular plan, and con 
 nected with a store, just large enough for the infant needs 
 of the village, reserving our strength for a splendid one I 
 quote Mr. Mazard to be built out of the profits in about 
 three years. All these points being thus satisfactorily 
 arranged, Mr. Mazard received a carte-blanche for the pur 
 chase of the lands which were to be flowed, which he had 
 ascertained might be had for a mere trifle. 
 
 The principal care now was to find a name a title at once 
 simple and dignified striking and euphonious recherche 
 and yet unpretending. Mr. Mazard was for naming it after 
 the proprietor. It was a proper opportunity, he thought, 
 of immortalizing one s self. But he failed in convincing the 
 proprietor, who relished not this form of fame, and who 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 21 
 
 referred the matter entirely to me. Here was a respon 
 sibility ! I begged for time, but the matter must be decided 
 at once. The village plot was to be drawn instanter ; 
 lithographed and circulated through the United States, and, 
 to cap the climax, printed in gold, splendidly framed, and 
 hung up in Detroit, in the place where merchants most do 
 congregate. 
 
 I tried for an aboriginal designation, as most characteristic 
 and unworn. I recollected a young lady speaking with 
 enthusiastic admiration of our Indian names, and quoting 
 Ypsilanti as a specimen. But I was not fortunate in my 
 choice ; for to each of the few which I could recollect, 
 Mr. Mazard found some insuperable objection. One was 
 too long, another signified Slippery Eel, another Big Bubble; 
 and these would be so inappropriate ! I began to be very 
 tired. I tried romantic names ; but these again did not 
 suit any of us. At length I decided by lot, writing ten of 
 the most sounding names I could muster from my novel- 
 reading stores on slips of paper, which were mingled in a 
 shako, and out came MONTACUTE. How many matters of 
 greater importance are thus decided ! 
 
22 ANEWHOME, 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 As I am recording the sacred events of history, I ll not bate one nail s 
 
 breadth of the honest truth. 
 
 IRVING KNICKERBOCKER. 
 
 Hope, t.hou bold taster of delight, 
 
 Who, while thou should st but taste, devour st it quite. 
 
 COWLEY. 
 
 MUCH was yet to be done this morning, and I was too 
 much fatigued to wander about the hills any longer ; so I 
 sought shelter in a log-house at no great distance, to await 
 the conclusion of the survey. I was received with a civil 
 nod by the tall mistress of the mansion, and with a curiously 
 grave and somewhat sweeping curtsey by her auburn-tressed 
 daughter, whose hair was in curl-papers, and her hands 
 covered with dough. The room was occupied at one end 
 by two large beds not partitioned off private like, but 
 curtained in with cotton sheets pinned to the unhewn rafters. 
 Between them stood a chest, and over the chest hung the 
 Sunday wardrobe of the family ; the go-to-meeting hats and 
 bonnets, frocks and pantaloons of a goodly number of all 
 sizes. 
 
 The great open hearth was at the opposite end of the 
 house, flanked on one side by an open cupboard, and on the 
 other by a stick ladder. 
 
 Large broadside sheets, caravan show-bills, were pasted 
 on the logs in different places, garnished with mammoth 
 elephants and hippopotamuses, over which predominated 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 23 
 
 Mr. Van Amburgh, with his head in the lion s mouth. A 
 strip of dingy listing was nailed in such a way as to afford 
 support for a few iron spoons, a small comb, and sundry 
 other articles grouped with the like good taste ; but I must 
 return to my fair hostesses. 
 
 They seemed to be on the point of concluding their 
 morning duties. The hearth was newly swept, a tin reflec 
 tor was before the fire, apparently full of bread, or some 
 thing equally important. The young lady was placing 
 some cups and plates in a pyramidal pile on the cupboard 
 shelf, when the mother, after taking my bonnet with grave 
 courtesy, said something, of which I could only distinguish 
 the words slick up. 
 
 She soon after disappeared behind one of the white 
 screens I have mentioned, and in an incredibly short time 
 emerged in a different dress. Then taking down the comb 
 I have hinted at, as exalted to a juxtaposition with the 
 spoons, she seated herself opposite to me, unbound her 
 very abundant brown tresses, and proceeded to comb them 
 with great deliberateness ; occasionally speering a question 
 at me, or bidding Miss Irene (pronounced Ireen) mind the 
 bread. When she had finished, Miss Irene took the comb 
 and went through the same exercise, and both scattered 
 the loose hairs on the floor with a coolness that made me 
 shudder when I thought of my dinner, which had become, 
 by means of the morning s ramble, a subject of peculiar 
 interest. A little iron wash-dish, such as I had seen in 
 the morning, was now produced ; the young lady vanished 
 re-appeared in a scarlet Circassian dress, and more combs 
 in her hair than would dress a belle for the court of St. 
 James ; and forthwith both mother and daughter proceeded 
 to set the table for dinner. 
 
24 A NEW HOME, 
 
 The hot bread was cut into huge slices, several bowls of 
 milk were disposed about the board, a pint bowl of yellow 
 pieties, another of apple sauce, and a third containing 
 mashed potatoes, took their appropriate stations, and a dish 
 of cold fried pork was brought out from some recess, heated 
 and re-dished, when Miss Irene proceeded to blow the 
 horn. 
 
 The sound seemed almost as magical in its effects as the 
 whistle of Roderick Dim ; for, solitary as the whole neigh 
 borhood had appeared to me in the morning, not many 
 moments elapsed before in came men and boys enough to 
 fill the table completely. I had made sundry resolutions 
 not to touch a mouthful ; but I confess I felt somewhat 
 mortified when I found there was no opportunity to refuse/* ^ 
 
 After the wash-dish had been used in turn, and vari 
 ous handkerchiefs had performed, not for that occasion, 
 only, the part of towels, the lords of creation seated them 
 selves at the table, and fairly demolished in grave silence 
 every eatable thing on it. Then, as each one finished, lie 
 arose and walked off, till no one remained of all tin s 
 goodly company but the red-faced, heavy-eyed master of 
 the house. This personage used his privilege by asking 
 me five hundred questions, as to my birth, parentage, and 
 education ; my opinion of Michigan, my husband s plans 
 and prospects, business and resources ; and then said, he 
 guessed he must be off. 
 
 Meanwhile his lady and daughter had been clearing the 
 table, and were now preparing to wash the dishes in an 
 iron pot of very equivocal-looking soap suds, which stood in 
 a corner of the chimney-place, rinsing each piece in a pan 
 of clean water, and then setting it to dreen on a chair. I 
 watched the process with no increasing admiration of 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 25 
 
 Michigan economics ; thought wofully of dinner ; and 
 found that Mrs. Danforth s breakfast-table, which had 
 appeared in the morning frugal and homely enough, was 
 filling my mind s eye as the very acme of comfort. Every 
 thing is relative. 
 
 But now prospects began to brighten ; the tea-kettle was 
 put on ; the table was spread again with the tea- equipage 
 and a goodly pile of still warm bread, redolent of milk- 
 yeast ; the unfailing bowls of apple sauce and pickles, a 
 plate of small cakes, and a saucer of something green cut 
 up in vinegar. I found we had only been waiting for a more 
 lady-like meal, and having learned wisdom by former dis 
 appointment, I looked forward with no small satisfaction 
 to something like refreshment. 
 
 The tea was made and the first cup poured, when in 
 came my husband and Mr. Mazard. What was my dismay 
 when I heard that I must mount and away on the instant ! 
 The buggy at the door the sun setting, and the log- 
 causeway, and the black slough yet to be encountered. I 
 could not obtain a moment s respite, and I will not pretend 
 to describe my vexation, when I saw, on looking back, our 
 projector already seated at my predestined cup of tea, and 
 busily engaged with my slice of bread and butter. 
 
 I walked over the logs in no very pleasant mood, and 
 when we reached the slough it looked blacker than ever. I 
 could not possibly screw up my fainting courage to pass it 
 in the carriage, and after some difficulty, a slender pole was 
 found, by means of which I managed to get across, think 
 ing all the while of the bridge by which good Mussulmans 
 skate into paradise, and wishing for no houri but good Mrs. 
 Danforth. 
 
 We reached the inn after a ride which would have been 
 
26 A NEW HOME, 
 
 delicious under other circumstances. The softest and still 
 est of spring atmospheres, the crimson rays yet prevailing, 
 and giving an opal changefulness of hue to the half-opened 
 leaves ; 
 
 The grass beneath them dimly green ; 
 
 could scarcely pass quite unfelt by one whose delight is in 
 their beauty; but, alas, who can be sentimental and 
 hungry ! 
 
 I alighted with gloomy forebodings. The house was 
 dark could it be that the family had already stowed 
 themselves away in their crowded nests ? The fire was 
 buried in ashes, the tea-kettle was cold I sat down in the 
 corner and cried 
 
 I was awakened from a sort of doleful trance by the 
 voice of our cheery hostess. 
 
 Why, do tell if you ve had no supper ! Well, I want 
 to know ! I went off to meetin over to Joe Bunner s and 
 never left nothing ready. 
 
 But in a space of time which did not seem long even to 
 me, my cup of tea was on the table, and the plate of snow- 
 white rolls had no reason to complain of our neglect or 
 indifference. 
 
W H O L L F L L O VV ? <J7 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Such soon-speeding geer 
 As will dispense itself through all the veins. 
 
 SHAKSPEA.RK. 
 
 By her help I also now 
 
 Make this churlish place allow 
 
 Some things that may sweeten gladness 
 
 In the very heart of sadness. 
 
 WITHERS. 
 
 THE next day I was to spend in the society of my host 
 ess ; and I felt in no haste to quit my eyrie, although it 
 was terribly close, but waited a call from one of the little 
 maidens before I attempted my twilight toilet. When I 
 descended the ladder, nobody was visible but the woman 
 kind. 
 
 After breakfast Mrs. Danforth mentioned that she was 
 going about a mile into the woods to visit a neighbor whose 
 son had been bitten by a massisaugas, (I spell the word by 
 ear), and was not expected to live. 
 
 I inquired of course Why, law ! it s a rattlesnake ; 
 the Indians call them massisaugas, and so folks calls em 
 so too. 
 
 Are they often seen here ? 
 
 Why, no not very ; as far from the mash as this. I 
 han t seen but two this spring, and them was here in the 
 garden, and I killed em both. 
 
 You killed them ! 
 
 Why, law, yes ! Betsey come in one night after tea 
 
28 ANEWHOME, 
 
 and told me on em, and we went out, and she held the 
 candle while I killed them. But I tell you we had a real 
 chase after them ! 
 
 My desire for a long walk through the woods was some 
 what cooled by this conversation ; nevertheless, upon the 
 good dame s reiterated assurance that there was no danger, 
 and that she would as lief meet forty on em as not, I 
 consented to accompany her, and our path through the dim 
 forest was as enchanting as one of poor Shelley s gemmed 
 and leafy dreams. The distance seemed nothing, and I 
 scarcely remembered the rattlesnakes. 
 
 We found the poor boy in not quite so sad a case as had 
 
 been expected. A physician had arrived from , 
 
 about fourteen miles off, and had brought with him a 
 quantity of spirits of hartshorn, with which the poisoned 
 limb had now been constantly bathed for some hours, .while 
 frequent small doses of the same specific had been admin 
 istered. This course had produced a change, and the pale 
 and weary mother had begun to hope. 
 
 This boy had been fishing in the stream which was to 
 make the fortune of Montacute, and in kneeling to search 
 for bait had roused the snake which bit him just above the 
 knee. The entire limb was frightfully swollen and covered 
 with large livid spots exactly like the snake, as the woman 
 stated with an air of mysterious meaning. 
 
 When I saw the body of the snake, which the father had 
 found without difficulty, and killed very near the scene of the 
 accident so slow are these creatures generally I found 
 it difficult to trace the resemblance between its brilliant 
 colors and the purplish brown blotches on the poor boy s 
 leg. But the superstition once received, imagination sup 
 plies all deficiencies. A firm belief in some inscrutable 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 29 
 
 connexion between the spots on the snake and the spots on 
 the wounded person is universal in this region, as I have 
 since frequently heard. 
 
 During our walk homeward, sauntering as we did to pro 
 long the enjoyment, my hostess gave me a little sketch of 
 her own early history, and she had interested me so strong 
 ly by her unaffected kindliness, and withal a certain dash of 
 espieglerie, that I listened to the homely recital with a 
 good deal of pleasure. 
 
 I was always pretty lucky, she began and as I looked 
 at her benevolent countenance with its broad expansive 
 brow and gentle eyes, I thought such people are apt to be 
 * lucky even in this world of disappointments. 
 
 My mother did n t live to bring me up, she continued, 
 but a man by the name of Spangler, that had no children, 
 took me and did for me as if I had been his own ; sent me 
 to school and all. His wife was a real mother to me. She 
 was a weakly woman, hardly ever able to sit up all day. I 
 do n t believe she ever spun a hank of yarn in her life ; but 
 she was a proper nice woman, and Spangler loved her just 
 as well as if she had been ever so smart. 
 
 Mrs. Danforth seemed to dwell on this point in her 
 friend s character with peculiar respect, that he should 
 love a wife who could not do her own work. I could not 
 help telling her she reminded me of a man weeping for the 
 loss of his partner his neighbors trying to comfort him, by 
 urging the usual topics ; he cut them short, looking up at 
 the same time with an inconsolable air Ah ! but she was 
 such a dreadful good creature to work ! 
 
 Mrs. Danforth said gravely, Well, I suppose the poor 
 feller had a family of children to do for; and after a reflec 
 tive pause continued Well, Miss Spangler had a little 
 3* 
 
30 ANEWHOME, 
 
 one after all, when I was quite a big girl, and you never 
 see folks so pleased as they ! Mr. Spangler seemed as if 
 he could not find folks enough to be good to, that winter. 
 He had the prayers of the poor, I tell ye. There was n t a 
 baby born anywheres in our neighborhood, that whole 
 blessed winter, but what he found out whether the mother 
 had what would make her comfortable, and sent whatever 
 was wanted. 
 
 He little thought that baby that he thought so much 
 on was going to cost him so dear. His wife was never well 
 again ! She only lived through the summer and died when 
 the frost came, just like the flowers ; and he never held up 
 his head afterwards. He had been a professor for a good 
 many years, but he did n t seem then to have neither faith 
 nor hope. He wouldn t hear reason from nobody. I 
 always thought that was the reason the baby died. It 
 only lived about a year. Well, I had the baby to bring up 
 by hand, and so I was living there yet when Mr. Spangler 
 took sick. He seemed always like a broken-hearted man, 
 but still he took comfort with the baby, and by and by the 
 little dear took the croup and died all in a minute like. It 
 began to be bad after tea and it was dead before sunrise. 
 Then I saw plain enough nothing could be done for the 
 father. He wasted away just like an April snow. I took 
 as good care on him as I could, and when it came towards 
 the last, he would n t have any body else give him even so 
 much as a cup of tea. He settled up his business and gave 
 receipts to many poor folks that owed him small debts, 
 besides giving away a great many things, and paying all 
 those that had helped take care of him. I think he knew 
 what kind of a feller his nephew was, that was to have all 
 when he was gone. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 31 
 
 Well, all this is neither here nor there. George Dan- 
 forth and I had been keeping company then a good while, 
 and Mr. Spangler knew we d been only waiting till I could 
 be spared, so he sent for George one day and told him that 
 he had long intended to give me a small house and lot jist 
 back of where he lived, but seein things stood jist as they 
 did, he advised George to buy a farm of his that was for 
 sale on the edge of the village, and he would credit him for 
 as much as the house and lot woujd have been worth, and 
 he could pay the rest by his labor in the course of two or 
 three years. Sure enough, he gave him a deed and took a 
 mortgage, and it was so worded, that he could not be 
 hurried to pay, and every body said it was the greatest 
 bargain that ever was. And Mr. Spangler gave me a nice 
 
 settin out besides. But if there is n t the boys coming in 
 
 to dinner, and I bet there s nothin ready for em ! So 
 saying, the good woman quickened her pace, and for the 
 next hour her whole attention was absorbed by the savory 
 cates, fried pork and parsnips. 
 
32 A NEW HOME, 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A trickling stream from high rock tumbling down, 
 
 And ever drizzling rain upon the loft, 
 
 Mixt with a murmuring wind, much like the sound 
 
 Of swarming bees. 
 
 SPENSER HOUSE OF SLEEP. 
 
 While pensive memory traces back the round 
 
 Which fills the varied interval between; 
 
 Much pleasure, more of sorrow, marks the scene. 
 
 WARTON. 
 
 WHEN we were quietly seated after dinner, I requested 
 some further insight into Mrs. Danforth s early history, the 
 prosy flow of which was just in keeping with the long 
 dreamy course of the afternoon, unbroken as it was by any 
 sound more awakening than the ceaseless click of knitting- 
 needles, or an occasional yawn from the town lady, who 
 found the farniente rather burdensome. 
 
 She smiled complacently, and took up the broken thread 
 at the right place, evidently quite pleased to find she had 
 excited so much interest. 
 
 When Mr. Spangler s nephew came after he was dead 
 and gone, he was very close in asking all about the business, 
 and seem after the mortgages and such like. Now, George 
 had never got his deed recorded. He felt as if it was n t 
 worth while to lose a day s work, as he could send it any 
 time by one of his neighbors. But when we found what 
 sort of a man Mr. Wilkins was, we tho t it was high time to 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 33 
 
 set about it. He had talked a good deal about the place, 
 and said the old man must have been crazy to let us have it 
 so cheap, and once went so far as to offer my husband a 
 hundred dollars for his bargain. So John Green, a good 
 neighbor of ours, sent us word one morning that he was 
 going, and would call and get the deed, as he knew we 
 wanted to send it up, and I got it out and laid it ready on 
 the stand, and put the big Bible on it to keep it safe. But 
 he did not come ; something happened that he could not go 
 that day : and I had jist took up the deed to put it back in 
 the chest, when in came Wilkins. He had an eye like a 
 hawk ; and I was afraid he would see that it was a deed, 
 and ask to look at it, and then I could n t refuse to hand it 
 to him, you know ; so I jist slipped it back under the Bible 
 before I turned to ask him what was his will. 
 
 Did n t John Saunderson leave my bridle here ? says 
 he. So I stepped into the other room and got it, and he 
 took it and walked off without speaking a word ; and when 
 I went to put away the deed, it was gone ! 
 
 My husband came in while I sat crying fit to break my 
 heart ; but all I could do I could not make him believe that 
 Wilkins had got it. He said I had put it somewhere else 
 without thinking, that people often felt just as sure as I 
 did, and found themselves mistaken after all. But I knew 
 better, and though I hunted high and low to please him, I 
 knew well enough where it was. When he found he must 
 give it up he never gave me a word of blame, but charged 
 me not to say anything about the loss, for, wherever the 
 deed was, Wilkins was just the man to take advantage if 
 he knew we had lost it. 
 
 Well, things went on this way for a while, and I had 
 many a good cryin spell, I tell ye ! and one evening when 
 
34 ANBWHOMB, 
 
 George was away, in comes Wilkins, I was sittin alone at 
 my knittin , heavy hearted enough, and the schoolmaster 
 was in the little room ; for that was his week to board 
 with us. 
 
 Is your man at home ? says he ; I said No ; but I 
 expect him soon, so he sat down and began the old story 
 about the place, and at last he says, 
 
 * I d like to look at that deed if you Ve no objection* 
 Mrs. Danforth. I was so mad, I forgot what George had 
 told me, and spoke right out. 
 
 I should think, says I, you d had it long enough to 
 know it all by heart. 
 
 What does the woman mean ? says he. 
 
 * You know well enough what I mean, says I, you know 
 you took it off this table, and from under this blessed book, 
 the very last time you was in this house. 
 
 If I had not known it before, I should have been cer 
 tain then, for his face was as white as the wall, and he 
 trembled when he spoke in spite of his impudence. But 
 I could have bit off my own tongue when I tho t how im 
 prudent I had been, and what my husband would say. He 
 talked very angry as you may think. 
 
 Only say that where anybody else can hear you, says 
 he, and I 11 will make it cost your husband all he is worth 
 in the world. 
 
 He spoke so loud that Mr. Peeler, the master, came out 
 of the room to see what was the matter, and Wilkins bullied 
 away and told Peeler what I had said, and dared me to say 
 it over again. The master looked as if he knew something 
 about it but did not speak. Just then the door opened, 
 and in came George Danforth, led between two men, as 
 pale as death, and dripping wet from head to foot. You 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 35 
 
 may think how I felt ! Well, they would n t give no 
 answer about what was the matter till they got George into 
 bed only one of em said he had been in the canal. 
 Wilkins pretended to be too angry to notice my husband, 
 but kept talking away to himself and was jist a beginning 
 at me again, when one of the men said, Squire, I guess 
 Henry 11 want some looking after; for Mr. Danforth has 
 just got him out of the water. 
 
 If I live to be a hundred years old, I shall never forget 
 how Wilkins looked. There was everything in his face at 
 once. He seemed as if he would pitch head-foremost out 
 of the door, when he started to go home for Henry was 
 his only child. 
 
 * When he was gone, and my husband had got warm and 
 recovered himself a little, he told us that he had seen Henry 
 fall into the lock, and soused right in after him, and they 
 had come very hear drowning together, and so stayed in so 
 long that they were about senseless when they got into the 
 air again. Then I told him all that had happened and 
 then Peeler, he up, and told that he saw Wilkins take a 
 paper off the stand the time I opened the bed-room door to 
 get the bridle, for he was at our house then. 
 
 I was very glad to hear it, to be sure ; but the very- 
 next morning came a new deed and the mortgage, with a 
 few lines from Mr. Wilkins, saying how thankful he was, 
 and that he hoped George would oblige him by accepting 
 some compensation. George sent back the mortgage, say 
 ing he would rather not take it, but thanked him kindly for 
 the deed. So then I was glad Peeler had n t spoke, cause 
 it would have set Wilkins against him. After that we 
 thought it was best to sell out and come away, for such 
 
36 A NEW HOME, 
 
 feelings, you know, a in t pleasant among neighbors, and we 
 had talked some of coming to Michigan afore. 
 
 We had most awful hard times at first. Many s the day 
 I ve worked from sunrise till dark in the fields, gathering 
 brush-heaps and burning stumps. Eut that s all over now ; 
 and we Ve got four times as much land as we ever should 
 have owned in York state/ 
 
 I have since had occasion to observe that this forms a 
 prominent and frequent theme of self-gratulation among the 
 settlers in Michigan. The possession of a large number of 
 acres is esteemed a great good, though it makes but little 
 difference in the owner s mode of living. Comforts do not 
 seem to abound in proportion to landed increase, but often, 
 on the contrary, are ^really diminished for the sake of it ; 
 and the habit of selling out so frequently, makes that home- 
 feeling, which is so large an ingredient in happiness else 
 where, almost a nonentity in Michigan. The man \vho 
 holds himself ready to accept the first advantageous offer, 
 will not be very solicitous to provide those minor accommo 
 dations, which, though essential to domestic comfort, will not 
 add to the moneyed value of his farm, which he considers 
 merely an article of trade, and which he knows his successor 
 will look upon in the same light. I have sometimes thought 
 that our neighbors forget that the days of man s life are 
 three score years and ten, since they sp*end all their lives in 
 getting ready to begin. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 37 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Offer me no money, I pray you ; that kills my heart. * * * 
 
 Will you buy any tape 
 Or lace for your cape, 
 My dainty duck, my dear-a? 
 Any silk, any thread, 
 Any toys for your head, 
 Of the newest and finest wear-a ? 
 
 SHAKSPEARE WINTER S TALE. 
 
 OUR return to Detroit was accomplished without any 
 serious accident, although we were once overturned in con 
 sequence of my enthusiastic admiration of a tuft of splendid 
 flowers in a marsh which we were crossing by the usual 
 bridge of poles, or corduroy, as it is here termed. 
 
 While our eyes were fixed upon it, and I was secretly 
 determined not to go on without it, our sober steed, seeing 
 a small stream at a little distance on one side, quietly 
 walked towards it, and our attention was withdrawn from 
 the contemplation of the object of my wishes by finding 
 ourselves spilt into the marsh, and the buggy reposing on 
 its side, while the innocent cause of the mischief was fairly 
 planted, fetlock deep, in the tenacious black mud; I say 
 the innocent cause, for who ever expected any proofs of 
 education from a livery-stable beast? and such was our 
 brown friend. 
 
 T were vain to tell how I sat on the high bog, (the large 
 tufted masses in a marsh are so called in Michigan,) which 
 4 
 
38 A NEW HQ MB, 
 
 had fortunately received me in falling, and laughed till I 
 cried to see my companion hunting for his spectacles, and 
 D Orsay (whom I ought sooner to have introduced to my 
 reader) looking on with a face of most evident wonder. 
 D Orsay, my beautiful greyhound, was our compagnon de 
 voyage, and had caused us much annoyance by his erratic 
 propensities, so we were obliged to tie him in the back part 
 of the buggy, and then watch very closely that he did not 
 free himself of his bonds. 
 
 Just at this moment a pedestrian traveller, a hard- 
 featured, yellow-haired son of New-England, came up, with 
 a tin trunk in his hand, and a small pack or knapsack 
 strapped on his shoulders. 
 
 * Well ! I swan ! said he with a grim smile, I never see 
 any thing slicker than that ! Why, you went over jist as 
 easy ! You was goin to* try if the mash would n t be softer 
 ridin , I s pose. 
 
 Mr. Clavers disclaimed any intention of quitting the 
 causeway, and pointed to my unfortunate pyramid of pale 
 pink blossoms as the cause of our disaster. 
 
 What ! them posies ? Why, now, to my thinking, a 
 good big double marygold is as far before them pink lilies 
 as can be : but I 11 see if I can t get em for you if you 
 want em. 
 
 By this time, the carriage was again in travelling trim, 
 and D Orsay tolerably resigned to his imprisoned state. 
 The flowers were procured, and most delicately beautiful 
 and fragrant they were. 
 
 Mr. Clavers offered guerdon, remuneration, but our 
 oriental friend seemed shy of accepting anything of the sort. 
 
 If you ve a mind to trade, I ve got a lot o notions 
 I d like to sell you, said he. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 39 
 
 So my travelling basket was crammed with essences, 
 pins, brass thimbles, and balls of cotton ; while Mr. Clavers 
 possessed himself of a valuable outfit of pocket combs, 
 suspenders and cotton handkerchiefs an assortment which 
 made us very popular on that road for some time after. 
 
 We reached the city in due time, and found our hotel 
 crowded to suffocation. The western fever was then at 
 its height, and each day brought its thousands to Detroit. 
 Every tavern of every calibre was as well filled as ours, 
 and happy he who could find a bed anywhere. Fifty 
 cents was the price of six feet by two of the bar-room 
 floor, and these choice lodgings were sometimes disposed 
 of by the first served at thirty per cent, advance/ The 
 country inns were thronged in proportion ; and your 
 horse s hay cost you no where less than a dollar per diem ; 
 while, throughout the whole territory west of Detroit, 
 the only masticable articles set before the thousands of 
 hungry travellers were salt ham and bread, for which 
 you had the satisfaction of paying like a prince. 
 
40 ANEWHOME, 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Notre sagesse n est pas moins d la merci de la fortune que nos biens. 
 
 ROCHEFOUCAULT. 
 
 Your horse s hoof-tread sounds too rude, 
 
 So stilly is the solitude. SCOTT. 
 
 OUR breakfast-table at H House was surrounded 
 
 by as motley a crew as Mirth ever owned. The stand 
 ing ornament of the upper end was a very large light 
 blue crape turban, which turban surmounted the pro 
 longed face of a lady, somewhere (it is not polite to be 
 exact in these matters) between forty and fifty, and also 
 partly concealed a pair of ears from which depended 
 ear-rings whose pendents rested not far from the Apa- 
 lachian collar-bones of the dignified wearer. This lady, 
 turban and ear-rings, were always in their places before 
 the eggs came, and remained long after the last one had 
 disappeared, at least, I judge so ; for I, who always 
 take my chance (rash enough in this case) for a breakfast, 
 never saw her seat vacant. Indeed, as I never met her 
 anywhere else, I might have supposed her a fixture, 
 the production of some American Maelzel, but that the 
 rolling of her very light grey eyes was quite different from 
 that of the dark Persian orbs of the chess-player ; while 
 an occasional word came to my ear with a sharp sound, 
 even more startling than the * Echec of that celebrated 
 personage. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 41 
 
 Another very conspicuous member of our usual party 
 was a lady in mourning, whom I afterwards discovered to 
 be a great beauty. I had indeed observed that she wore 
 a great many curls, and that these curls were carefully 
 arranged and bound with a ribbon, so as to make the 
 most of a pair of dark eyes ; that nothing that could be 
 called throat was ever enviously shaded, even at break 
 fast ; and that a pair of delicately white hands, loaded 
 with rings of all hues, despite the mourning garments, 
 were never out of sight. But I did not learn that she 
 was a beauty till I met her long after at a brilliant evening 
 party in rouge and blonde, and with difficulty recognized 
 ray neighbor of the breakfast-table. 
 
 But if I should attempt to set down half my recollec 
 tions of i\\&t piquant and changeful scene, I should never 
 get on with my story : so, begging pardon, I will pass 
 over the young ladies, who never were hungry, and their 
 papas, who could never be satisfied, and their brothers, 
 who could not get anything fit to eat ; the crimson-faced 
 celibataire, who always ate exactly three eggs, and three 
 slices of bread and butter, and drank three cups of tea, 
 and then left the table, performing the whole in perfect 
 silence ; the lady, who played good mamma, and would 
 ever have her two babies at the table with her, and feed 
 them on sausage and strong coffee, without a mouthful of 
 bread ; and the shoals of speculators, fat and lean, rich 
 and poor, young and old, dashing and shabby, who always 
 looked very hungry, but could not take time to eat. I saw 
 them only at breakfast, for the rest of the day we usually 
 spent elsewhere. 
 
 While we were awaiting the arrival of our chattels from 
 the east, Mr Clavers accepted an invitation to accompany 
 
42 ANEWHOME, 
 
 a party of these breakfast-table companions last mentioned, 
 men of substance literally and figuratively, who were going 
 to make a tour with a view to the purchase of one or two 
 cities. Ponies, knapsacks, brandy-bottles, pocket-com 
 passes, blankets, lucifers, great india-rubber boots, coats 
 of the same, and caps with immense umbrella capes to 
 them : these things are but a beginning of the outfit neces 
 sary for such an expedition. It was intended to camp 
 out as often as might be desirable, to think nothing of 
 fasting for a day or so, and to defy the ague and all its 
 works by the aid of the potent exorciser contained in the 
 bottles above mentioned. One of the company, an idler 
 
 from , was almost as keen in his pursuit of game as 
 
 of money, and he carried a double-barrelled fowling-piece, 
 with all things thereunto appertaining, in addition v to his 
 other equipments, giving a finishing touch to the grotesque 
 cortege. My only parting charge to my quota of the expe 
 dition was to keep out of the water, and to take care of 
 his spectacles. I should have cautioned him against buying 
 a city, but that he was never very ambitious, and already 
 owned Montacute. He went merely pour se dcsennuyer ; 
 and I remained at the very focus of this strange excitement 
 an unconcerned spectator, weary enough of the unvarying 
 theme which appeared to fill the whole soul of the commu 
 nity. 
 
 The party were absent just four days ; and a more dismal 
 sight than they presented on their return cannot well be 
 imagined. Tired and dirty, cross and hungry, were they 
 all. No word of adventures, no boasting of achievements, 
 not even a breath of the talismanic word land, more inter 
 esting to the speculator of 1835-6 than it ever was to the 
 ship-wrecked mariner. They seemed as if they would, 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 43 
 
 Esau-like, have sold their city lots for a good supper, though 
 I doubt whether the offer of a trade, would not have 
 aroused all their energies, and so prevented the bargain. 
 
 After tea, however, things brightened a little : I speak 
 for one of the party only. The bath, the razor, the much 
 needed change of those lendings on which so much of the 
 comfort of life depends, produced their usual humanizing 
 effect ; and by questions skilfully timed and cautiously 
 worded, I drew from my toil-worn spouse a tolerably cir 
 cumstantial account of the journey. 
 
 The first day had been entirely consumed in reaching 
 Shark River, or rather its junction with another considerable 
 stream. Twilight had already shaded the woody path, 
 when the surveyor, who was acquainted with the whole 
 region, informed them that they had yet some miles of 
 travel before they could hope to reach any kind of shelter. 
 They had been for some hours following an Indian trail, and 
 some of the city gentlemen recollecting, as the day declined, 
 that they were a little rheumatic, began to give vent to 
 their opinion that the evening was going to be particularly 
 damp. One went so far as to hint that it would have been 
 
 as well if Mr. (the sportsman) had not taken quite 
 
 so long to ascertain whether that white moving thing he had 
 seen in the woods was a deer s tail or not. 
 
 To this the city Nimrod had replied, that as to its being 
 a deer s tail, there was no possibility of question ; that if 
 the other gentlemen had been a little more patient, they 
 might have had venison for supper ; and this little discus 
 sion, growing more and more animated as it proceeded, at 
 length occupied the attention of the whole party so com 
 pletely, that they lost the trail and found themselves at the 
 end of what had seemed to them an open path. There was 
 
44 A NEW HOME, 
 
 nothing for it, but to turn the horses heads right about, and 
 retrace the last mile or more, while the faint gleam of day 
 light was fast disappearing. 
 
 The good humor of the party was, to say the least, not 
 increased by this little contretemps, and the following of a 
 trail by starlight is an exercise of skill and patience not 
 likely to be long agreeable to gentlemen who have been for 
 many years accustomed to pavements and gas-lamps. Not 
 a word was said of camping out, so manfully planned in 
 the morning. The loads of preparations for a bivouac 
 seemed entirely forgotten by everybody at least, no one 
 thought proper to mention them ; and after some few 
 attempts of the younger members to be funny, the whole 
 caravan yielded to fate, and plodded on in gloomy and 
 determined silence. 
 
 The glimmer of a distant light had an electrical effect. 
 The unlucky sportsman was fortunately in the van, and so 
 he had an opportunity of covering up his offences by being 
 the announcer of joyous tidings. 
 
 He sang out cheerily, So shines a good deed in this 
 naughty world ! and pricked on his tired Canadian into 
 something akin to a trot, while the soberer part of the 
 cavalcade followed as fast as they could, or as they dared. 
 Ere long they reached the much-desired shelter, and found 
 that their provident care in regard to the various items 
 requisite for food and lodging had not been in vain. 
 
 The log cabin which received the weary wayfarers was 
 like many others which have served for the first homes of 
 settlers in Michigan. It was logs and nothing else, the fire 
 made on the ground, or on a few loose stones, and a hole 
 in the roof for the escape of the smoke. A family of 
 tolerably decent appearance inhabited this forlorn dwelling, 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW t 45 
 
 a man and his wife and two young children. They seemed 
 little moved at the arrival of so large a company, but 
 rendered what assistance they could in providing for the 
 ponies and preparing the meal from such materials as were 
 afforded by the well-stored hampers of the baggage pony. 
 
 After the conclusion of the meal, the blankets were 
 spread on the ground, and happy he who could get a bag 
 for a pillow. But the night s rest was well earned, and 
 Nature is no niggard pay-master. 
 
46 ANEWHOME, 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Night came ; and in their lighted bower, full late 
 The joy of converse had endured ; when, hark ! 
 Abrupt and loud, a summons shook their gate 
 Upris n each wondering brow is knit and arched. 
 
 CAMPBELL. 
 
 If thou wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee ; if thou wert the lamb, 
 the fox would eat thee. 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS. 
 
 THE morning sun showed the river and its adjunct bright 
 and beautiful, though a leetle marshy at the sides. The 
 dead silence, the utter loneliness, the impenetrable shade, 
 which covered the site of the future city, might well call to 
 mind the desolation which has settled on Balbec and Pal 
 myra ; the anticipation of future life and splendor contrast 
 ing no less forcibly with the actual scene than would the 
 retrospect of departed grandeur. The guide, who had 
 been much employed in these matters, showed in the course 
 of the day six different points, each of which, the owners 
 were fully satisfied, would one day echo the busy tread of 
 thousands, and see reflected in the now glassy wave the 
 towers and masts of a great commercial town. If already 
 this infatuation seems incredible, how shall we make our 
 children believe its reality ? 
 
 The day was to be spent in exploring, and as it was 
 desirable to see as much as could be seen of the river, so 
 important to the future fortunes of the company, it was 
 concluded to follow the bank as closely as the marshes 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 47 
 
 would allow, and pass the night at the house of a French 
 trader near the outlet of the stream. 
 
 The spirits of the party were not very high during the 
 ride. There was something a little cooling in the aspect of 
 the marshes, and, although nobody liked to say so, the 
 ground seemed rather wet for city building. However, the 
 trader s dwelling looked very comfortable after the accom 
 modations of the preceding night, and a few Indian huts at 
 no great distance gave some relief to the extreme solitari 
 ness of the scene, which had contributed not a little to the 
 temporary depression of the party. 
 
 The Frenchman was luckily at home, and with his Indian 
 wife treated the travellers with much civility : the lady, 
 however, declining conversation, or indeed notice of any 
 sort unless when called on to perform the part of interpre 
 ter between the gentlemen and some wretched looking 
 Indians who were hanging about the house. Several chil 
 dren with bright, gazelle-like eyes, were visible at intervals, 
 but exhibited nothing of the staring curiosity which is seen 
 peeping from among the sun-bleached locks of the whiter 
 broods of the same class of settlers. 
 
 The Indians to whom I have alluded, had come to pro 
 cure whiskey of the trader, and after they had received 
 the baleful luxury which performs among their fated race 
 the work of fire, famine, and pestilence, they departed with 
 rapid steps. They had scarcely quitted the house when 
 another was seen approaching the door with that long easy 
 trot which is habitual with the savage when on a journey. 
 He was well dressed, in his way ; his hat boasted a broad 
 band of silver lace ; his tunic, leggins, and moccasins were 
 whole and somewhat ornamented ; his blanket glorying in a 
 bright red border ; and on his shoulders, slung by a broad 
 
48 A N E \\ H O M B , 
 
 thong, was a pack of furs of considerable value. He 
 seemed an old acquaintance of the family, and was received 
 with some animation even by the grave and dignified mis 
 tress of the mansion. The trader examined and counted 
 the skins, spoke to the Indian in his own tongue, and 
 invited him to eat, which however he declined, with a 
 significant gesture towards the huts before alluded to. 
 
 This evening s supper was made quite luxurious by the 
 preserved cranberries and maple syrup furnished by the 
 settlers ; and our friends retired to rest in much more 
 comfortable style than on the preceding night. 
 
 The first nap was in all its sweetness, when the whole 
 party were aroused by a hideous yelling, which to city ears 
 could be no less than an Indian war-whoop. Every one 
 was on foot in an instant ; and the confusion which ensued 
 in the attempt to dress in the dark was most perplexing 
 and would have been amusing enough but for certain 
 unpleasant doubts. The noise continued to increase as it 
 approached the house, and terror had reached its acme, 
 every one catching at something which could be used as a 
 weapon when a violent knocking at the door aroused the 
 trader, who slept in an inner room or closet, and who had 
 not been disturbed by the bustle within doors or the yelling 
 without. He seemed much surprised at the confusion 
 which reigned among his guests assured them it was 
 nothing at all but the Indians coming for more whiskey ; 
 and then admitting one of them, and coolly shutting the 
 door in the face of the rest, spoke to the desperate looking 
 savage very sharply, evidently reprobating in no gentle 
 terms the uproar which had disturbed the sleepers. 
 
 The Indian made scarce any reply, but pointed with an 
 impatient gesture to the keg, repeating Whiskey ! whis- 
 
WHO LLFOLLOW? 49 
 
 key ! till the trader refilled it ; he then departed leaving 
 our party once more to repose. 
 
 The next morning, much was said of the disturbance of the 
 the night. The Frenchman seemed to look upon it as a thing 
 of course, and unblushingly vindicated his own agency in the 
 matter. He said that they would get whiskey from some 
 one that an Indian could not live without it, and that 
 they would pay honestly for what they got, although they 
 would steal anything they could lay their hands on, from 
 the farmers who lived within reach of their settlements. 
 Bitter complaints he said were often made of corn, potatoes, 
 or cucumbers, being spirited away in the night, and the 
 Indians got the blame at least, but from him they took 
 nothing. His lady listened with no pleased aspect to this 
 discussion of the foibles of her countrymen, and seemed 
 quite willing to expedite the departure of the guests. 
 
 The way to the Grand Junction seemed shortened as 
 they went. The day was fine and the ponies in excellent 
 spirits. The sportsman came very near shooting a fat 
 buck, and this miss kept him in talk for all day. . The old 
 gentlemen were much pleased with certain statistical ac 
 counts furnished them by the trader, whom they decided 
 on the whole to be a very sensible fellow : and when they 
 reached once more the chosen spot, they saw at a glance 
 how easily the marshes could be drained, the channel of 
 the Shark deepened, and the whole converted into one 
 broad area, on which to found a second New York. 
 
 They passed another night at the log hut which had first 
 received them, and leaving with the poor couple who 
 inhabited it what cheered their lonely dwelling for many a 
 day, they returned to Detroit. 
 
 Our friends considered the offers which had been made 
 5 
 
50 ANEWHOME, 
 
 them so very advantageous that the bargain for the site at 
 the Grand Junction was concluded the very next day. 
 Only one hundred shares at three hundred dollars each ! 
 the money might be quadrupled in a month. And some of 
 the knowing ones, who took shares merely to oblige, did 
 realize the golden vision, while the more careful, who held 
 
 on to get the top of the market but why should I tell 
 
 secrets ? 
 
 Nobody happened to mention to these eastern buyers 
 that the whole had been purchased for four hundred 
 dollars, just a week before they reached Detroit. 
 
 These things certainly cost a good deal of trouble after 
 all. They ought to have paid well, unquestionably. 
 When lots were to be sold, the whole fair dream was 
 splendidly emblazoned on a sheet of super-royal size ; 
 things which only floated before the mind s eye of the most 
 sanguine, were portrayed with bewitching minuteness for 
 the delectation of the ordinary observer. Majestic steamers 
 plied their paddles to and fro upon the river ; ladies crowd 
 ing their decks, and streamers floating on the wind. Sloops 
 dotted the harbors, while noble ships were seen in the 
 offing. Mills, factories, and light-houses canals, rail 
 roads and bridges, all took their appropriate positions. 
 Then came the advertisements, choicely worded, and care 
 fully vague, never setting forth any thing which might not 
 come true at some time or other ; yet leaving the buyer 
 without excuse if he chose to be taken in. 
 
 An auctioneer was now to be procured, (fqr lots usually 
 went rather heavily at private sale,) and this auctioneer must 
 not be such a one as any Executive can make, but a man of 
 genius, of ready invention, of fluent speech ; one who had 
 seen something of the world, and, above all, one who must 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 51 
 
 be so thoroughly acquninted with the property, and so 
 entirely convinced of its value, that he could vouch on his 
 own personal respectability, for the truth of every state 
 ment. He must be able to exhibit certificates from no 
 matter whom Tom-a-Nokes perhaps but * residing on the 
 spot and he must find men of straw to lead the first bids. 
 And when all this had been attended to, it must have 
 required some nerve to carry the matter through ; to stand 
 by, while the poor artizan, the journeyman mechanic, the 
 stranger who had brought his little all to buy government 
 land to bring up his young family upon, staked their poor 
 means on strips of land which were at that moment a foot 
 under water. I think many of these gentlemen earned 
 their money. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that the preliminaries I have 
 enumerated preceded every successful land sale. Many 
 thousand acres were transferred from hand to hand with a 
 rapidity which reminded one irresistibly of the old French 
 game of le petit bon homme (Anglicised into Robin s 
 alive ) while all gained save him in whose hand Robin 
 died. 
 
 I have known a piece of property bought at five hundred 
 dollars, sold at once for twenty thousand ; five thousand 
 counted down, and the remainder secured by bond and 
 motgage. Whether these after payments were ever made, 
 is another question, and one which I am unable to answer. 
 I mention the transaction as one which was performed in all 
 truth and fairness, savoring nothing of the tricksy spirit 
 on which I have been somewhat diffuse. 
 
 I must not omit to record the friendly offer of one of the 
 gentlemen whose adventures I have recapitulated, to take 
 two Montacute lots at five hundred dollars each. As this 
 
52 ANEWHOME, 
 
 was rather beyond the price which the owner had thought 
 fit to affix to his ordinary lots, he felt exceedingly obliged, 
 and somewhat at a loss to account for the proposition, til] 
 his friend whispered, and you shall have in payment a lot 
 at New-New-York at a thousand ; and we have not sold 
 one at that, I can assure you/ 
 
 The obliged party chanced to meet the agent for New- 
 New-York about a year after, and inquired the fortunes of 
 the future emporium, the number of inhabitants, &c. 
 
 There s nobody there/ said he, but those we hire to 
 come/ 
 
W H O L L F O L L O W ? 53 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Mrs. Hardcastlc. I wish we were at home again. I never met so many 
 accidents in so short a journey. Drenched in the mud, overturned in the 
 ditch, jolted to a jelly, and at hist to lose our way. 
 
 SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER. 
 
 AT length came the joyful news that our moveables 
 had arrived in port ; and provision was at once made 
 for their transportation to the banks of the Turnip. But 
 many and dire were the vexatious delays, thrust by the 
 cruel Fates between us and the accomplishment of cm- 
 plans ; and it was not till after the lapse of several days 
 that the most needful articles were selected and bestowed 
 in a large wagon which was to pioneer the grand body. 
 In this wagon had been reserved a seat for myself, since 
 I had far too great an affection for my chairs and tables, 
 to omit being present at their debarkation at Montacute, 
 in order to insure their undisturbed possession of the 
 usual complement of legs. And there were the children 
 to be packed this time, little roley-poley things, whom 
 it would have been in vain to have marked, this side up, 
 like the rest of the baggage. 
 
 A convenient space must be contrived for my plants, 
 among which were two or three tall geraniums, -and an 
 enormous calla ethiopica. Then D Orsay must be accom 
 modated, of course ; and, to crown all, a large basket 
 of live fowls ; for we had been told that there were none 
 to be purchased in the vicinity of Montacute. Besides 
 5* 
 
54 ANEW HOME, 
 
 these, there were all our travelling trunks ; and an enor 
 mous square box crammed with articles which we then, 
 in our greenness, considered indispensable. We have 
 since learned better. 
 
 After this enumeration, which yet is only partial, it 
 will not seem strange that the guide and director of our 
 omnibus was to ride 
 
 On horseback after wo. 
 
 He acted as a sort of adjutant galloping forward to spy 
 out the way, or provide accommodations for the troop 
 pacing close to the wheels to modify our arrangements, 
 to console one of the imps who had bumped his pate, 
 or to give D Orsay a gentle hint with the riding-whip, 
 when he made demonstrations of mutiny and occasionally 
 falling behind to pick up a stray handkerchief or parasol. 
 The roads near Detroit were inexpressibly bad. Many 
 were the chances against our toppling load s preserving 
 its equilibrium. To our inexperience, the risks seemed 
 nothino- less than tremendous but the driver so often 
 
 o 
 
 reiterated, that a n t nothin , in reply to our despairing 
 exclamations, and, what was better, so constantly proved 
 his words by passing the most frightful inequalities (Michi- 
 ganice, sidlings ) in safety, that we soon became more 
 confident, and ventured to think of something else besides 
 the ruts and mud-holes. 
 
 Our stopping-places after the first day were of the ordi 
 nary new country class the very coarsest accommoda 
 tions by night and by day, and all at the dearest rate. 
 When every body is buying land, and scarce anybody 
 cultivating it, one must not expect to find living either 
 good or cheap: but, I confess, I was surprised at 
 the dearth of comforts which we observed everywhere. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 55 
 
 Neither milk, eggs, nor vegetables were to be had, and 
 those who could not live on hard salt ham, stewed dried 
 apples, and bread raised with * salt risin, would neces 
 sarily run some risk of starvation. 
 
 One word as to this and similar modes of making bread, 
 so much practised throughout this country. It is my 
 opinion that the sin of bewitching snow-white flour by 
 means of either of those abominations, salt risin, milk 
 emptins, bran east, or any of their odious compounds, 
 ought to be classed with the turning of grain into whis 
 key, and both made indictable offences. To those who 
 know of no other means of producing the requisite spon- 
 giness in bread than the wholesome hop-yeast of the 
 brewer, I may be allowed to explain the mode to which 
 I have alluded with such hearty reprobation. Here 
 follows the recipe : 
 
 To make milk emptins. Take quantum suf. of good 
 sweet milk add a teaspoonful of salt, and some water, and 
 set the mixture in a warm place till it ferments, then mix 
 your bread with it ; and if you are lucky enough to catch it 
 just in the right moment before the fermentation reaches 
 the putrescent stage, you may make tolerably good rolls, 
 but if you are five minutes too late, you will have to open 
 your doors and windows while your bread is baking. 
 Yerbum sap. 
 
 Salt risin is made with water slightly salted and fer 
 mented like the other ; and becomes putrid rather sooner ; 
 and bran east is on the same plan. The consequences of 
 letting these mixtures stand too long will become known to 
 those whom it may concern, when they shall travel through 
 the remoter parts of Michigan ; so I shall not dwell upon 
 them here but I offer my counsel to such of my friends as 
 
56 A NEW HOME, 
 
 may be removing westward, to bring with them some form 
 of portable yeast (the old fashioned dried cakes which 
 mothers and aunts can furnish, are as good as any) and 
 also full instructions for perpetuating the same ; and to plant 
 hops as soon as they get a corner to plant them in. 
 
 "And may they better reck the rede, 
 Than ever did th adviser. 
 
 The last two days of our slow journey were agreeably 
 diversified with sudden and heavy showers, and intervals of 
 overpowering sunshine. The weather had all the change- 
 fulness of April, with the torrid heat of July. Scarcely 
 would we find shelter from the rain which had drenched us 
 completely when the sunshine would tempt us forth : and 
 by the time all the outward gear was dried, and matters in 
 readiness for a continuation of our progress, another threat 
 ening cloud would drive us back, though it never really 
 rained till we started. 
 
 We had taken a newly-opened and somewhat lonely 
 route this time, in deference to the opinion of those who 
 ought to have known better, that this road from having been 
 less travelled, would not be quite so deep as the other. As 
 we went farther into the wilderness, the difficulties increased. 
 The road had been but little worked, (the expression in 
 such cases,) and in some parts was almost in a state of 
 nature. Where it wound round the edge of a* marsh, where 
 in future times there will be a bridge or drain, the wheels 
 on one side would be on the dry ground, while the others 
 were sinking in the long wet grass of the marsh and in 
 such places it was impossible to discern inequalities which 
 yet might overturn us in an instant. In one case of this 
 sort, we were obliged to dismount the live lumber as 
 the man who helped us through phrased it, and let the 
 
WHO LLFOLLOW? 57 
 
 loaded wagon pass on, while we followed in an empty one 
 which was fortunately at hand and it was, in my eyes, 
 little short of a miracle that our skilful friend succeeded in 
 piloting safely the top-heavy thing which seemed thrown 
 completely off its centre half a dozen times. 
 
 At length we came to a dead stand. Our driver had 
 received special cautions as to a certain mash that lay 
 between us and our home to keep to the right to 
 follow the travel to a particular point, and then turn up 
 stream : but whether the very minuteness and reiteration 
 of the directions had puzzled him, as is often the case, or 
 whether his good genius had for once forsaken him, I know 
 not. We had passed the deep centre of the miry slough, 
 when, by some unlucky hair s breadth swerving, in went our 
 best horse our sorrel our Prince, the off haus, 
 whose value had been speered three several times since we 
 left Detroit, with magnificent offers of a swop ! The noble 
 fellow, unlike the tame beasties that are used to such occur 
 rences, showed his good blood by kicking and plunging, 
 which only made his case more desperate. A few moments 
 more would have left us with a single team/ when his 
 master succeeded in cutting the traces with his penknife. 
 Once freed, Prince soon made his way out of the bog-hole 
 and pranced off, far up the green swelling hill which lay 
 before us- out of sight in an instant and there we sat in 
 the marsh. 
 
 There is but one resource in such cases. You must mount 
 your remaining horse, if you have one, and ride on till you 
 find a farmer and one, two, or three pairs of oxen and all 
 this accomplished, you may generally hope for a release in 
 time. 
 
 The interval seemed a ketle tedious, I confess. To sit 
 
8 A NEW HOME, 
 
 for three mortal hours in an open wagon, under a hot sun, 
 in the midst of a swamp, is not pleasant. The expanse of 
 inky mud which spread around us, Avas hopeless, as to any 
 attempt at getting ashore. I crept cautiously down the 
 tongue, and tried one or two of the tempting green tufts, 
 which looked as if they might afford foothold ; but alas ! 
 they sank under the slightest pressure. So I was fain to 
 regain my low chair, with its abundant cushions, and lose 
 myself in a book. The children thought it fine fun for a 
 little while, but then they began to want a drink. I never 
 knew children who did not, when there was no water to be 
 had. 
 
 There ran through the very midst of all this black pud 
 ding, as clear a stream as ever rippled, and the wagon stood 
 almost in it ! but how to get at it ? The basket which 
 had contained, when we left the city, a store of cakes and 
 oranges, which the children thought inexhaustible, held 
 now nothing but the napkins, which had enveloped those 
 departed joys, and those napkins, suspended corner- wise, 
 and soaken long and often in the crystal water, served for 
 business and pleasure, till papa came back. 
 
 They re coming ! They re coming ! was the cry, and 
 with one word, over went Miss Alice, who had been reach 
 ing as far as she could, trying how large a portion of her 
 napkin she could let float in the water. 
 
 Oh, the shrieks and the exclamations ! how hard papa 
 rode, and how hard mamma scolded ! but the little witch 
 got no harm beyond a thorough wetting, and a few streaks 
 of black mud, and felt herself a heroine for the rest of the 
 day. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 59 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Rous d at his name, up rose the boozy sire, 
 
 ****** 
 
 In vain, in vain, the all-composing hour 
 Resistless falls; the Muse obeys the power. 
 
 POPE. 
 
 THE night dews were falling chill and heavy when we 
 crossed the last log causeway, and saw a dim glimmering in 
 the distance. The children were getting horribly cross and 
 sleepy. The unfortunate anchoring in the black swamp 
 had deranged our plans by about three hours, and when 
 we reached our destined resting-place, which was the log- 
 house where I had been so happy as to make the acquaint 
 ance of Miss Irene Ketchum, and her dignified mamma, the 
 family had retired to rest, except Mr Ketchum, who rested 
 without retiring. 
 
 The candle, a long twelve I should judge, was standing 
 on the table, and wasting rapidly under the influence of a 
 very long snuff, which reclined upon its side. Upon the 
 same table, and almost touching the tall iron candlestick, 
 was a great moppy head ; and this head rested in heavy 
 slum-ber on the brawny arms of the master of the house. 
 
 Ketchum ! Ketchum ! echoed a shrill voice from within 
 the pinned- up sheets in one corner, and I might have 
 thought the woman was setting the dog at us, if I had not 
 recognized the dulcet-treble of the fair Irene from the other 
 bed Pa, pa, get up, can t you ? 
 
 Thus conjured, the master of the mansion tried to over- 
 
60 ANEWHOME, 
 
 come the still potent effects of his evening potations, enough 
 to understand what was the matter, but in vain. He could 
 only exclaim, What the devil s got into the women ? and 
 down went the head again. 
 
 Mrs. Ketchum had, by this time, exchanged the night for 
 the day cap, and made herself, otherwise, tolerably pre 
 sentable. She said she had supposed we were not coming, 
 it was so late ; ( it was just half- past eight,) and then like 
 many other poor souls I have known, tried hard to hide 
 her husband s real difficulty. 
 
 * He was so tired ! she said. 
 
 How long the next hour seemed! A summer day in 
 some company I wot of, would not seem half as tedious. 
 It took all papa s ingenuity, and more than all mamma s 
 patience to amuse the poor children, tiil matters were 
 arranged ; but at length the important matter of supper 
 being in some sort concluded, preparations were made for 
 retiracy. 
 
 Up the stick ladder we all paced slowly and sadly, 
 Miss Irene preceding us with the remnant of the long twelve, 
 leaving all below in darkness. The aspect of our lodging 
 place was rather portentous. Two bedsteads, which looked 
 as if they might, by no very violent freak of nature, have 
 grown into their present form, a good deal of bark being 
 yet upon them, occupied the end opposite the stairs ; and 
 between them was a window, without either glass or shut 
 ter that is to say, politeness aside, a square hole in the 
 house. Three beds spread upon the floor, two chests, and 
 a spinning-wheel, with reel and swifts, completed the plen 
 ishing of the room. Two of the beds were already ten 
 anted, as the vibrations of the floor might have told us 
 without the aid of ears, (people snore incredibly after 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 61 
 
 ploughing all day,) and the remainder were at our service. 
 The night air pouring in at the aperture seemed to me 
 likely to bring death on its dewy wings, and when I looked 
 up and saw the stars shining through the crevices in the 
 roof, I thought I might venture to have the wider rent 
 closed, although I had been sensible of some ill resulting 
 from the close quarters at Danforth s. So a quilt, that 
 invaluable resource in the woods, was stuck up before the 
 window, and the unhinged cover of one of the chests was 
 used as a lid for the stairway, for fear the children might 
 fall down. Sheets served to partition off a tyring room 
 round my bed an expedient frequently resorted to and 
 so dangerous that it is wonderful so few houses are burnt 
 down in this country. And thus passed my first night in 
 Montacute. 
 
 I do not remember experiencing at any time in my life, 
 a sense of more complete uncomfortableness than was my 
 lot, on awakening the next morning. It seemed to arise 
 entirely from my anticipations of the awkward and tedious 
 inconveniences of our temporary sojourn at this place, 
 where every thing was so different from our ideas of com 
 fort, or even decency. But I have since been convinced, 
 that sleeping in an exhausted atmosphere, of which those 
 who slept on the bedsteads felt the effect more sensibly 
 than those who lay on the floor, had no small agency in 
 producing this depression of spirits, so unusual with me. 
 
 Be this as it may, my troubles, when the children were 
 to be washed and dressed, became real and tangible 
 enough ; for, however philosophical grown people may 
 sometimes be under disagreeables consequent upon a 
 change of habits, children are very epicures, and will put 
 up with nothing that is unpleasant to them, without at 
 6 
 
62 A N E W H O M E , 
 
 least making a noise, which I do detest and dread ; though 
 I know mothers ought to get used to such things. I 
 have heard that eels get accustomed to being skinned, but 
 I doubt the fact. 
 
 That morning was the first and the last time I ever 
 attempted to carry through the ordinary nursery routine, in 
 a log hut, without a servant, and with a skillet for a wash 
 basin. 
 
 The little things did get dressed after awhile, however, 
 and were safely escorted down the stick ladder, and it was 
 really a pleasure to see them careering round the house, 
 rioting in their freedom, and to hear now and then a merry 
 laugh, awakening the echoes. Children are the true bijou 
 terie of the woods and wilds. How weary would my last 
 three years have been, without the cares and troubles they 
 have brought me ! 
 
 Our breakfast, of undistinguishable green tea, milk-rising 
 bread, and salt ham, did not consume much time, and most 
 fortunately we here found milk for the children, who of 
 course made out sumptuously. It was the first time since 
 we left Detroit, that we had been able to procure more 
 than a small allowance for the tea. 
 
 My first care was to inquire where I might be able to 
 procure a domestic, for I saw plainly I must not expect 
 any aid from Miss Irene or her younger sister, who were 
 just such captive-princess looking damsels as Miss Marti- 
 neau mentions having seen at a country inn somewhere on 
 her tour. 
 
 Well, I do n t know, said Mrs. Ketchum, in reply to 
 my questions ; there was a young lady here yesterday 
 that was saying she did n t know but she d live out a 
 spell till she d bought her a new dress. 
 
W H O L L F O L L W ? 63 
 
 Oh ! but I wish to get a girl who will remain with me ; 
 I should not like to change often. 
 
 O 
 
 Mrs. Ketchum smiled rather scornfully at this, and said 
 there were not many girls about here that cared to live 
 out long at a time. 
 
 My spirits fell at this view of the matter. Some of my 
 dear theorizing friends in the civilized world had dissuaded 
 me most earnestly from bringing a maid with me. 
 
 She would always be discontented and anxious to 
 return; and you ll find plenty of good farmers daughters 
 ready to live witli you for the sake of earning a little 
 money. 
 
 Good souls ! how little did they know of Michigan ! 
 I have since that day seen the interior of many a wretched 
 dwelling, with almost literally nothing in it but a bed, a 
 chest, and a table ; children ragged to the last degree, and 
 potatoes the only fare ; but never yet saw I one where the 
 daughter was willing to own herself obliged to live out at 
 service. She would hire out long enough to buy some 
 article of dress perhaps, or because our folks have been 
 sick, and want a little money to pay the doctor, or for 
 some such special reason ; but never as a regular calling, 
 or with an acknowledgment of inferior station. 
 
 This state of things appalled me at first; but I have 
 learned a better philosophy since. I find no difficulty 
 now in getting such aid as I require, and but little in 
 retaining it as long as I wish, though there is always a 
 desire of making an occasional display of independence. 
 Since living with one for wages is considered by common 
 consent a favor, I take it as a favor ; and, this point once 
 conceded, all goes well. Perhaps I have been peculiarly 
 fortunate ; but certainly with one or two exceptions, I have 
 
64 A NEW HOME, 
 
 little or nothing to complain of on this essential point 
 of domestic comfort. 
 
 To be sure, I had one damsel who crammed herself 
 almost to suffocation with sweetmeats and other things 
 which she esteemed very nice ; and ate up her own pies 
 and cake, to the exclusion of those for whom they were 
 intended ; who would put her head in at a door, with 
 M-iss Clavers, did you holler! I thought I heered a yell. 
 
 And another who was highly offended, because room 
 was not made for her at table with guests from the city, 
 and that her company was not requested for tea visits. 
 And this latter high-born damsel sent in from the kitchen 
 a circumstantial account in writing, of the instances 
 wherein she considered herself aggrieved ; well written it 
 was, too, and expressed with much naivete, and abundant 
 respect. I answered it in the way which turneth away 
 wrath. Yet it was not long before this fiery spirit was 
 aroused again, and I was forced to part with my country 
 belle. But these instances are not very tremendous even 
 to the city habits I brought with me ; and I cannot say I 
 regret having been obliged to relinquish what was, after all, 
 rather a silly sort of pride. But bless me ! how I get before 
 my story ! I viewed the matter very differently when I 
 was at Ketchum s. My philosophy was of slow growth. 
 
 On reflection, it was thought best not to add another 
 sleeper to the loft, and I concluded to wait on myself and 
 the children while we remained at Ketchum s, which we 
 hoped would be but for a day or two. I can only say, I 
 contrived to simplify the matter very much, when I had 
 no one to depend on but myself. The children had dirty 
 faces, and aprons which would have effected their total 
 exclusion from genteel society, more than half the time ; 
 
W H O L L F O L L O W ? 65 
 
 and I was happy to encourage the closest intimacy be 
 tween them and the calves and chickens, in order to gain 
 some peace within doors. Mrs. Ketch urn certainly had 
 her own troubles during our sojourn under her leaky roof; 
 for the two races commingled not without loud and long 
 effervescence, threatening at times nothing short of a Kil 
 kenny-cat battle, ending in mutual extermination. 
 
 My office, on these occasions, was an humble imitation 
 of the plan of the celestials in ancient times ; to snatch away 
 the combatant in whom I was most interested, and then to 
 secrete him for a while, using as a desert island one of the 
 beds in the loft, where the unfortunate had to dree a weary 
 penance, and generally come down quite tame. 
 
 <3* 
 
66 A NEW HOME. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The ripeness or unripeness of the occasion must ever be well weighed : and 
 generally, it is good to commit the beginnings of all great actions to Argus 
 with his hundred eyes, and the ends to Briareus, with his hundred hands. 
 
 BACON. 
 
 Trust not yourself; but your defects to know. 
 Make use of every friend. 
 
 POPE. 
 
 THE log-house, which was to be our temporary home, 
 was tenanted at this time ; and we were obliged to wait 
 while the incumbent could build a framed one ; the mate 
 rials for which had been growing in the woods not long 
 before ; I was told it would take but a short time, as it was 
 already framed. 
 
 What was my surprise, on walking that way to ascertain 
 the progress of things, to find the materials still scattered 
 on the ground, and the place quite solitary. 
 
 * Did not Mr. Ketchum say Green s house was framed ? 
 said I to the dame du pala.is, on my return ; the timbers 
 are all lying on the ground, and nobody at work. 
 
 Why, la ! so they be all framed, and Green s gone 
 to for the sash. They 11 be ready to raise to 
 morrow/ 
 
 It took me some time to understand that framing was 
 nothing more than cutting the tenons and mortices ready 
 for putting the timbers together, and that these must be 
 raised before there could be a frame. And that sash/ 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 67 
 
 which I in my ignorance supposed could be but for one 
 window, was a generic term. 
 
 The raising took place the following afternoon, and was 
 quite an amusing scene to us cockneys, until one man s 
 thumb was frightfully mashed, and another had a severe 
 blow upon the head. A jug of whiskey was pointed out 
 by those who understood the matter, as the true cause of 
 these disasters, although the Fates got the blame. 
 
 Jem White always has such bad luck ! said Mr. 
 Ketchum, on his return from the raising, and word spake 
 never more, for that night at least; for he disappeared 
 behind the mysterious curtain, and soon snored most 
 sonorously. 
 
 The many raisings which have been accomplished at 
 Montacute, without that ruinous ally, strong drink, since 
 the days of which I speak, have been free from accidents 
 of any sort ; Jem White having carried his bad luck to a 
 distant country, and left his wife and children to be taken 
 care of by the public. 
 
 Our cottage bore about the same proportion to the arti 
 cles we had expected to put into it that the lytell hole 
 did to the fiend whom Yirgilius cajoled into its narrow com 
 pass ; and the more we reflected, the more certain we 
 became that without the magic powers of necromancy, one 
 half of our moveables at least must remain in the open air. 
 To avoid such necessity, Mr. Clavers was obliged to return 
 to Detroit and provide storage for sundry unwieldly boxes 
 which could by no art of ours be conjured into our 
 cot. 
 
 W T hile he was absent, Green had enclosed his new house ; 
 that is to say, put on the roof and the siding, and laid one 
 floor, and forthwith he removed thither without door, 
 
68 ANEWHOME, 
 
 window, or chimney, a course by no means unusual in 
 Michigan. 
 
 As I was by this time, truth to speak, very nearly starv 
 ed, I was anxious to go as soon as possible to a place 
 where I could feel a little more at home ; and so com 
 pletely had my nine days at Ketchum s brought down my 
 ideas, that I anticipated real satisfaction in a removal to this 
 hut in the wilderness. I would not wait for Mr. Clavers 
 return ; but insisted on setting up for myself at once. 
 
 But I should in vain attempt to convey to those who 
 know nothing of the woods, any idea of the difficulties in 
 my way. If one s courage did not increase, and one s 
 invention brighten under the stimulus of such occasions, I 
 should have given up at the outset, as I have often done 
 with far less cause. 
 
 It was no easy matter to get a lady to clean the place, 
 and ne er had place more need of the tutelary aid of the 
 goddess of scrubbing brushes. Then this lady must be 
 provided with the necessary utensils, and here arose dilem 
 ma upon dilemma. Mrs. Ketchum rendered what aid she 
 could, but there was little superfluous in her house. 
 
 And then, such racing and chasing, such messages and 
 requisitions ! Mrs. Jennings could n t do nothin without 
 a mop, and I had not thought of such a thing, and was 
 obliged to sacrifice on the spot sundry nice towels, a 
 necessity which made all the house-keeping blood in my 
 veins tingle. 
 
 After one day s experience of this sort, I decided to go 
 myself to the scene of action, so as to be at hand for these 
 trying occasions ; and I induced Mr. Ketchum to procure 
 a wagon and carry to our new home the various articles 
 which we had piled in a hovel on his premises. 
 
Belioid me then seated on a box in the midat of an anomalous 
 ;on>jregation cf household goods." P- 69. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 69 
 
 Behold me then seated on a box, in the midst of as 
 anomalous a congregation of household goods as ever met 
 under one roof in the backwoods, engaged in the seemingly 
 hopeless task of calling order out of chaos, attempting 
 occasionally to throw out a hint for the instruction of Mrs. 
 Jennings, who uniformly replied by requesting me not to 
 fret, as she knew what she was about. 
 
 Mr. Jennings, with the aid of his sons, undertook the 
 release of the pent-up myriads of articles which crammed 
 the boxes, many of which though ranked when they were 
 put in as absolutely essential, seemed ridiculously super 
 fluous when they came out. The many observations made 
 by the spectators as each new wonder made its appearance, 
 though at first rather amusing, became after a while quite 
 vexatious ; for the truth began to dawn upon me that the 
 common sense was all on their side. 
 
 What on airth s them gimcracks for ? said my lady, as 
 a nest of delicate japanned tables were set out upon the 
 uneven floor. 
 
 I tried to explain to her the various convenient uses to 
 which they were applicable ; but she looked very scorn 
 fully after all and said, I guess they ll do better for 
 kindlins than any thing else, here/ And I began to cast a 
 disrespectful glance upon them myself, and forthwith 
 ordered them up stairs, and wondering in my own mind 
 how I could have thought a log house would afford space 
 for such superfluities. 
 
 All this time there was a blazing fire in the chimney to 
 accommodate Mrs. Jennings in her operations, and while 
 the doors and windows were open we were not sensible of 
 much discomfort from it. Supper was prepared and eaten 
 beds spread on the floor, and the children stowed away. 
 
/70 A NEW HOME, 
 
 Mrs. Jennings and our other helps had departed, and I 
 prepared to rest from my unutterable weariness, when I 
 began to be sensible of the suffocating heat of the place. 
 I tried to think it would grow cooler in a little while, but it 
 was absolutely insufferable to the children as well as my 
 self, and I was fain to set both doors open, and in this 
 exposed situation passed the first night in my western 
 home, alone with my children and far from any neighbor. 
 
 If I could live a century, I think that night will never 
 fade from my memory. Excessive fatigue made it impossi 
 ble to avoid falling asleep, yet the fear of being devoured 
 by wild beasts, or poisoned by rattlesnakes, caused me to 
 start up after every nap with sensations of horror and 
 alarm, which could hardly have been increased by the 
 actual occurrence of all I dreaded. Many wretched hours 
 passed in this manner. At length sleep fairly overcame 
 fear, and we were awakened only by a wild storm of wind 
 and rain which drove in upon us and completely wetted 
 every thing within reach. 
 
 A doleful morning was this no fire on the hearth 
 streams of water on the floor and three hungry children 
 to get breakfast for. I tried to kindle a blaze with 
 matches, but alas, even the straw from the packing-boxes 
 was soaked with the cruel rain ; and I was distributing 
 bread to the hungry, hopeless of any thing more, when Mr. 
 Jennings made his appearance. 
 
 I was thinking you d begin to be sick o your bargain 
 by this time, said the good man, and so I thought I d 
 come and help you a spell. I reckon you d ha done 
 better to have waited till the old man got back. 
 
 What old man ? asked I, in perfect astonishment. 
 
 * Why, your old man to be sure/ said he laughing. I 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 7! 
 
 had yet to learn that in Michigan, as soon as a man marries 
 he becomes the old man, though he may yet be in his 
 minority. Not long since I gave a young bride the how 
 d do in passing, and the reply was, I m pretty well, but 
 my old man s sick a-bed. 
 
 But to return. Mr, Jennings kindled a fire which I took 
 care should be a moderate one ; and I managed to make a 
 cup of tea to dip our bread in, and then proceeded to find 
 places for the various articles which strewed the floor. 
 Some auger-holes bored in the logs received large and long 
 pegs, and these served to support boards which were made to 
 answer the purpose of shelves. It was soon found that the 
 multiplicity of articles which were to be accommodated on 
 these shelves would fill them a dozen times. 
 
 Now to my thinkin/ said my good genius, Mr. Jennings, 
 that ere soup t reen, as you call it, and them little ones, 
 and these here great glass-dishes, and all sick, might jist as 
 well go up chamber for all the good they 11 ever do you 
 here. 
 
 This could not be gainsaid ; and the good man proceeded 
 to exalt them to another set of extempore shelves in the 
 upper story ; and so many articles were included in the 
 same category, that I began to congratulate myself on the 
 increase of clear space below, and to fancy we should soon 
 begin to look very comfortable. 
 
 My ideas of comfort were by this time narrowed down 
 to a well-swept room with a bed in one corner, and cooking 
 apparatus in another and this in some fourteen days from 
 the city ! I can scarcely, myself, credit the reality of the 
 change. 
 
 It was not till I had occasion to mount the ladder that I 
 realized that all I had gamed on the confusion below was 
 
72 ANEWHOME, 
 
 most hopelessly added to the confusion above, and I came 
 down with such a sad and thoughtful brow, that my good 
 aid-de-camp perceived my perplexity. 
 
 * Had n t I better go and try to get some of the neigh 
 bors gals to come and help you for a few days ? said he. 
 
 I was delighted with the offer, and gave him carte- 
 blanche as to terms, which I afterwards found was a 
 mistake, for where sharp bargains are the grand aim of 
 every body, those who express any thing like indifference 
 on the subject, are set down at once as having more 
 money than they know what to do with ; and as this was 
 far from being my case, I found reason to regret havjng 
 given room for the conclusion. 
 
 The damsel made her appearance before a great while 
 a neat looking girl with scarlet hair and belt to match ; 
 and she immediately set about reconciling as she called 
 it, with a good degree of energy and ingenuity. I was 
 forced to confess that she knew much better than I how to 
 make a log house comfortable. 
 
 She began by turning out of doors the tall cupboard, 
 which had puzzled me all the morning, observing very 
 justly, Where there ain t no room for a thing, why, there 
 ain t ; and this decision cut the Gordian knot of all my 
 plans and failures in the disposal of the ungainly con 
 venience. It did yeoman s service long afterwards as a 
 corn-crib. 
 
 When the bedsteads were to be put up, the key was 
 among the missing ; and after we had sent far and wide 
 and borrowed a key, or the substitute for one, no screws 
 could be found, and we were reduced to the dire necessity 
 of trying to keep the refractory posts in their places by 
 means of ropes. Then there were candles, but no candle- 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? Y3 
 
 sticks. This seemed at first rather inconvenient, but when 
 Mr. Jennings had furnished blocks of wood with auger- 
 holes bored in them for sockets, we could do nothing but 
 praise the ingenuity of the substitute. 
 
 My rosy-haired Phillida, who rejoiced in the euphonious 
 appellation of Angeline, made herself entirely at home, 
 looking into my trunks, &c., and asking the price of various 
 parts of my dress. She wondered why I had not my hair 
 cut off, and said she reckoned I would before long, as it 
 was all the fashion about there. 
 
 When d ye expect Him ? said the damsel, with an air 
 of sisterly sympathy, and ere I could reply becomingly, a 
 shout of tiny joy told me that Papa had come. 
 
 I did not cry for sorrow this time. 
 
74 ANEWHOME, 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Dans toutes les professions et dans tons les arts, chacun se fait une mine et un 
 extrieur qu il met en la place de la chose dont il vent avoir la merite ; de sorto 
 que tout le monde n est compost que de mines ; et c est inutilement que nous 
 travaillons a y trouver rien de reel. 
 
 ROCHEFOUCALT. 
 
 \y e see the reign or tyranny of custom, what it is. The Indians lay themselves 
 quietly upon a stack of wood, and so sacrifice themselves by fire. ***** 
 
 Since custom is the principal magistrate of man s life, let men by all means 
 endeavor to obtain good customs. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES began to melt away like frosty rime after 
 this. Some were removed, but to many we became 
 habituated in a far shorter time than I could have imagined 
 possible. A carpenter constructed a narrow flight of 
 board-steps which really seemed magnificent after the 
 stick-ladder. The screws came before the bedsteads were 
 quite spoiled, and the arrival Df my bureau the unpacking 
 of the box among whose multifarious contents appeared the 
 coffee-mill, the smoothing-irons, the snuffers, gave more 
 real delight than that of any case of splendid Parisian 
 millinery that ever drew together a bevy of belles at 
 Mrs. s show-rooms. I never before knew the value 
 of a portable desk, or realized that a bottle of ink might be 
 reckoned among one s treasures. 
 
 Our preparations for residence were on a very limited 
 scale, for we had no idea of inhabiting the loggery more 
 than six weeks or two months at farthest. Our new dwell- 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? .75 
 
 ing was to be put up immediately, and our arrangements 
 were to be only temporary So easily are people 
 deluded ! 
 
 The Montacute mill was now in progress, and had grown 
 (on paper) in a short time from a story and a half to four 
 stories ; its capabilities of all sorts being proportionably 
 increased. The tavern was equally fortunate, for Mr. 
 Hazard had undertaken its erection entirely on his own 
 account, as a matter of speculation, feeling, he said, quite 
 certain of selling it for double its cost whenever he should 
 wish. The plan of the public house was the production of 
 his teeming brain, and exhibited congenial intricacies ; while 
 the windows resembled his own eyes in being placed too 
 near together, and looking all manner of ways. Several 
 smaller buildings were also in progress, and for all these 
 workmen at a high rate of wages were to be collected and 
 provided for. 
 
 I could not but marvel how so many carpenters had 
 happened to locate within a few miles of each other in 
 this favored spot ; but I have since learned that a plane, 
 a chisel, and two dollars a day make a carpenter in 
 Michigan. 
 
 Millwrights too are remarkably abundant ; but I have 
 never been able to discover any essential difference between 
 them and the carpenters, except that they receive three 
 dollars per diem, which, no doubt, creates a distinction in 
 time. 
 
 Our millwright was a little round-headed fellow with a 
 button nose, a very Adonis, in his own eyes, and most aptly 
 named Puffer, since never did a more consequential digni 
 tary condescend to follow a base mechanical calling. His 
 statements, when he condescended to make any, were 
 
76 A NEW HOME, 
 
 always given with a most magisterial air ; and no sugges 
 tion, however skilfully insinuated or gently offered, was ever 
 received without an air of insulted dignity, and a reiteration 
 of his own conviction that it was probable he understood 
 his business. 
 
 It is to be ascribed to this gentleman s care and accuracy 
 that Mr. Clavers has since had the satisfaction of appearing 
 as defendant in several suits at law, brought by those of his 
 neighbors whose property had been doubled in value by the 
 erection of the mill, and who therefore thought they might 
 as well see what else they could get, to recover the value 
 of sundry acres of wet marsh made wetter by the flowing 
 back of the pond, while Mr. Puffer s calculations and levels 
 prove most satisfactory (on paper) that the pond had no 
 business to flow back so far, and that therefore malice itself 
 could ascribe no fault to his management. 
 
 But to return. Our own dwelling was to be built at the 
 same time with all those I have mentioned ; and materials 
 for the whole were to be brought by land carriage from two 
 to thirty miles. To my inexperienced brain, these under 
 takings seemed nothing less than gigantic. I used to 
 dream of the pyramids of Egypt, and the great wall of 
 China, and often thought, during my waking hours, of the 
 * tower, on Shinar s plain, and employed myself in con 
 jectural comparisons between the confusion which pun 
 ished the projectors of that edifice, and the difficulties which 
 beset the builders of Montacute. 
 
 No brick come yet, sir J Dibble could n t get no white 
 
 wood lumber at I , (thirty miles off,) so he stopt and 
 
 got what lime there was at Jones s ; but they had n t only 
 four bushels, and they would n t burn again till week after 
 next ; and that ere sash that came from is all of 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 7? 
 
 three inches too large for the window frames ; and them 
 doors was made of such green stuff that they won t go 
 together no how. 
 
 Well, you can go on with the roof surely ! 
 
 Why, so we could ; but you know, sir, oak-shingle 
 would n t answer for the mill, and there s no pine-shingle 
 short of Detroit. 
 
 Can t the dwelling house be raised to-day then ? 
 
 Why, we calc lated to raise to-day, sir ; but that fellow 
 never came to dig the cellar. 
 
 Go on with the blacksmith s shop, then, since nothing 
 else can be done. 
 
 Yes, sir, certainly. Shall we take that best white wood 
 siding ? for you knoAv the oak siding never came from 
 Tacker s mill. 
 
 Send Thomson for it, then. 
 
 * Well, Thomson s best horse is so lame that he can t use 
 him to-day, and the other is a-drawin timber for the dam. 
 
 Let John go with my horses. 
 
 John s wife s sick, and he s got your horses and gone 
 for the doctor. 
 
 But if I should fill pages with these delays and disap 
 pointments, I should still fail to give any idea of the real 
 vexations of an attempt to build on any but the smallest 
 scale in a new country. You discover a thousand requi 
 sites that you had never thought of, and it is well if you do 
 not come to the angry conclusion that every body is in 
 league against you and your plans. Perhaps the very next 
 day after you have, by extra personal exertion, an offer of 
 extra price, or a bonus in some other form, surmounted 
 some prodigious obstacle, you walk down to survey opera 
 tions with a comfortable feeling of self-gratulation, and find 
 7* 
 
78 ANEWHOMB, 
 
 yourself in complete solitude, every soul having gone off to 
 election or town meeting. No matter at what distance 
 these important affairs are transacted, so fair an excuse for 
 a ploy can never pass unimproved ; and the virtuous indig 
 nation which is called forth by any attempt at dissuading 
 one of the sovereigns from exercising the noblest privilege 
 of a freeman, to forward your business and his own, is 
 most amusingly provoking. 
 
 I once ventured to say, in my feminine capacity merely, 
 and by way of experiment, to a man whose family I knew 
 to be suffering for want of the ordinary comforts : 
 
 * I should suppose it must be a great sacrifice for you, 
 Mr. Fenwick, to spend two days in going to election. 
 
 The reply was given with the air of Forrest s William 
 Tell, and in a tone which would have rejoiced Miss Mar- 
 tineau s heart, Yes, to be sure ; but ought not a man to 
 do his duty to his country? 
 
 This was unanswerable, of course. I hope it consoled 
 poor Mrs. Fenwick, whose tattered gown would have been 
 handsomely renewed by those two days wages. 
 
 As may be conjectured from the foregoing slight sketch 
 of our various thwartings and hindrances, the neat framed 
 house which had been pictured on my mind s eye so 
 minutely, and which I coveted with such enthusiasm, was 
 not built in a month, nor in two, nor yet in three ; but I 
 anticipate again. 
 
 The circumstance of living all summer, in the .same apart 
 ment with a cooking fire, I had never happened to see 
 alluded to in any of the elegant sketches of western life 
 which had fallen under my notice. It was not until I actu 
 ally became the inmate of a log dwelling in the wilds, that 
 1 realized fully what living all in one room meant. The 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW ? 79 
 
 sleeping apparatus for the children and the sociable Ange- 
 line, was in the loft : but my own bed, with its cunning fence 
 of curtains ; my bureau, with its Alps on Alps of boxes 
 and books ; my entire cooking array ; my centre-table, 
 which bore, sad change ! the remains of to-day s dinner, 
 and the preparations for to-morrow s, all covered mysteri 
 ously under a large cloth, the only refuge from the mice : 
 these and ten thousand other things, which a summer s day 
 would not suffice me to enumerate, cumbered this one sin 
 gle apartment ; and to crown the whole was the inextin 
 guishable fire, which I had entirely forgotten when I 
 magnanimously preferred living in a log-house, to remaining 
 in Detroit till a house could be erected. I had, besides the 
 works to which I have alluded, dwelt with delight on 
 Chateaubriand s Atala, where no such vulgar inconvenience 
 is once hinted at ; and my floating visions of a home in the 
 woods were full of important omissions, and always in a 
 Floridian clime, where fruits serve for vivers. 
 
 The inexorable dinner hour, which is passed sub silentio 
 in imaginary forests, always recurs, in real woods, with 
 distressing iteration, once in twenty-four hours, as I 
 found to my cost. And the provoking people for whom I 
 had undertaken to provide, seemed to me to get hungry 
 oftener than ever before. There was no end to the bread 
 that the children ate from morning till night at least it 
 seemed so, while a tin reflector was my only oven, and the 
 fire required for baking drove us all out of doors. 
 
 Washing days, proverbial elsewhere for indescribable 
 horrors, were our times of jubilee. Mrs. Jennings, who 
 long acted as my factotum on these occasions, always per 
 formed the entire operation, al fresco, by the side of the 
 creek, with , 
 
80 ANEWHOME, 
 
 A kettle slung 
 Between two poles, upon a stick transverse. 
 
 I feel much indebted to Cowper for having given a 
 poetical grace to the arrangement. The shady shadow of 
 an umbrageous tree (I quote from an anonymous author) 
 served for a canopy, and there the bony dame generally 
 made a pic nic meal, which I took care to render as 
 agreeable as possible, by sending as many different articles 
 as the basket, could be persuaded to receive, each contained 
 in that characteristic of the country, a pint bowl. 
 
 But, oh ! the ironing days ! Memory shrinks from the 
 review. Some of the ordinary household affairs could be 
 managed by the aid of a fire made on some large stones 
 at a little distance from the house ; and this did very 
 well when the wind sat in the right quarter; which it 
 did not always, as witness the remains of the pretty pink 
 gingham which fell a sacrifice to my desire for an after 
 noon cup of coffee. But the ironing and the baking were 
 imperious ; and my forest Hecate, who seemed at times to 
 belong to the salamander tribe, always made as much fire 
 as the stick-chimney, with its crumbling clay-lining, would 
 possibly bear. She often succeeded in bringing to a white- 
 heat the immense stone which served as a chimney-back, 
 while the deep gaps in the stone hearth, which Alice called 
 the Rocky Mountains, were filled with burning coals out to 
 the very floor. I have sometimes suspected that the 
 woman loved to torment me, but perhaps I wrong her. 
 She was used to it, I dare say, for she looked like one 
 exsiccated in consequence of ceaseless perspiration. 
 
 When the day declined, and its business was laid aside, 
 it was our practice to walk to and fro before the door, till 
 the house had been thoroughly cooled by the night air; 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 81 
 
 and these promenades, usually made pleasant by long talks 
 
 about home, and laughing conjectures as to what and 
 
 would say if they could see our new way of life, were 
 
 frequently prolonged to a late hour. And to this most 
 imprudent indulgence we could not but trace the agues 
 which soon prostrated most of us. 
 
 We had, to be sure, been warned by our eastern friends 
 that we should certainly have the ague, do what we might, 
 but we had seen so many persons who had been settled for 
 years in the open country, and who were yet in perfect 
 health, that we had learned to imagine ourselves secure. 
 I am still of the opinion that care and rational diet will 
 enable most persons to avoid this terrible disease ; and I 
 record this grave medical view of things for the encourage 
 ment and instruction of such of my city friends as may 
 hereafter find themselves borne westward by the irresistible 
 current of affairs : trusting that the sad fate of their prede 
 cessors will deter them from walking in the open air till ten 
 o clock at night without hat or shawl. 
 
82 ANEWHOME, 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Down with the topmast; yare; lower; lower; bring her to try with main- 
 course. TEMPEST. 
 
 WHEN Angeline left me, which she did after a few days, 
 I was obliged to employ Mrs. Jennings to chore round/ 
 to borrow her own expression ; and as Mr. Clavers was 
 absent much of the time, I had the full enjoyment of her 
 delectable society, with that of her husband and two chil 
 dren, who often came to meals very sociably, and made 
 themselves at home with small urgency on my part. The 
 good lady s habits required strong green tea at least three 
 times a day ; and between these three times she drank the 
 remains of the tea from the spout of the tea-pot, saying it 
 tasted better so/ If she had n t it/ she said, she had 
 the sterics so that she was n t able to do a chore/ And 
 her habits were equally imperious in the matter of dipping 
 with her own spoon or knife into every dish on the table. 
 She would have made out nobly on kibaubs, for even that 
 unwieldly morsel, a boiled ham, she grasped by the hock 
 and cut off in mouthfuls with her knife, declining all aid 
 from the carver, and saying coolly that she made out very 
 well. It was in vain one offered her anything, she replied 
 invariably with a dignified nod, I 11 help myself, I thank 
 ye. I never want no waitin on/ And this reply is the 
 universal one on such occasions, as I have since had vexa 
 tious occasion to observe. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 83 
 
 Let no one read with an incredulous shake of the head, 
 but rather let my sketch of these peculiar habits of my 
 neighbors be considered as a mere beginning, a shadow of 
 what might be told. I might 
 
 Amaze indeed 
 The very faculty of eyes and ears. 
 
 but I forbear. 
 
 If grandeur hear with a disdainful smile thinking it 
 would be far better to starve than to eat under such 
 circumstances, I can only say such was not my hungry 
 view of the case ; and that I often found rather amusing 
 exercise for my ingenuity in contriving excuses and plans to 
 get the old lady to enjoy her meals alone. To have 
 offered her outright a separate table, though the board 
 should groan with all the delicacies of the city, would have 
 been to secure myself the unenviable privilege of doing 
 my own chores, at least till I could procure a help 
 from some distance beyond the reach of my friend Mrs. 
 Jennings s tongue. 
 
 It did not require a very long residence in Michigan, 
 to convince me that it is unwise to attempt to stem 
 directly the current of society, even in the wilderness, 
 but I have since learned many ways of wearing round, 
 which give me the opportunity of living very much after 
 my own fashion, without offending, very seriously, any 
 body s prejudices. 
 
 No settlers are so uncomfortable as those who, coming 
 with abundant means as they suppose, to be comfortable, 
 set out with a determination to live as they have been 
 accustomed to live. They soon find that there are places 
 where the almighty dollar is almost powerless ; or rather 
 that, powerful as it is, it meets with its conqueror in the 
 
84 ANEWHOME, 
 
 jealous pride of those whose services must be had in order 
 to live at all. 
 
 Luff when it blows, is a wise and necessary caution. 
 Those who forget it and attempt to carry all sail set and to 
 keep an unvarying course, blow which way it will, always 
 abuse Michigan, and are abused in their turn. Several 
 whom we have known to set out with this capital mistake 
 have absolutely turned about again in despair, revenging 
 themselves by telling very hard stories about us nor- 
 westers. 
 
 Touchstone s philosophy is your only wear for this 
 meridian. 
 
 Corin. And how like you this shepherd s life, Master Touchstone ? 
 
 Touch. Truly, shepherd, in respect of itself, it is a good life ; but in respect it 
 is a shepherd s life, it is naught. In respect that it is solitary, I like it very well ; 
 but in respect that it is private, it is a very vile life. Now, in respect that it is in the 
 fields, it pleaseth me well ; but in respect it is not in the court, it is tedious. As it 
 is a spare life, look you, it fits my humor well ; but as there is no plenty in it, it 
 goes much against my stomach. Hast any philosophy in thee, shepherd ? 
 
 Nobody will quarrel with this view of things. You may 
 say any thing you like of the country or its inhabitants ; 
 but beware how you raise a suspicion that you despise 
 the homely habits of those around you. This is never 
 forgiven. 
 
 It would be in vain to pretend that this state of society 
 can ever be agreeable to those who have been accus 
 tomed to the more rational arrangements of the older 
 world. The social character of meals, in particular, is 
 quite destroyed, by the constant presence of strangers, 
 whose manners, habits of thinking, and social connexions 
 are quite different from your own, and often exceedingly 
 repugnant to your taste. Granting the correctness of the 
 opinion which may be read in their countenances that they 
 are as good as you are, I must insist, that a greasy cook- 
 
W H L L F L L O W ? 85 
 
 maid, or a redolent stable-boy, can never be, to my 
 thinking, an agreeable table companion putting pride, 
 that most terrific bug-bear of the woods, out of the 
 question. 
 
 If the best man now living should honor my humble 
 roof with his presence if he should happen to have an 
 unfortunate penchant for eating out of the dishes, picking 
 his teeth with his fork, or using the fire-place for a pocket 
 handkerchief, I would prefer he should take his dinner 
 solus or with those who did as he did. 
 
 But, I repeat it, those who find these inconveniences 
 most annoying while all is new and strange to them, will, 
 by the exertion of a little patience and ingenuity, discover 
 ways and means of getting aside of what is most un 
 pleasant, in the habits of their neighbors ; and the silent 
 influence of example is daily effecting much towards 
 reformation in many particulars. Neatness, propriety, and 
 that delicate forbearance of the least encroachment upon 
 the rights or the enjoyments of others, which is the essence 
 of true elegance of manner, have only to be seen and 
 understood to be admired and imitated ; and I would fain 
 persuade those who are groaning under certain inflictions to 
 which I have but alluded, that the true way of overcoming 
 all the evils of which they complain is to set forth in their 
 own manners and habits, all that is kind, forbearing, true, 
 lovely, and of good report. They will find ere long that 
 their neighbors have taste enough to love what is so 
 charming, even though they see it exemplified by one who 
 sits all day in a carpeted parlor, teaches her own children 
 instead of sending them to the district school, hates the 
 breath of garlic-eaters, and oh, fell climax! knows 
 nothing at all of soap -making. 
 8 
 
86 A NEW HOME, 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Honester men have stretch d a rope, or the law has been sadly cheated. But 
 this unhappy business of yours ? Can nothing be done ? Let me see the charge. 
 
 He took the papers, and, as he read them, his countenance grew hopelessly 
 dark and disconsolate. 
 
 ANTIQUARY. 
 
 A strange fish ! Were I in England now, and had but this fish painted, not a 
 holiday fool there but would give me a piece of silver. 
 
 TKMPKST. 
 
 Sorrow chang d to solace, and solace mixed with sorrow. 
 
 TIIK PASSIONATE PILGRIM. 
 
 SEVERAL lots had already been purchased in Montacute, 
 and some improvement marked each succeeding day. The 
 mill had grown to its full stature, the dam was nearly 
 completed ; the tavern began to exhibit promise of its 
 present ugliness, and all seemed prosperous as our best 
 dreams, when certain rumors were set afloat touching the 
 solvency of our disinterested friend Mr. Hazard. After 
 two or three days whispering, a tall black-broAved man 
 who happened in from Gullsborough, the place which 
 had for some time been honored as the residence of the 
 Dousterswivel of Montacute, stated boldly that Mr. Mazard 
 had absconded ; or, in Western language, cleared. It 
 seemed passing strange that he should run away from the 
 large house which was going on under his auspices ; the 
 materials all on the ground and the work in full progress. 
 Still more unaccountable did it appear to us that his work- 
 
W H L L F O L L O W ? 87 
 
 men should go on so quietly, without so much as expressing 
 any anxiety about their pay. 
 
 Mr. Clavers had just been telling me of these things, 
 when the long- genius above mentioned presented himself 
 
 O O * 
 
 at the door of the loggery. His abord was a singular 
 mixture of coarseness and an attempt at being civil ; and 
 he sat for some minutes looking round and asking various 
 questions before he touched the main-spring of his visit. 
 
 At length, after some fumbling in his pocket, he pro 
 duced a dingy sheet of paper, which he handed to Mr 
 Clavers. 
 
 There ; I want you to read that, and tell me what you 
 think of it. 
 
 I did not look at the paper, but at my husband s face, 
 which was blank enough. He walked away with the tall 
 man, and I saw no more of them at that time. 
 
 Mr. Clavers did not return until late in the evening, and 
 it was then I learned that Mr. Mazard had been getting 
 large quantities of lumber and other materials on his 
 account, and as his agent ; and that the money which had 
 been placed in the agent s hands, for the purchase of 
 certain lands to be flowed by the mill-pond, had gone into 
 government coffers in payment for sundry eighty-acre lots, 
 which were intended for his, Mr. Mazard s, private behoof 
 and benefit. These items present but a sample of our 
 amiable friend s trifling mistakes. I will not fatigue the 
 reader by dwelling on the subject. The results of all 
 this were most unpleasant to us. Mr. Clavers found him 
 self involved to a large amount; and his only remedy 
 seemed to be to prosecute Mr. Mazard. A consultation 
 with his lawyer, however, convinced him, that even by 
 this most disagreeable mode, redress was out of the ques- 
 
88 A N E W H O M E , 
 
 tion, since lie had, through inadvertence, rendered himself 
 liable for whatever that gentleman chose to buy or engage 
 in his name. All that could be done, was to get out of 
 the affair with as little loss as possible, and to take warn 
 ing against land-sharks in future. 
 
 An immediate journey to Detroit became necessary, and 
 I was once more left alone, and in no overflowing 
 spirits. I sat, 
 
 4 Revolving in my altered soul 
 The various turns of fate below, 
 
 when a tall damsel, of perhaps twenty-eight or thirty, 
 came in to make a visit. She was tastefully attired in a 
 blue gingham dress, with broad cuffs of black morocco, 
 and a black cambric apron edged with orange worsted 
 lace. Her oily black locks were cut quite short round 
 the ears, and confined close to her head by a black ribbon, 
 from one side of which depended, almost in her eye, two 
 very long tassels of black silk, intended to do duty as 
 curls. Prunelle slippers with high heels, and a cotton 
 handkerchief tied under the chin, finished the costume, 
 which I have been thus particular in describing, because 
 I have observed so many that were nearly similar. 
 
 The lady greeted me in the usual style, with a familiar 
 nod, and seated herself at once in a chair near the door. 
 
 Well, how do you like Michi^aw.? 
 
 This question received the most polite answer which my 
 conscience afforded ; and I asked the lady in my turn, if 
 she was one of my neighbors ? 
 
 Why, massy, yes ! she replied ; don t you know me ? 
 I tho t every body know d me. Why, I m the school 
 ma am, Simeon Jenkins s sister, Cleory Jenkins. 
 
 Thus introduced, I put all my civility in requisition to 
 entertain my guest, but she seemed quite independent, 
 
-Why law! that s nothing hut pride now: folks is often too 
 proud to take comfort. "For my part I could nt do without jny 
 pipe to please nohody " 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 89 
 
 finding amusement for herself, and asking questions on 
 every possible theme. 
 
 You re doing your own work now, a n t ye ? 
 
 This might not be denied ; and I asked if she did not 
 know of a girl whom I might be likely to get. 
 
 Well, I don t know, I m looking for a place where 
 I can board and do chores myself. I have a good deal 
 of time before school, and after I get back ; and I did n t 
 know but I might suit ye for a while. 
 
 I was pondering on this proffer, when the sallow damsel 
 arose from her seat, took a short pipe from her bosom, 
 (not Pan s reedy pipe, reader,) filled it with tobacco, 
 which she carried in her work pocket/ and reseating 
 herself, began to smoke with the greatest gusto, turning 
 ever and anon to spit at the hearth. 
 
 Incredible again ? alas, would it were not true ! I have 
 since known a girl of seventeen, who was attending a 
 neighbor s sick infant, smoke the live-long day, and take 
 sriuff besides ; and I can vouch for it, that a large propor 
 tion of the married women in the interior of Michigan use 
 tobacco in some form, usually that of the odious pipe. 
 
 I took the earliest decent opportunity to decline the 
 offered help, telling the school-ma am plainly, that an 
 inmate who smoked would make the house uncomfortable 
 to me. 
 
 * Why, law ! said she, laughing ; that s nothing but 
 pride now : folks is often too proud to take comfort. For 
 my part, I could n t do without my pipe to please nobody. 
 
 Mr. Simeon Jenkins, the brother of this independent 
 young lady, now made his appearance on some trifling 
 errand ; and his sister repeated to him what I had said. 
 Mr. Jenkins took his inch of cigar from his mouth, and 
 8* 
 
90 A NEW HOME, 
 
 asked if I really disliked tobacco smoke, seeming to think 
 it scarcely possible. 
 
 * Do n t your old man smoke ? said he. 
 
 * No, indeed/ said I, with more than my usual energy ; 
 1 1 should hope he never would. 
 
 Well, said neighbor Jenkins, I tell you what, I m 
 boss at home ; and if my old woman was to stick up that 
 fashion, I d keep the house so blue she could n t see to 
 snuff the candle. 
 
 His sister laughed long and loud at this sally, which 
 was uttered rather angrily, and with an air of most manful 
 bravery ; and Mr. Jenkins, picking up his end of cigar 
 from the floor, walked off with an air evidently intended 
 to be as expressive as the celebrated and oft-quoted nod 
 of Lord Burleigh in the Critic. 
 
 Miss Jenkins was still arguing on the subject of her pipe, 
 when a gentleman approached, whose dress and manner 
 told me that he did not belong to our neighborhood. He 
 was a red-faced, jolly-looking person, evidently well to 
 do in the world, and sufficiently consequential for any 
 meridian. He seated himself quite unceremoniously for 
 who feels ceremony in a log house ? said he understood 
 Mr. Clavers was absent then hesitated ; and, as Miss 
 Jenkins afterwards observed, hummed and hawed/ and 
 seemed as if he would fain say something, but scarce knew 
 how. 
 
 At length Miss Cleora took the hint a most necessary 
 point of delicacy, where there is no withdrawing room. 
 She gave her parting nod, and disappeared ; and the old 
 gentleman proceeded. 
 
 He had come to Montacute with the view of settling his 
 son, a wild chap/ he said, a lawyer by profession, and not 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 91 
 
 very fond of work of any sort ; but as he himself had a 
 good deal of land in the vicinity, he thought his son might 
 find employment in attending to it, adding such professional 
 business as might occur. 
 
 But what I wished particularly to say, my dear madam, 
 said he, regards rather my son s wife than himself. She 
 is a charming girl, and accustomed to much indulgence ; 
 and I have felt afraid that a removal to a place so new as 
 this might be too trying to her. I knew you must be well 
 able to judge of the difficulties to be encountered here, and 
 took the liberty of calling on that account. 
 
 I was so much pleased with the idea of having a neigh 
 bor, whose habits might in some respects accord with my 
 own, that I fear I was scarcely impartial in the view which 
 I gave Mr. Rivers, of the possibilities of Montacute. At 
 least, I communicated only such as rises before my own 
 mind, while watching perhaps a glorious sunset reflected in 
 the glassy pond ; my hyacinths in all their glory ; the 
 evening breeze beginning to sigh in the tree tops ; the 
 children just coming in after a fine frolic with D Orsay on 
 the grass ; and Papa and Prince returning up the lane. At 
 such times, I always conclude that Montacute is, after all, 
 a dear little world ; and I am probably quite as near the 
 truth, as when, 
 
 on some cold rainy day, 
 
 When the birds cannot show a dry feather ; 
 
 when Arthur comes in with a pound of mud on each foot, 
 D Orsay at his heels, bringing in as much more ; little Bell 
 crying to go out to play ; Charlie prodigiously fretful with 
 his prospective tooth ; and some gaunt marauder from up 
 north, or out west, sits talking on business, and covering 
 my andirons with tobacco juice ; I determine sagely that 
 
92 A N B W H O M E , 
 
 a life in the woods is worse than no life at all. One view 
 is, I insist, as good as the other ; but I told Mr. Rivers he 
 must make due allowance for my desire to have his fair 
 daughter-in-law for a neighbor, with which he departed ; 
 and I felt that my gloom had essentially lightened in con 
 sequence of his visit. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 93 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Art thou so confident? within what space 
 Hop st thou my cure? 
 
 ALL S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. 
 
 MR. C LAYERS at length returned ; and the progress of 
 the village, though materially retarded by the obliquities of 
 Mr. Hazard s course, was still not entirely at a stand. If 
 our own operations were slow and doubtful, there were 
 others whose building and improvement went on at a rapid 
 rate ! and before the close of the summer, several small 
 tenements were enclosed and rendered in some sort habit 
 able. A store and a public house were to be ready for 
 business in a very short time. 
 
 I had the pleasure of receiving early in the month of 
 September, a visit from a young city friend, a charming 
 lively girl, who unaffectedly enjoyed the pleasures of the 
 country, and whose taste for long walks and rides was insa 
 tiable. I curtained off with the unfailing cotton sheets a 
 snow-white bower for her in the loft, and spread a piece of 
 carpeting, a. relic of former magnificence, over the loose 
 boards that served for a floor. The foot square window 
 was shaded by a pink curtain, and a bedside chair and a 
 candlestand completed a sleeping apartment which she 
 declared was perfectly delightful. 
 
 So smoothly flowed our days during that charming visit 
 that I had begun to fear my fair guest would be obliged to 
 return to without a single adventure worth telling, 
 
94 A NEW HOME, 
 
 when one morning as we sat sewing, Arthur ran in with a 
 prodigious snake story, to which, though we were at first 
 disposed to pay no attention, we were at length obliged to 
 listen. 
 
 A most beautiful snake, he declared, was coming up 
 to the back door. 
 
 To the back door we ran ; and there, to be sure, was a 
 large rattlesnake, or massasauga, lazily winding its course 
 towards the house, Alice standing still to admire it, too 
 ignorant to fear. 
 
 My young friend snatched up a long switch, whose ordi 
 nary office was to warn the chickens from the dinner- table, 
 and struck at the reptile, which was not three feet from the 
 door. It reared its head at once, made several attempts to 
 strike, or spring, as it is called here, though it never really 
 springs. Fanny continued to strike ; and at length the 
 snake turned for flight, not however without a battle of 
 at least two minutes. 
 
 * Here s the axe, cousin Fanny, said Arthur, don t let 
 him run away ! and while poor I stood in silent terror, the 
 brave girl followed, struck once ineffectually, and with 
 another blow divided the snake, whose writhings turned to 
 the sun as many hues as the windings of Broadway on a 
 spring morning and Fanny was a heroine. 
 
 It is my opinion that next to having a cougar spring at 
 one, the absolute killing of a rattlesnake is peculiarly appro 
 priate to constitute a Michigan heroine ; and the cream of 
 my snake story is, that it might be sworn to, chapter and 
 verse, before the nearest justice. What cougar story can 
 say as much ? 
 
 But the nobler part of the snake ran away with far more 
 celerity than it had displayed while it could a tail unfold/ 
 
W H O L L F O L L O VV ? 95 
 
 and we exalted the coda to a high station on the logs at the 
 corner of the house for fear none of the scornful sex 
 would credit our prowess. 
 
 That snake absolutely haunted us for a day or two ; we 
 felt sure that there were more near the house, and our ten 
 days of happiness seemed cut short like those of Segcd, and 
 by a cause not very dissimilar. But the gloom consequent 
 upon confining ourselves, children and all, to the house, in 
 delicious weather, was too much for our prudence ; and 
 we soon began to venture out a little, warily inspecting 
 every nook and harassing the poor children with incessant 
 cautions. 
 
 We had been watching the wheelings and Sittings of a 
 flock of prairie hens, which had alighted in Mi*. Jenkins s 
 corn-field, turning ever and anon a delighted glance west 
 ward at the masses of purple and crimson which make 
 sunset so splendid in the region of the great lakes. I felt 
 the dew, and warning all my companions, stepped into the 
 house. I had reached the middle of the room, when I 
 trod full upon something soft, which eluded my foot. I 
 shrieked a snake ! a snake ! and fell senseless on the 
 floor. 
 
 When I recovered myself I was on the bed, and well 
 sprinkled with camphor, that never-failing specific in the 
 woods. 
 
 Where is it ? said I, as soon as I could utter a word. 
 There was a general smile. Why, mamma, said Alice, 
 who was exalted to a place on the bed, do n t you recollect 
 that great toad that always sits behind the flour-barrel in 
 the corner ? 
 
 I did not repent my fainting, though it was not a snake, 
 for if there is anything besides a snake that curdles the 
 
96 ANEWHOME, 
 
 blood in my veins it is a toad. The harmless wretch was 
 carried to a great distance from the house, but the next 
 morning, there it sat again in the corner catching flies. I 
 have been told by some persons here that they liked to 
 have toads in the room in fly time. Truly it may be said, 
 What s one man s meat - Shade of Chesterfield, 
 
 forgive me ! but that anybody can be willing to live with 
 a toad ! To my thinking nothing but a toady can be more 
 odious. 
 
 The next morning I awoke with a severe headache, and 
 racking pains in every bone. Dame Jennings said it was 
 the agur I insisted that it could be nothing but the 
 toad. - The fair Fanny was obliged to leave us this day, or 
 lose her escort home a thing not to be risked in the wil 
 derness. I thought I should get up to dinner, and in that 
 hope bade her a gay farewell, with a charge to make the 
 most of the snake story for the honor of the woods. 
 
 I did not get up to dinner, for the simple reason that I 
 could not stand and Mrs. Jennings consoled me by telling 
 me every ten minutes, Why, you ve got th agur ! woman 
 alive ! Why, I know the fever-agur as well as I know 
 beans ! It a n t nothing else. 
 
 But no chills came. My pains and my fever became 
 intense, and I knew but little about it after the first day, 
 for there was an indistinctness about my perceptions, which 
 almost, although not quite, amounted to delirium. 
 
 A physicion was sent for, and we expected, of course, 
 some village Galen, who knew just enough to bleed and 
 blister, for all mortal ills. No such thing ! A man of 
 first-rate education, who had walked European hospitals, 
 and who had mother-wit in abundance to enable him to 
 profit by his advantages. It is surprising how many such 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 97 
 
 people one meets in Michigan. Some, indeed, we have 
 been led to suppose, from some traits in their American 
 history, might have left their country for their country s 
 good : others appear to have forsaken the old world, 
 either in consequence of some temporary disgust, or 
 through romantic notions of the liberty to be enjoyed 
 in this favored land. I can at this moment call to mind 
 several among our ten-mile neighbors, who can boast 
 university honors, either European or American, and who 
 are reading men, even now. Yet one might pass any one 
 of these gentlemen in the road without distinguishing 
 between him and the Corydon who curries his horses, so 
 complete is their outward transformation. 
 
 Our medical friend treated me very judiciously; and by 
 his skill, the severe attack of rheumatic fever, which my 
 sunset and evening imprudences had been kindling in my 
 veins, subsided after week, into a daily ague ; but Mrs. 
 Jennings was not there to exult in this proof of her 
 sagacity. She had been called away to visit a daughter, 
 who had been taken ill at a distance from home, and I 
 was left without a nurse. 
 
 My neighbors showed but little sympathy on the occa 
 sion. They had imbibed the idea that we held ourselves 
 above them, and chose to take it for granted, that we did 
 not need their aid. There were a good many cases of 
 ague too, and, of course, people had their own troubles 
 to attend to. The result was, that we were in a sad case 
 enough. 0, for one of those feminine men, who can make 
 good gruel, and wash the children s faces ! Mr. Clavers 
 certainly did his best, -and who can more ? But the hot 
 side of the bowl always would come to his fingers and 
 the sauce- pan would overset, let him balance it ever so 
 9 
 
98 A NEW HOME, 
 
 nicely. And then such hungry children ! They wanted 
 to eat all the time. After a day s efforts, he began to 
 complain that stooping over the fire made him very dizzy. 
 I was quite self-absorbed, or I should have noticed such 
 a complaint from one who makes none without cause ; but 
 the matter went on, until, when I asked for my gruel, he 
 had very nearly fallen on the coals, in the attempt to take 
 it from the fire. He staggered to the bed, and was 
 unable to sit up for many days after. 
 
 When matters reached this pitch when we had, lite 
 rally, no one to prepare food, or look after the children 
 little Bell added to the sick list too our physician proved 
 our good genius. He procured a nurse from a conside 
 rable distance ; and it was through his means that good 
 Mrs. Danforth heard of our sad condition, and sent us a 
 maiden of all work, who materially amended the aspect 
 of our domestic affairs. 
 
 Our agues were tremendous. I used to think I should 
 certainly die in my ten or twelve hours fever and Mr. 
 Clavers confidently asserted, several times, that the upper 
 half of his head was taking leave of the lower. But 
 the event proved that we were both mistaken ; for our 
 physician verified his own assertion, that an ague was as 
 easily managed as a common cold, by curing us both in a 
 short time after our illness had assumed the intermittent 
 form. There is, however, one important distinction to be 
 observed between a cold and the ague the former 
 does not recur after every trifling exertion, as the latter is 
 sure to do. Again and again, after we seemed entirely 
 cured, did the insidious enemy renew his attacks. A 
 short ride, a walk, a drive of two or three miles, and we 
 were prostrated for a week or two. Even a slight alarm. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 99 
 
 or anything that occasioned an unpleasant surprise, would 
 be followed by a chill and fever. 
 
 These things are, it must be conceded, very discoura 
 ging. One learns to feel as if the climate must be a 
 wretched one, and it is not till after these first clouds have 
 blown over, that we have resolution to look around us 
 to estimate the sunny skies of Michigan, and the ruddy 
 countenances of its older inhabitants as they deserve. 
 
 The people are obstinately attached to some supersti 
 tious notions respecting agues. They hold that it is 
 unlucky to break them. You should let them run on, 
 say they, till they wear themselves out. This has proba 
 bly arisen from some imprudent use of quinine, (or Queen 
 Ann, ) and other powerful tonics, which are often taken 
 before the system is properly prepared. There is also 
 much prejudice against Doctor s physic ; while lobelia, 
 and other poisonous plants, which happen to grow wild 
 in the woods, are used with the most reckless rashness. 
 The opinion that each region produces the medicines which 
 its own diseases require, prevails extensively, a notion 
 which, though perhaps theoretically correct to a certain 
 extent, is a most dangerous one for the ignorant to 
 practise upon. 
 
 These agues are, as yet, the only diseases of the country. 
 Consumption is almost unknown as a Michigan evil. 
 Indeed many, who have been induced to forsake the sea 
 board by reason of too sensitive lungs, find themselves 
 renovated after a year in the peninsula. Our sickly season, 
 from August till October, passed over without a single 
 death within our knowledge. 
 
 To be sure, a neighbor told me, not long ago, that her 
 old man had a complaint of the lights, and that to try 
 
100 A NEW HOME, 
 
 to work any, gits his lights all up in a heap. But as this 
 is a disease beyond the bounds of -my medical knowledge, 
 I can only say the tale as t was said to me, hoping that 
 none of my emigrating friends may find it contagious : 
 any disease which is brought on by working, being cer 
 tainly much to be dreaded in this Western country ! 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 101 
 
 CHAPTER XVIrl.. 
 
 The house s form within was rude and sirong, , 
 
 Like an huge cave hewn out of rocky clift j - * * 
 From whose rough vault the ragged breaches hung : 
 
 ******* 
 And over them Arachne high did lift 
 
 Her cunning web, and spread her subtle net, 
 Enwrapped in foul smoke, and clouds more black than jet. 
 
 FAERY QUEEN. 
 
 It were good that men, in their innovations, would follow the example of time 
 itself, which indeed innovateth greatly, but quietly, and by degrees scarce to be 
 
 perceived. 
 
 BACON. 
 
 IT was on one of our superlatively doleful ague days, 
 when a cold drizzling rain had sent mildew into our 
 unfortunate bones ; and I lay in bed burning with fever, 
 while my stronger half sat by the fire, taking his chill with 
 his great-coat, hat, and boots on, that Mr. Rivers came to 
 introduce his young daughter-in-law. I shall never forget 
 the utterly disconsolate air, which, in spite of the fair 
 lady s politeness, would make itself visible in the pauses of 
 our conversation. She did try not to cast a curious glance 
 round the room. She fixed her eyes on the fire-place but 
 there were the clay-filled sticks, instead of a chimney-piece 
 the half consumed wooden crane, which had, more than 
 once, let our dinner fall the Rocky-Mountain hearth, and 
 the reflector baking biscuits for tea so she thought it 
 hardly polite to appear to dwell too long there. She 
 turned towards the window : there were the shelves, with 
 9* 
 
102 A NEW HOME, 
 
 our remaining crockery, a grotesque assortment ! and, just 
 beneath, the unnameable iron and tin affairs, that are reckon 
 ed among the indispensables, even of the half-civilized state. 
 She tried the other side, but there was the ladder, the 
 flour-barrel, and a host of other things rather odd parlor 
 furniture-r-gnct she. cast her eyes on the floor, with its 
 gaping cracks, wide enough to admit a massasauga from 
 below, and its inequalities, which might trip any but a 
 sylph. The poor thing looked absolutely confounded, and 
 I exerted all the energy my fever had left me, to try to say 
 something a little encouraging. 
 
 Come to-morrow morning, Mrs. Rivers, said I, and 
 you shall see the aspect of things quite changed; and I 
 shall be able to tell you a great deal in favor of this wild 
 life. 
 
 She smiled faintly, and tried not to look miserable, but I 
 saw plainly, that she was sadly depressed, and I could not 
 feel surprised that she should be so. Mr. Rivers spoke 
 very kindly to her, and filled up all the pauses in our 
 forced talk with such cheering observations as he could 
 muster. 
 
 He had found lodgings, he said, in a farm-house, not far 
 from us, and his son s house would, ere long, be completed, 
 when we should be quite near neighbors. 
 
 I saw tears swelling in the poor girl s eyes, as she took 
 leave, and I longed to be well for her sake. In this 
 newly-formed world, the earlier settler has a feeling of 
 hostess-ship toward the new comer. I speak only of 
 women men look upon each one, newly arrived, merely as 
 an additional business-automaton a somebody more with 
 whom to try the race of enterprise, i. e., money-making. 
 
 The next day Mrs. Rivers came again, and this time her 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 103 
 
 husband was with her. Then I saw at a glance why it 
 was that life in the wilderness looked so peculiarly gloomy 
 to her. Her husband s face showed but too plainly the 
 marks of early excess : and there was at intervals, in spite 
 of an evident effort to play the agreeable, an appearance of 
 absence, of indifference, which spoke volumes of domestic 
 history. He made innumerable inquiries, touching the 
 hunting and fishing facilities of the country around us, 
 expressed himself enthusiastically fond of those sports, and 
 said the country was a living death without them, regretting 
 much that Mr. Clavers was not of the same mind. 
 
 Meanwhile I had begun to take quite an interest in his 
 little wife. I found that she was as fond of novels and 
 poetry, as her husband was of field-sports. Some of her 
 flights of sentiment went quite beyond my sobered-down 
 views. But I saw we should get on admirably, and so we 
 have done ever since. I did not mistake that pleasant 
 smile, and that soft sweet voice. They are even now as 
 attractive as ever. And I had a neighbor. 
 
 Before the winter had quite set in, our little nest was 
 finished, or as nearly finished as any thing in Michigan ; 
 and Mr. and Mrs. Rivers took possession of their new 
 dwelling, on the very same day that we smiled our adieux 
 to the loggery. 
 
 Our new house was merely the beginning of a house, 
 intended for the reception of a front-building, Yankee 
 fashion, whenever the owner should be able to enlarge his 
 borders. But the contrast with our sometime dwelling, 
 made even this humble cot seem absolutely sumptuous. 
 The children could do nothing but admire the conveniences 
 it afforded. Robinson Crusoe exulted not more warmly in 
 his successive acquisitions than did Alice in a kitchen, a 
 
104 A NEW HOME. 
 
 real kitchen ! and a pantry to put the dishes ! while Arthur 
 found much to praise in the wee bedroom which was allotted 
 as his sanctum in the hie, heec, hoc hours. Mrs. Rivers, 
 who was fresh from the settlements, often curled her 
 pretty lip at the deficiencies in her little mansion, but we 
 had learned to prize any thing which was even a shade 
 above the wigwam, and dreamed not of two parlors or a 
 piazza. 
 
 Other families removed to Montacute in the course of the 
 winter. Our visiting list was considerably enlarged, and I 
 used all my influence with Mrs. Rivers to persuade her that 
 her true happiness lay in making friends of her neighbors. 
 She was very shy, easily shocked by those sins against 
 Chesterfield which one encounters here at every turn, did 
 not conceal her fatigue when a neighbor happened in after 
 breakfast to make a three hours call, forgot to ask those 
 who came at one o clock to take off their things and stay to 
 tea, even though the knitting needles might peep out 
 beneath the shawl. For these and similar -omissions I 
 lectured her continually, but with little effect. It was with 
 the greatest difficulty I could persuade her to enter any 
 house but ours, although I took especial care to be im 
 partial in my own visiting habits, determined at all sacrifice 
 to live down the impression that I felt above my neighbors. 
 In fact, however we may justify certain exclusive habits in 
 populous places, they are strikingly and confessedly ridicu 
 lous in the wilderness. What can be more absurd than a 
 feeling of proud distinction, where a stray spark of fire, a 
 sudden illness, or a day s contre-temps, may throw you 
 entirely upon the kindness of your humblest neighbor ? If 
 I treat Mrs. Timson with neglect to-day, can I with any 
 face borrow her broom to-morrow ? And what would 
 
WHO LL FOL LOW? 105 
 
 become of me, if in revenge for my declining her invitation 
 to tea this afternoon, she should decline coming to do my 
 washing on Monday ? 
 
 It was as a practical corollary to these my lectures, that 
 I persuaded Mrs. Rivers to accept an invitation that we 
 received for the wedding of a young girl, the sister of our 
 cooper, Mr. Whitefield. I attired myself in white, con 
 sidered here as the extreme of festal elegance, to do honor 
 to the occasion ; and called for Mrs. Rivers in the ox-cart 
 at two o clock. 
 
 I found her in her ordinary neat home-dress ; and it 
 required some argument on my part to induce her to 
 exchange it for a gay chally with appropriate ornaments. 
 
 It really seemed ridiculous, she said, to dress for such 
 a place ! and besides, my dear Mrs. Clavers, I am afraid we 
 shall be suspected of a desire to outshine. 
 
 I assured her we were in more danger of that other and 
 far more dangerous suspicion of undervaluing our rustic 
 neighbors. . 
 
 I s pose they did n t think it worth while to put on their 
 best gowns for country-folks ! 
 
 I assumed the part of Mentor on this and many similar 
 occasions; considering myself by this time quite an old 
 resident, and of right entitled to speak for the natives. 
 
 Mrs. Rivers was a little disposed to laugh at the ox-cart ; 
 but I soon convinced her that, with its cushion of straw 
 overspread with a buffalo robe, it was far preferable to a 
 more ambitious carriage. 
 
 No letting down of steps, no ruining one s dress against 
 a muddy wheel ! no gay horses tipping one into the 
 gutter ! 
 
 She was obliged to acknowledge the superiority of our 
 
106 A NEW HOME, 
 
 vehicle, and we congratulated ourselves upon reclining d la 
 Lalla Rookh and Lady Mary Wortley Montague. Certainly 
 a cart is next to a palanquin. 
 
 The pretty "bride was in white cambric, worn over pink 
 glazed muslin. The prodigiously stiff under-dress with its 
 large cords, (not more than three or four years behind the 
 fashion,) gave additional slenderness to her taper waist, 
 bound straitly with a sky-blue zone. The fair h&ir was 
 decorated, not covered, with a cap, the universal adjunct of 
 full dress in the country, placed far behind the ears, and 
 displayed the largest puffs, set off by sundry gilt combs. 
 The unfailing high-heeled prunelle shoe gave the finishing- 
 touch, and the whole was scented, a Voutrance, with 
 essence of lemon. 
 
 After the ceremony, which occupied perhaps one minute, 
 fully twice as long as is required by our State laws, tea was 
 served, "absolutely handed on a salver, and by the master 
 of the house, a respectable farmer. Mountains of cake 
 followed. I think either pile might have measured a foot 
 in height, and each piece would have furnished a meal for 
 a hungry school-boy. Other things were equally abundant, 
 and much pleasant talk followed the refreshments. I 
 returned home highly delighted, and tried to persuade my 
 companion to look on the rational side of the thing, which 
 she scarcely seemed disposed to do, so outre did the whole 
 appear to her. I, who had begun to claim for myself the 
 dignified character of a cosmopolite, a philosophical observer 
 of men and things ; consoled myself for this derogatory 
 view of Montacute gentility, by thinking, * All city people 
 are so cockneyish ! 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Lend me your ears. SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 Grant graciously what you cannot refuse safely. LACON. 
 
 MOTHER wants your sifter, said Miss lanthe Howard, a 
 young lady of six years standing, attired in a tattered 
 calico, thickened with dirt ; her unkempt locks straggling 
 from under that hideous substitute for a bonnet, so uni 
 versal in the western country, a dirty cotton handkerchief, 
 which is used, ad nauseam, for all sorts of purposes. 
 
 Mother wants your sifter, and she says she guesses you 
 can let her have some sugar and tea, cause you ve got 
 plenty. 
 
 This excellent reason, cause you Ve got plenty, is con 
 clusive as to sharing with your neighbors. Whoever comes 
 into Michigan with nothing, will be sure to better his 
 condition ; but wo to him that brings with him any 
 thing like an appearance of abundance, whether of 
 money or mere household conveniences. To have them, 
 and not be willing to share them in some sort with 
 the whole community, is an unpardonable crime. You 
 must lend your best horse qui que ce soil to go ten miles 
 over hill and marsh, in the darkest night, for a doctor ; or 
 your team to travel twenty after a gal ; your wheel-bar 
 rows, your shovels, your utensils of all sorts, belong, not to 
 yourself, but to the public, who do not think it necessary 
 even to ask a loan, but take it for granted. The two sad 
 dles and bridles of Montacute spend most of their time 
 
108 A NEW HOME, 
 
 travelling from house to house a-man-back ; and I have 
 actually known a stray martingale to be traced to four 
 dwellings two miles apart, having been lent from one to 
 another, without a word to the original proprietor, who sat 
 waiting, not very patiently, to commence a journey. 
 
 Then within doors, an inventory of your plenishing of all 
 sorts, would scarcely more than include the articles which 
 you are solicited to lend. Not only are all kitchen utensils 
 as much your neighbor s as your own, but bedsteads, beds, 
 blankets, sheets, travel from house to house, a pleasant and 
 effectual mode of securing the perpetuity of certain efflor 
 escent peculiarities of the skin, for which Michigan is 
 becoming almost as famous as the land twixt Maidenkirk 
 and John o Groat s. Sieves, smoothing irons, and churns, 
 run about as if they had legs ; one brass kettle is enough 
 for a whole neighborhood ; and I could point to a cradle 
 which has rocked half the babies in Montacute. For my 
 own part, I have lent my broom, my thread, my tape, my 
 spoons, my cat, my thimble, my scissors, my shawl, my 
 shoes ; and have been asked for my combs and brushes : 
 and my husband for his shaving apparatus and his panta 
 loons. 
 
 But the cream of the joke lies in the manner of the thing. 
 It is so straight-forward and honest, none of your hypo 
 critical civility and servile gratitude ! Your true repub 
 lican, when he finds that you possess anything which 
 would contribute to his convenience, walks in with, Are 
 you going to use your horses to-day ? if horses happen to 
 be the thing he needs. 
 
 Yes, I shall probably want them. 
 
 O, well ; if you want them I was thinking to get 
 
 ein to go up north a piece. 
 
WHO 1 uL FOLLOW? 109 
 
 Or perhaps the desired article comes within the female 
 department. 
 
 Mother wants to get some butter : that ere butter you 
 bought of Miss Barton this mornin. 
 
 And away goes your golden store, to be repaid perhaps 
 with some cheesy, greasy stuff, brought in a dirty pail, with, 
 Here s your butter ! 
 
 A girl came in to borrow a wash-dish, because we Ve 
 got company. Presently she came back: Mother says 
 you Ve forgot to send a towel. 
 
 The pen and ink, and a sheet o paper and a wafer, 
 is no unusual request ; and when the pen is returned, 
 you are generally informed that you sent an awful bad 
 pen. 
 
 I have been frequently reminded of one of Johnson s 
 humorous sketches. A man returning a broken wheel-bar 
 row to a Quaker, with, Here, I ve broke your rotten 
 wheel-barrow usin on t. I wish you d get it mended right 
 off, cause I want to borrow it again this afternoon. The 
 Quaker is made to reply, Friend, it shall be done : and I 
 wish I possessed more of his spirit. 
 
 But I did not intend to write a chapter on involuntary 
 loans ; I have a story to tell. 
 
 One of my best neighbors is Mr. Philo Doubleday, a long, 
 nwkward, honest, hard-working Maine-man, or Mainote I 
 suppose one might say ; so good-natured, that he might be 
 mistaken for a simpleton ; but that must be by those that 
 know him not. He is quite an old settler, came in four 
 years ago, bringing with him a wife who is to him as 
 vinegar-bottle to oil-cruet, or as mustard to the sugar which 
 is used to soften its biting qualities. Mrs. Doubleday has 
 the sharpest eyes, the sharpest nose, the sharpest tongue, 
 
 10 
 
HO A NEW HOME, 
 
 the sharpest elbows, and above all, the sharpest voice that 
 eyer penetrated the interior of Michigan. She has a 
 tall, straight, bony figure, in contour somewhat resembling 
 two hard-oak planks fastened together and stood on end ; 
 and, strange to say ! she was full five-and-thirty when her 
 mature graces attracted the eye and won the affections of 
 the worthy Philo. What eclipse had come over Mr. 
 Doubleday s usual sagacity when he made choice of his 
 Polly, I am sure I never could guess ; but he is certainly 
 the only man in the wide world who could possibly have 
 lived with her; and he makes her a most excellent 
 husband. 
 
 She is possessed with a neat devil ; I have known many 
 such cases ; her floor is scoured every night, after all are 
 in bed, by the unlucky scrubber, Betsey, the maid of all 
 work ; and wo to the unfortunate indifiddle, as neighbor 
 Jenkins says, who first sets dirty boot on it in the morning. 
 If men come in to talk over road business, for Philo is 
 much sought when the public* has any work to do; or 
 school-business, for that being very troublesome, and quite 
 devoid of profit, is often conferred upon Philo Mrs. 
 Doubleday makes twenty errands into the room, express 
 ing in her visage all the force of Mrs. Raddle s inquiry, 
 Is them wretches going? And when at length their 
 backs are turned, out comes the bottled vengeance. The 
 sharp eyes, tongue, elbow, and voice, are all in instant 
 requisition. 
 
 Fetch the broom, Betsey ! and the scrub broom, Bet 
 sey ! and the mop, and that ere dish of soap , Betsey ; 
 and why on earth did n t you bring some ashes? You 
 did n t expect to clean such a floor as this without ashes, 
 did you ? What time are you going to have dinner, my 
 
W HO LL FOLLOW ? H] 
 
 dear ? says the imperturbable Philo, who is getting ready 
 to go out. 
 
 * Dinner ! I m sure I do n t know ! there s no time to cook 
 dinner in this house ! nothing but slave, slave, slave, from 
 morning till night, cleaning up after a set of nasty, dirty, 
 &c. <fec. * Phew, says Mr. Doubleday, looking at his 
 fuming helpmate with a calm smile, it 11 all rub out 
 when it s dry, if you 11 only let it alone. 
 
 * Yes, yes ; and it would be plenty clean enough for you 
 if there had been forty horses in here. 
 
 Philo on some such occasion waited till his Polly had 
 stepped out of the room, and then with a bit of chalk 
 wrote on the broad black- walnut mantel-piece : 
 
 Bolt and bar hold gate of wood, 
 Gate of iron springs make good, 
 Bolt nor spring can bind the flame, 
 Woman s tongue can no man tame. 
 
 and then took his hat and walked off. 
 
 This is the favorite mode of vengeance poetical justice 
 he calls it ; and as he is never at a loss for a rhyme of his 
 own or other people s, Mrs. Doubleday stands in no small 
 dread of these efforts of genius. Once, when Philo s crony, 
 James Porter, the blacksmith, had left the print of his 
 blackened knuckles on the outside of the oft-scrubbed door, 
 and was the subject of some rather severe remarks from the 
 gentle Polly, Philo, as he left the house with his friend, 
 turned and wrote over the offended spot : 
 
 Knock not here ! 
 Or dread my dear. 
 
 P. D. 
 
 and the very next person that came was Mrs. Skinner, the 
 merchant s wife, all dressed in her red merino, to make a 
 visit. Mrs. Skinner, who did not possess an unusual share 
 
112 A NEW HOME, 
 
 of tact, walked gravely round to the back-door, and there 
 was Mrs. Doubleday up to the eyes in soap-making. Dire 
 was the mortification, and point-blank were the questions 
 as to how the visiter came to go round that way ; and when 
 the warning couplet was produced in justification, we must 
 draw a veil over what followed as the novelists say. 
 
 Sometimes these poeticals came in aid of poor Betsey ; 
 as once, when on hearing a crash in the little shanty-kitchen, 
 Mrs. Doubleday called in her shrillest tones, Betsey ! what 
 on earth s the matter? Poor Betsey, knowing what was 
 coming, answered in a deprecatory whine, The cow s 
 kicked over the buckwheat batter ! 
 
 When the clear, hilarious voice of Philo from the yard, 
 where he was chopping, instantly completed the triplet 
 
 Take up the pieces and throw em at her ! for once the 
 grim features of his spouse relaxed into a smile, and Betsey 
 escaped her scolding. 
 
 Yet, Mrs. Doubleday is not without her excellent quali 
 ties as a wife, a friend, and a neighbor. She keeps her 
 husband s house and stockings in unexceptionable trim. 
 Her emptins are the envy of the neighborhood. Her 
 vinegar is as how should it fail? the ne plus ultra of 
 sharpness ; and her pickles are greener than the grass of the 
 field. She will watch night after night with the sick, 
 perform the last sad offices for the dead, or take to her 
 home and heart the little ones whose mother is removed 
 forever from her place at the fireside. All this she can do 
 cheerfully, and she will not repay herself as many good 
 people do by recounting every word of the querulous sick 
 man, or the desolate mourner, with added hints of tumbled 
 drawers, closets all in heaps, or awful dirty kitchens. 
 
 I was sitting one morning with my neighbor, Mrs. 
 
W HO LL FOLLOW? 113 
 
 Jenkins, who is a sister of Mr. Doubleday, when Betsey, 
 Mrs. Doubleday s hired girl, came in with one of the 
 shingles of Philo s handiwork in her hand, which bore in 
 Mr. Doubleday s well-known chalk marks 
 
 Come quick, Fanny! 
 And bring the granny, 
 For Mrs. Double- 
 day s in trouble. 
 
 And the next intelligence was of a fine new pair of lungs 
 at that hitherto silent mansion. I called very soon after to 
 take a peep at the * latest found ; and if the suppressed 
 delight of the new papa was a treat, how much more was 
 the softened aspect, the womanized tone of the proud and 
 happy mother. I never saw a being so completely trans 
 formed. She would almost forget to answer me, in her 
 absorbed watching of the breath of the little sleeper. 
 Even when trying to be polite, and to say what the 
 occasion demanded, her eyes would not be withdrawn from 
 the tiny face. Conversation on any subject but the ever- 
 new theme of babies was out of the question. Whatever 
 we began upon whirled round sooner or later to the one 
 point. The needle may tremble, but it turns not with the 
 less constancy to the pole. 
 
 As I pass for an oracle in the matter of paps and 
 possets, I had frequent communication with my now happy 
 neighbor, who had forgotten to scold her husband, learned 
 to let Betsey have time to eat, and omitted the nightly 
 scouring of the floor, lest so much dampness might be bad 
 for the baby. We were in deep consultation one morning 
 on some important point touching the well-being of this 
 sole object of Mrs. Doubleday s thoughts and dreams, 
 when the very same little lanthe Howard, dirty as ever, 
 presented herself. She sat down and stared awhile with- 
 10* 
 
114 A NEW HOME, 
 
 out speaking, a V ordinaire ; and then informed us that her 
 mother wanted Miss Doubleday to let her have her baby 
 for a little while, cause Benny s mouth s so sore, that 
 
 but she had no time to finish the sentence. 
 
 LEND MY BABY ! ! ! and her utterance failed. The new 
 mother s feelings were fortunately too big for speech, and 
 lanthe wisely disappeared before Mrs. Doubleday found 
 her tongue. Philo, who entered on the instant, burst into 
 one of his electrifying laughs, with, 
 
 Ask my Polly, 
 To lend her dolly! 
 
 and I could not help thinking that one must come 
 * west in order to learn a little of every thing. 
 
 The identical glass tube which I offered Mrs. Howard, 
 as a substitute for Mrs. Doubleday s baby, and which had 
 already, frail as it is, threaded the country for miles in all 
 directions, is, even as I write, in demand ; a man on horse 
 back comes from somewhere near Danforth s, and asks in 
 
 mysterious whispers for but I shall not tell what he 
 
 calls it. The reader must come to Michigan. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 115 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Le bonheur et le malheur des homines ne depend pas moins de leur humeur 
 que de la fortune 
 
 ROCHEFOUCAULT. 
 
 It has been a canker in 
 Thy heart from the beginning: but for this 
 We had not felt our poverty, but as 
 Millions of myriads feel it, cheerfully ; 
 ****** 
 
 Thou might st have earn d thy bread as thousands earn it; 
 Or, if that seem too humble, tried by commerce, 
 Or other civic means, to mend thy fortunes. 
 
 BYRON WERNER. 
 
 THE winter the much-dreaded winter in the woods, 
 strange to tell, flew away more rapidly than any previous 
 winter of my life. One has so much to do in the country. 
 The division of labor is almost unknown. If in absolutely 
 savage life, each man is of necessity, his own tailor, tent- 
 maker, carpenter, cook, huntsman, and fisherman ; so in 
 the state of society which I am attempting to describe, 
 each woman is, at times at least, her own cook, chamber 
 maid and waiter ; nurse, seamstress and school-ma am ; not 
 to mention various occasional callings to any one of which 
 she must be able to turn her hand at a moment s notice. 
 And every man, whatever his circumstances or resources, 
 must be qualified to play groom, teamster, or boot-black, as 
 the case may be ; besides tending the baby at odd times, 
 and cutting wood to cook his dinner with. If he has good 
 sense, good nature, and a little spice of practical philosophy, 
 
116 A NEW HOME, 
 
 all this goes exceedingly well. He will find neither his 
 mind less cheerful, nor his body less vigorous for these 
 little sacrifices. If he is too proud or too indolent to 
 submit to such infringements upon his dignity and ease, 
 most essential deductions from the daily comfort of his 
 family will be the mortifying and vexatious result of his 
 obstinate adherence to early habits. 
 
 We witnessed by accident so striking a lesson on this 
 subject, not long after our removal to Montacute, that I 
 must be allowed to record the impression it made upon my 
 mind. A business errand called Mr. Clavers some miles 
 from home ; and having heard much of the loveliness of the 
 scenery in that direction, I packed the children into the 
 great wagon and went with him. 
 
 The drive was a charming one. The time, midsummer, 
 and the wilderness literally blossoming as the rose. In a 
 tour of ten miles we saw three lovely lakes, each a lonely 
 gem set deep in masses of emerald green, which shut it in 
 completely from all but its own bright beauty. The road 
 was a most intricate one tho rough bush thorough brier, 
 and the ascents, the pitches, the sidlings, in some places 
 quite terrific. At one of the latter points, where the road 
 wound, as so many Michigan roads do, round the edge of a 
 broad green marsh ; I insisted on getting out, as usual. 
 The place was quite damp ; but I thought I could pick my 
 way over the green spots better than trust myself in the 
 wagon, which went along for some rods at an angle (/ said 
 so at least) of forty-five. Two men were mowing on the 
 marsh, and seemed highly amused at my perplexity, when 
 after watching the receding vehicle till it ascended a steep 
 bank on the farther side, I began my course. For a few 
 steps I made out tolerably, but then I began to sink most 
 
WHO LL FO LLOW? HY 
 
 inconveniently. Silly thin shoes again. Nobody should 
 ever go one mile from home in thin shoes in this country, 
 but old Broadway habits are so hard to forget. 
 
 At length, my case became desperate. One shoe had 
 provokingly disappeared. I had stood on one foot as long 
 as ever goose did, but no trace of the missing Broqua could 
 I find, and down went the stocking six inches into the black 
 mud. I cried out for help ; and the mowers, with a lang 
 and a loud guffaw/ came leisurely towards me. Just then 
 appeared Mr. Clavers on the green slope above mentioned. 
 It seems his high-mightiness had concluded by this time 
 that I had been sufficiently punished for my folly, (all 
 husbands are so tyrannical !) and condescended to come to 
 my rescue. I should have been very sulky; but then, 
 there were the children. However, my spouse did try 
 to find a road which should less frequently give rise to 
 those troublesome terrors of mine. So we drove on and 
 on, through ancient woods, which I could not help admir 
 ing ; and, at length, missing our way, we came suddenly 
 upon a log-house, very different from that which was the 
 object of our search. It was embowered in oaks of the 
 largest size ; and one glance told us that the hand of refined 
 taste had been there. The under-brush had been entirely 
 cleared away, and the broad expanse before the house 
 looked like a smooth-shaven lawn, deep-shadowed by the 
 fine trees I have mentioned. Gleams of sunset fell on beds 
 of flowers of every hue ; curtains of French muslin shaded 
 the narrow windows, and on a rustic seat near the door lay 
 a Spanish guitar, with its broad scarf of blue silk. I could 
 not think of exhibiting my inky stocking to the inmates of 
 such a cottage, though I longed for a peep ; and Mr. 
 
118 ANEW HOME, 
 
 Clavers went alone to the house to inquire the way, while 
 I played tiger and held the horses. 
 
 I might have remained undiscovered, but for the delight 
 ed exclamations of the children, who were in raptures with 
 the beautiful flowers, and the lake which shone, a silver 
 mirror, immediately beneath the bank on which we were 
 standing. Their merry talk echoed through the trees, and 
 presently out came a young lady in a demi-suisse costume ; 
 her dark hair closely braided and tied with ribbons, and the 
 pockets of her rustic apron full of mosses and wild flowers. 
 With the air rather of Paris than of Michigan, she insisted 
 on my alighting ; and though in awkward plight, I suffered 
 myself to be persuaded. The interior of the house corres 
 ponded in part with the impressions I had received from 
 my first glance at the exterior. There was a harp in a 
 recess, and the white- washed log- walls "were hung with a 
 variety of cabinet pictures. A tasteful drapery of French 
 chintz partly concealed another recess, closely filled with 
 books ; a fowling-piece hung over the chimney, and before 
 a large old-fashioned looking-glass stood a French pier- 
 table, on which were piled fossil specimens, mosses, vases 
 of flowers, books, pictures, and music. So far all was well ; 
 and two young ladies seated on a small sofa near the table, 
 with netting and needle-work, were in keeping with the 
 romantic side of the picture. But there was more than all 
 this. 
 
 The bare floor was marked in every direction with that 
 detestable yellow dye which mars every thing in this 
 country, although a great box filled with sand stood near 
 the hearth, melancholy and fruitless provision against this 
 filthy visitation. Two great dirty dogs lay near the rock 
 ing-chair, and this rocking-chair sustained the tall person 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 119 
 
 of the master of the house, a man of perhaps forty years 
 or thereabouts, the lines of whose face were such, as he 
 who runs may read. Pride and passion, and reckless self- 
 indulgence were there, and fierce discontent and determined 
 indolence. An enormous pair of whiskers, which surround 
 ed the whole lower part of the countenance, afforded 
 incessant employment for- the long slender fingers, which 
 showed no marks of labor, except very dirty nails. This 
 gentleman had, after all, something of a high-bred air, if 
 one did not look at the floor, and could forget certain 
 indications of excessive carelessness discernible in his dress 
 and person. 
 
 We had not yet seen the lady of the cottage ; the young 
 girl who ushered me in so politely was her sister, now on a 
 
 summer visit. Mrs. B shortly after entered in an 
 
 undress, but with a very lady-like grace of manner, and 
 the step of a queen. Her face, which bore the traces of 
 beauty, struck me as one of the most melancholy I had ever 
 seen ; and it was overspread with a sort of painful flush, 
 which did not conceal its habitual paleness. 
 
 We had been conversing but a few moments, when a 
 shriek from the children called every one out of doors in an 
 
 instant. One of Mr. B s sons had ventured too near 
 
 to the horses, and received from our old Tom/ who is a 
 little roguish, a kick on the arm. He roared most lustily, 
 and every body was very much frightened, and ran in all 
 directions seeking remedies. I called upon a boy who 
 seemed to be a domestic, to get some salt and vinegar, (for 
 he mother was disabled by terror) but as he only grin 
 ned and stared at me, I ran into the kitchen to procure it 
 myself. I opened a closet door, but the place seemed 
 empty or nearly so ; I sought every where within ken, but 
 
120 A NEW HOME, 
 
 all was equally desolate. I opened the door of a small 
 bed -room, but I saw in a moment that I ought not to have 
 gone there, and shut it again instantly. Hopeless of find 
 ing what I sought, I returned to the parlor, and there the 
 little boy was holding a vinaigrette to his mother s nose, 
 while the young ladies were chafing her hands. She had 
 swooned in excessive alarm, and the kick had, after all, 
 produced only a trifling bruise. 
 
 After Mrs. B had recovered herself a little, she 
 
 entered at some length, and with a good deal of animation, 
 on a detail of her Michigan experiences! not, as I had 
 hoped at the beginning, 
 
 In equal scale weighing delight and dole; 
 
 But giving so depressing a view of the difficulties of the 
 country, that I felt almost disposed for the moment to 
 regret my determination of trying a woodland life. She 
 had found all barren. They had no neighbors, or worse 
 than none could get no domestics found every one dis 
 posed to deal unfairly, in all possible transactions ; and 
 though last, not least, could get nothing fit to eat 
 
 Mr. B s account, though given with a careless, off-hand 
 air, had a strong dash of bitterness in it a sort of fierce defi 
 ance of earth and heaven, which is apt to be the resource 
 of those who have wilfully thrown away their chances of 
 happiness. His remarks upon the disagreeables which we 
 had to encounter, were carried at least as far as those of 
 his wife, and he asserted that there was but one alternative 
 in Michigan cheat or be cheated. 
 
 We were not invited to remain to tea; but took our 
 leave with many polite hopes of further acquaintance. Mr. 
 Clavers found the spot he had been seeking, and then, 
 taking another road home, we called to see Mrs. Danforth ; 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 121 
 
 whom we considered even then in the light of the very 
 good friend which she has since so often proved herself. I 
 told of our accidental visit and learned from the good lacty 
 some particulars respecting this family, whose condition 
 seemed so strange and contradictory, even in the western 
 country, where every element enters into the composition 
 of that anomalous mass called society. 
 
 Mr. B was born to a large fortune, a lot which 
 
 certainly seems in our country to carry a curse with it in a 
 large proportion of instances. Feeling quite above the 
 laborious calling by which his father had amassed wealth, 
 the son s only aim had been to spend his money, like a 
 gentleman ; and in this he had succeeded so well that by 
 the time he had established himself, at the head of the ton 
 in one of our great Eastern cities, and been set down as an 
 irreclaimable roue by his sober friends, he found that a few 
 more losses at play would leave him stranded. But he had 
 been quite the idol of the good society into which he had 
 purchased admission, and the one never-failing resource in 
 such cases a rich wife was still perhaps in his power. 
 Before his altered fortunes were more than whispered by 
 his very particular friends, he had secured the hand of an 
 orphan heiress, a really amiable and well-bred girl ; and it 
 was not until she had been his wife for a year or more, 
 that she knew that her thousands had done no more than 
 prop a falling house. 
 
 Many efforts were made by the friends on both sides, to 
 
 aid Mr. B in establishing himself in business, but his 
 
 pride and his indolence proved insuperable difficulties ; and 
 after some years of those painful struggles between pride 
 and poverty, which so many of the devotees of fashion can 
 11 
 
122 A NEW HOME, 
 
 appreciate from their own bitter experience, a retreat to the 
 West was chosen as the least of prospective evils. 
 
 Here the whole country was before him where to 
 choose. He could have bought at government price any 
 land in the region to which he had directed his steps. 
 Water-power of all capabilities was at his command, for 
 there was scarce a settler in the neighborhood. But he 
 scorned the idea of a place for business. What he wanted 
 was a charming spot for a gentlemanly residence. There, 
 with his gun and his fishing rod, he was to live ; a small 
 income which still remained of his wife s fortune furnishing 
 the only dependence. 
 
 And this income, small as it was, would have been, in 
 prudent and industrious hands, a subsistence at least ; so 
 small is the amount really requisite for a frugal way of life 
 
 in these isolated situations. But unfortunately Mr. B s 
 
 character had by no means changed with his place of 
 residence. His land, which by cultivation would have 
 yielded abundant supplies for his table, was suffered to lie 
 unimproved, because he had not money to pay laborers. 
 Even a garden was too much trouble ; the flower-beds I 
 
 had seen were made by the hands of Mrs. B and her 
 
 sisters ; and it was asserted that the comforts of life were 
 often lacking in this unfortunate household, and would have 
 been always deficient but for constant aid from Mrs. 
 B s friends. 
 
 Mrs. B had done as women so often do in similar 
 
 situations, making always a great effort to keep up a certain 
 appearance, and allowing her neighbors to discover that she 
 considered them far beneath her; she had not forgotten 
 her delicate habits, and that they were delicate and lady 
 like, no one can doubt who had ever seen her, and 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 123 
 
 labored with all her little strength for the comfort of her 
 family. She had brought up five children on little else 
 beside Indian meal and potatoes ; and at one time the 
 neighbors had known the whole family live for weeks upon 
 
 bread and tea without sugar or milk ; Mr. B sitting 
 
 in the house smoking cigars, and playing the flute, as much 
 of a gentleman as ever. 
 
 And these people, bringing with them such views and 
 feelings as make straitened means productive of absolute 
 wretchedness any where, abuse Michigan, and visit upon 
 their homely neighbors the bitter feelings which spring 
 from that fountain of gall, mortified yet indomitable pride. 
 Finding themselves growing poorer and poorer, they 
 persuade themselves that all who thrive, do so by dishonest 
 gains, or by mean sacrifices ; and they are teaching their 
 children, by the irresistible power of daily example, to 
 despise plodding industry, and to indulge in repining and 
 feverish longings after unearned enjoyments. 
 
 But I am running into an absolute homily ! I set out to 
 say only that we had been warned at the beginning against 
 indulging in certain habits which darken the whole course 
 of country life ; and here I have been betrayed into a 
 chapter of sermonizing. I can only beg pardon and 
 resume my broken thread. 
 
124 A NEW HOME, 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 I come, I come! ye have called me long, 
 I come o er the mountains with light and song! 
 Away from the chamber and sullen hearth ! 
 The young leaves are dancing in breezy mirth. 
 
 MRS. HEMANS Voice of Spring. 
 
 And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes 
 and goes like the warbling of music,) therefore nothing is more fit for that 
 delight than to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the 
 air. 
 
 BACON. 
 
 I BELIEVE I was recurring to the rapidity with which 
 our first winter in the wilds slipped away. We found that 
 when the spring came we were not half prepared to take 
 advantage of it ; but armed with the American Gardener/ 
 and quantities of choice seeds received in a box of treasures 
 from home during the previous Autumn, we. set about 
 making something like a garden. It would seem that in 
 our generous soil this would not be a difficult task ; but 
 our experience has taught us quite differently. Besides 
 the eradication of stumps, which is a work of time and 
 labor any where, the grubs present a most formidable 
 hindrance to all gardening efforts in the oak-openings. I 
 dare say my reader imagines a grub to be a worm, a 
 destructive wretch that spoils peach trees. In Michigan, it 
 is quite another affair. Grubs are, in Western parlance, the 
 gnarled roots of small trees and shrubs, with which our soil 
 is interlaced in some places almost to absolute solidity. 
 When these are disturbed by the immense breaking up 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 125 
 
 plough, with its three or four yoke of oxen, the surface of 
 the ground wears every where the appearance of chevaux- 
 de-frize ; and to pile in heaps for burning such of these 
 serried files as have been fairly loosened by the plough, is 
 a Avork of much time and labor. And after this is done in 
 the best way, your potagerie will still seem to be full of 
 grubs ; and it will take two or three years to get rid of 
 these troublesome proofs of the fertility of your soil. But 
 your incipient Eden will afford much of interest and com 
 fort before this work is accomplished, and I sincerely pity 
 those who lack a taste for this primitive source of pleasure. 
 
 On the opening of our first spring, the snow had scarcely 
 disappeared ere the green tops of my early bulbs were 
 peeping above the black soil in which they had been buried 
 on our first arrival ; and the interest with which I watched 
 each day s development of these lovely children of the sun, 
 might almost compare with that which I felt in the daily 
 increasing perfections of my six-months-old Charlie, whose 
 rosy cheeks alone could, in my view at least, outblush my 
 splendid double hyacinths. 
 
 Whatever of a perennial kind we could procure, we 
 planted at once, without waiting until our garden should 
 be permanently arranged. All that we have since regret 
 ted on this point is, that we had not made far greater 
 efforts to increase our variety ; since one year s time is well 
 worth gaining, where such valuables are in question. 
 
 On the subject of flowers, I scarcely dare trust my pen 
 with a word, so sure am I that my enthusiastic love for 
 them would, to most readers, seem absolutely silly or 
 affected. But where the earth produces spontaneously 
 such myriads of splendid specimens, it would seem really 
 ungrateful to spare the little time and pains required for 
 11* 
 
126 A NEW HOME, 
 
 their cultivation. This is a sin which I at least shall avoid ; 
 and I lose no opportunity of attempting to inspire my 
 neighbors with some small portion of my love for everything 
 which can be called a flower, whether exotic or home-bred. 
 
 The ordinary name with us for a rose is a rosy-flower ; 
 our vase of flowers, usually a broken-nosed pitcher, is a 
 posy-pot ; and yaller lilies are among the most dearly- 
 prized of all the gifts of Flora. A neighbor after looking 
 approvingly at a glass of splendid tulips, of which I was 
 vain-glorious beyond all justification, asked me if I got 
 1 them blossoms out of these here woods. Another coolly 
 broke off a spike of my finest hyachinths, and after putting 
 it to his undiscriminaiing nose, threw it on the ground with 
 a pagh ! as contemptuous as Hamlet s. But I revenged 
 myself when I set him sniffing at a crown imperial so we 
 are at quits now. 
 
 A lady to whom I offered a cutting of my noble balm 
 geranium, with leaves larger than Charlie s hand, declined 
 the gift, saying, she never know d nobody make nothin 
 by raisin sich things. One might have enlightened her 
 a little as to their moneyed value, but I held my peace 
 and gave her some sage-seed. 
 
 Yet, oddly enough if any thing could be odd in Michi 
 gan there is, within three miles of us, a gardener and 
 florist of no mean rank, and one whose aid can be obtained 
 at any time for some small consideration of rascal coun 
 ters ; so that a hot-bed, or even a green-house is within 
 our reach. 
 
 I have sometimes thought that there could scarcely be 
 a trade or profession which is not largely represented 
 among the farmers of Michigan, judging from the some 
 what extensive portion of the State with which we have 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 12*7 
 
 become familiar. I was regretting the necessity of a jour 
 ney to Detroit for the sake of a gold filling ; when lo ! a 
 dentist at my elbow, with his case of instruments, his 
 gold foil, and his skill, all very much at my service. 
 
 Montacute, half-fledged as it is, affords facilities that 
 one could scarce expect. Besides the blacksmith, the 
 cooper, the chair maker, the collar maker, and sundry 
 carpenters and masons, and three stores, there is the 
 mautua-maker for your dresses, the milliner for your bon- 
 ets, (not mine) the hen tailor, for your little boy s pan 
 taloons ; the plain seamstress, plain enough sometimes, 
 for all the sewing you can t possibly get time for, and 
 
 The spinners, and the knitters in the sun, 
 
 or in the chimney-corner, for all your needs in the winter 
 hosiery line. Is one of your guests dependent upon a 
 barber ? Mr. Jenkins can shave. Does your husband get 
 too shaggy? Mr. Jenkins cuts hair. Does he demolish 
 his boot upon a grub? Mr. Jenkins is great at rifaccia- 
 mento. Does Billy lose his cap in the pond ? Mr. Jenkins 
 makes caps comme il y en a pen. Does your bellows get 
 the asthma ? Mr. Jenkins is a famous Francis Flute. Then 
 there is Philemon Greenly has been apprenticed to a baker, 
 and he can make you crackers, baker s bread and round- 
 hearts, the like of which , but you should get his 
 
 story. And / can certainly make long digressions, if 
 nothing else. Here I am wandering like another Eve from 
 my dearly beloved garden. 
 
 A bed of asparagus I mean a dozen of them should 
 be among the very first cares of spring; for you must 
 recollect as did the Cardinal De Retz at Vincennes, that 
 asparagus takes three years to come to the beginnings of 
 perfection. Ours, seeded down after the Shaker fashion, 
 
128 A NEW HOME, 
 
 promise to be invaluable. They grew so nobly the first 
 year that the haulm was almost worth mowing, like the 
 fondly-prized down on the chin of sixteen. Then, what 
 majestic palmleaf rhubarb, and what egg-plants ! Nobody 
 can deny that our soil amply repays whatever trouble we 
 may bestow upon it. Even on the first turning up, it 
 furnishes you with all the humbler luxuries in the vege 
 table way, from the earliest pea to the most delicate 
 cauliflower, and the golden pumpkin, larger than Cinde 
 rella s grandmother ever saw in her dreams. Enrich it 
 properly, and you need lack nothing that will grow north 
 of Charleston. 
 
 Melons, which attain a delicious perfection in our rich 
 sandy loam, are no despicable substitute for the peaches of 
 the older world ; at least during the six or seven summers 
 that must elapse before the latter can be abundant. I 
 advise a prodigious melon -patch. 
 
 A fruit, sometimes despised elsewhere, is here among 
 the highly-prized treasures of the summer. The whortle 
 berry of Michigan is a different affair from the little half- 
 starved thing which bears the name elsewhere. It is of a 
 deep rich blue, something near the size of a rifle bullet, and 
 of a delicious sweetness. The Indians bring in immense 
 quantities slung in panniers or mococks of bark on the sides 
 of their wild-looking ponies ; a squaw, with any quantity of 
 pappooses, usually riding V espagnole on the ridge between 
 them. 
 
 Schwap ? Nappanee ? is the question of the queen of 
 the forest ; which means, will you exchange, or swap, for 
 flour : and you take the whortleberries in whatever vessel 
 you choose, returning the same measured quantity of flour. 
 
 The spirit in which the Indians buy and sell is much the 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 129 
 
 same now as in the days of the renowned Wouter Van 
 T wilier, when the hand of a Dutchman weighed a pound, 
 and his foot two pounds. The largest haunch of venison 
 goes for two fingers, viz., twenty-five cents, and an entire 
 deer for one hand, one dollar. Wild strawberries of rare 
 size and flavor, schwap-nappanee, which always means 
 equal quantities. A pony, whatever be his age or qualities, 
 two hands held up twice, with the fingers extended, twenty 
 dollars. If you add to the price an old garment, or a 
 blanket, or a string of glass beads, the treasure is at once 
 put on and worn with such an air of look at me ! Broad 
 way could hardly exceed it. 
 
 The Indians bring in cranberries too; and here again 
 Michigan excels. The wild plum, so little prized else 
 where, is valued where its civilized namesake is unattain 
 able; and the assertion frequently made, that it makes 
 excellent saase, is undeniably true. But grapes ! One 
 must see the loads of grapes in order to believe. 
 
 The practical conclusion I wish to draw from all this 
 wandering talk is, that it is well worth while to make a 
 garden in Michigan. I hope my reader will not be 
 disposed to reply in that terse and forceful style which is 
 cultivated at Montacute, and which has more than once 
 been employed in answer to my enthusiastic lectures on 
 this subject : Taters grows in the field, and taters is good 
 enough for me. 
 
130 A NEW HOME, 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Les hommes ne vivrassent pas long-terns en soctete, s ils n etaient pas les 
 dupes les uns des autres. 
 
 LA ROCHEFOUCAULT. 
 
 I HAVE not said a single word as yet of our neighbor 
 Tinkerville ; a village whose rising fortunes have given 
 occasion for more discussion in the select circles of Monta- 
 cute than any thing but the plan of the new school-house. 
 I know this rambling gossipping style, this going back to 
 take up dropped stitches, is not the orthodox way of 
 telling one s story ; and if I thought I could do any better, 
 I would certainly go back and begin at the very beginning ; 
 bat I feel conscious that the truly feminine sin of talking 
 about it and about it, the unconquerable partiality for 
 wandering wordiness would cleave to me still ; so I proceed 
 in despair of improvement to touch upon such points in the 
 history of Tinkerville as have seemed of vital and absorbing 
 interest to the citizens of Montacute. 
 
 Tinkerville was originally one of the many speculations 
 of the enterprizing Mr. Hazard, and it differed from most 
 of his landed property, in having been purchased at second 
 hand. This fact was often mentioned in his proffers of 
 sale, as a reason why the tract could not be afforded quite 
 so low as was his general practice. He omitted to state, 
 that he bought of a person who, having purchased at the 
 land-office without viewing, was so entirely discouraged 
 when he saw the woody swamp in which he was to pitch 
 
WHO LL FOL LOW? 131 
 
 his tent, that he was glad to sell out to our speculator at a 
 large discount, and try elsewhere on the old and sound 
 principle of look before you leap. The tract contained, 
 as Mr. Hazard s advertisement fairly set forth, almost 
 every variety of land ; and, as he did not say which kind 
 predominated, nobody could complain if imagination played 
 tricks, as is sometimes the case in land purchases. 
 
 An old gentleman of some property in Massachusetts 
 became the fortunate owner of the emblazoned chart, 
 which Mr. Hazard had caused to set forth the advantages 
 of his choice location. There were canals and railroads, 
 with boats and cars at full speed. There was a steam-mill, 
 a wind-mill or two for even a landshark did not dare to 
 put a stream where there was scarce running water for the 
 cattle a state road, which had at least been talked of, and 
 a court-house and other county buildings, all very grand ; 
 for, as the spot was not more than ten miles from the 
 centre of the county, it might some day become the 
 county-seat. Besides all this, there was a large and 
 elegantly decorated space for the name of the happy 
 purchaser, if he chose thus to dignify his future capital. 
 
 Mr. Tinker was easily persuaded that the cherished 
 surname of his ancestors would blend most musically with 
 the modern and very genteel termination in which so many 
 of our western villages glory ; so Tinkerville was appointed 
 to fill the trump of fame and the blank on the chart ; and 
 Mr. Hazard, furnished with full powers, took out the 
 charter, staked out the streets, where he could get at 
 them, and peddled out the lots, and laid out the money, all 
 very much to his own satisfaction ; Mr. Tinker rejoicing 
 that he had happened to obtain so enterprising an agent. 
 
 We are riot informed what were the internal sensations 
 
132 A NEW HOME, 
 
 of the lot-holders, when they brought their families, and 
 came to take possession of their various stands for 
 business. They were wise men ; and having no money to 
 carry them back, they set about making the best of what 
 they could find. And it is to be doubted whether Mr. 
 Hazard s multifarious avocations permitted him to visit 
 Tinkerville after the settlers began to come in. Many of 
 them expressed themselves quite satisfied that there was 
 abundance of water there to duck a landshark, if they 
 could catch him near it ; and Mr. Hazard was a wise man 
 too. 
 
 While the little settlement was gradually increasing, and 
 a store had been, as we were told, added to its many 
 advantages and attractions, we heard that the padroon of 
 Tinkerville had sold out ; but whether from the fear that 
 the income from his Michigan property would scarce 
 become tangible before his great grandson s time, or 
 whether some Bangor Mr. Hazard had offered him a 
 tempting bargain nearer home, remains to us unknown. It 
 was enough for Montacute to discover that the new owners 
 were enterprising men. This put us all upon the alert. 
 
 The Tinkervillians, who were obliged to come to us for 
 grinding until their windmills could be erected, talked 
 much of a new hotel, a school- house, and a tannery ; all of 
 which, they averred, were going up immediately. They 
 turned up their noses at our squint-eyed Montacute 
 house, expressing themselves certain of getting the county 
 honors, and ended by trying to entice away our blacksmith. 
 But our Hr. Porter, who had a soul above buttons/ 
 scorned their arts, and would none of their counsel. Hr. 
 Simeon Jenkins did, I fear, favorably incline to their side ; 
 but on its being whispered to him that Hontacute had 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 133 
 
 determined upon employing a singing-master next winter, 
 he informed the ambassadors, who were no doubt spies in 
 disguise, that he would never be so selfish as to prefer his 
 own interest to the public good. No one thought of 
 analyzing so patriotic a sentiment, or it might have been 
 doubted whether Mr. Jenkins sacrificed much in remaining 
 to exercise his many trades, where there was twice as many 
 people to profit by them as he would find at Tinkerville. 
 
 12 
 
134 A NEW HOME, 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Ignorance lies at the bottom of all human knowledge, and the deeper we 
 penetrate, the nearer we arrive unto it. 
 
 LACON. 
 
 MRS. RIVERS and I had long been planning a ride on 
 horseback ; and when the good stars were in conjunction, so 
 that two horses and two saddles were to be had at one time, 
 we determined to wend our resolute way as far as Tinkerville, 
 to judge for ourselves of the state of the enemy s prepara 
 tions. We set out soon after breakfast, in high style ; my 
 Eclipse being Mr. Jenkins s old Governor, seventeen last 
 grass ; and my fair companion s a twenty-dollar Indian 
 pony, age undecided men s saddles of course, for the 
 settlement boasts no other as yet ; and, by way of luxury, 
 a large long-wooled sheepskin strapped over each. 
 
 We jogged on charmingly, now through woods cool and 
 moist as the grotto of Undine, and carpeted every where 
 with strawberry vines and thousands of flowers ; now 
 across strips of open land where you could look through 
 the straight-stemmed and scattered groves for miles on 
 each side. A marsh or two were to be passed, so said our 
 most minute directions, and then we should come to the 
 trail through deep woods, which would lead us in a short 
 time to the emerging glories of our boastful neighbors. 
 
 We found the marshes, without difficulty, and soon . 
 afterwards the trail, and D Orsay s joyous bark, as he ran 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 135 
 
 far before us, told that he had made some discovery. 
 Deer, perhaps/ said I. It was only an Indian, and when 
 I stopped and tried to inquire whether we were in the right 
 track, he could not be made to understand, but made the 
 usual assenting grunt and passed on. 
 
 When I turned to speak to my companion she was so 
 ashy pale that I feared she must fall from her horse. 
 
 What is the matter, my dearest madam ! said I, going 
 as near as I could coax old Governor. 
 
 The Indian ! the Indian ! was all she could utter. I 
 was terribly puzzled. It had never occurred to me that 
 the Indians would naturally be objects of terror to a young 
 lady who had scarcely ever seen one ; and I knew we 
 should probably meet dozens of them in the course of our 
 short ride. 
 
 I said all I could, and she tried her best to seem coura 
 geous, and, after she had rallied her spirits a little, we 
 proceeded, thinking the end of our journey could not 
 be distant, especially as we saw several log-houses at 
 intervals which we supposed were the outskirts of Tink- 
 erville. 
 
 But we were disappointed in this; for the road led 
 through a marsh, and then through woods again, and such 
 tangled woods, that I began to fear, in my secret soul, that 
 we had wandered far from our track, betrayed by D Orsay s 
 frolics. 
 
 I was at length constrained to hint to my pale companion 
 my misgivings, and to propose a return to the nearest log 
 hut for information. Without a word she wheeled her 
 shaggy pony, and, in a few minutes, we found ourselves at 
 the bars belonging to the last log-house we had passed. 
 
136 A NEW HOME, 
 
 A wretched looking woman was washing at the door. 
 
 * Can you tell us which is the road to Tinkerville ? 
 
 Well, I guess you can t miss it if you follow your own 
 
 tracks. It a n t long since you came through it. That big 
 
 stump is the middle of the public square.* 
 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 137 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 I boast no song in magic numbers rife, 
 
 But yet, oh nature ! is there nought to prize 
 
 Familiar in thy bosom scenes of life ? 
 
 And dwells in day-light truth s salubrious skies 
 
 No form with which the soul may sympathize? 
 
 CAMPBELL. 
 
 WE returned by a different and less lonely route, the 
 Tinkervillians having very civilly directed us to one on 
 which we should not at any point be far distant from a 
 dwelling. The single Indian we had encountered in the 
 morning had been quite sufficient to spoil Mrs. Rivers s 
 ride ; and we hurried on at the best pace of our sober 
 steeds. 
 
 The country through which we were passing was so 
 really lovely that even my timid little friend forgot her 
 fears at times and exclaimed like a very enthusiast. At 
 least two small lakes lay near our way ; and these, of wind 
 ing outline and most dazzling brightness, seemed, as we 
 espied them now and then through the arched vistas of the 
 deep woods, multiplied to a dozen or more. We saw 
 grape-vines which had so embraced large trees that the 
 long waving pennons flared over their very tops ; while the 
 lower branches of the sturdy oaks were one undistinguish- 
 able mass of light-green foliage without an inch of bark to 
 be seen. The roadside was piled like an exaggerated velvet, 
 with exquisitely beautiful ferns of almost every variety ; 
 and some open spots gleamed scarlet with those wild strnw- 
 12* 
 
138 A NEW HOME, 
 
 berries so abundant with us, and which might challenge 
 the world for flavor. 
 
 Birds of every variety of song and hue were not wenting, 
 nor the lively squirrel, that most joyous of nature s pen 
 sioners ; and it cost us some little care to keep D Orsay in 
 his post of honor as sole escort through these lonely passes. 
 But alack ! t was ever thus ! We had scarcely sauntered 
 two miles when a scattered drop or two foretold that we 
 were probably to try the melting mood. We had not 
 noticed a cloud, but thus warned we saw portentous gath 
 erings of these bugbears of life. 
 
 Now if our ponies would only have gone a little faster ! 
 But they would not, so we were wet to the skin travelling 
 jets d eau looking doubtless very much like the western 
 settler taking his stirrup-cup, in one of Mrs. Trollope s true 
 pictures. 
 
 When we could be no farther soaked we reached a farm 
 house not a Michigan farm-house, but a great, noble, 
 yankee palace of pine-boards/ looking like a cantle of 
 Massachusetts or Western New York dropped, par hazard, 
 in these remote wilds. To me, who had for a long while 
 seen nothing of dwelling kind larger than a good sized 
 chicken-coop, the scene was quite one of Eastern enchant 
 ment. A large barn with shed and stables, and poultry- 
 yard and all ! Fields of grain, well fenced and stumpless, 
 surrounded this happy dwelling ; and a most inviting door- 
 yard, filled to profusion with shrubs and flowers, seemed to 
 invite our entrance. 
 
 A honey-suckle ! absolutely a honey-suckle on the 
 porch ! Mrs. Rivers was almost too forlorn to sympathize 
 with me ; but then she had not been quite so long from 
 
"Now if our ponies would only have gone a little faster! But 
 r.hey -would not ; so -we were wet to the skin travelling jets d eau. " 
 
 p. 138 
 

WHO LL FOLLOW? 139 
 
 home. I have been troubled with a sort of home calenture 
 at times since we removed westward. 
 
 As we were about to dismount, the sun shone out most 
 provokingly : and I was afraid there would be scarce the 
 shadow of an excuse for a visit to the interesting inmates, 
 for such I had decided they must be, of this delicious home 
 like spot ; but, as we wavered, a young man, as wet as 
 ourselves, came up the road, and, opening the gate at once, 
 invited us to enter and dry our dripping garments. 
 
 We stayed not for urging, but turned our graceless steeds 
 into the shady lane, and dismounting, not at the front 
 entrance, but, A la Michigan, at the kitchen door, we were 
 received with much grave but cordial politeness by the 
 comely mistress of the mansion, who was sharing with her 
 pretty daughter the after-dinner cares of the day. Our 
 upper garments were spread to dry, and when we were 
 equipped, with urgent hospitality, in others belonging to 
 our hostesses, we were ushered into the parlor or keeping 
 room. 
 
 Here, writing at an old-fashioned secretary, sat the 
 master of the house, a hearty, cheerful-looking, middle-aged 
 man ; evidently a person of less refinement than his wife, 
 but still of a most prepossessing exterior. He fell no whit 
 behind in doing the honors, and we soon found ourselves 
 quite at ease. We recounted the adventures of our tiny 
 journey, and laughed at our unlucky over-running of the 
 game. 
 
 Ah ! Tinker ville ! yes, I think it will be some time yet 
 before those dreams will come to pass. I have told Mr. 
 Jephson there was nothing there to make a village out of. 
 
 You are acquainted then with the present proprietors ? 
 
 With one of them I have been acquainted since we 
 
140 ANEWHOMB, 
 
 were boys ; and he has been a speculator all that time, and 
 is now at least as poor as ever. He has been very urgent 
 with me to sell out here and locate in his village, as he 
 calls it ; but we knew rather too much of him at home for 
 that/ and he glanced at his fair spouse with some archness. 
 I could scarcely believe that any man could have been 
 impudent enough to propose such an exchange, but nothing 
 is incredible in Michigan. 
 
 Mrs. Beckworth was now engaged in getting tea, in spite 
 of our hollow-hearted declarations that we did not wish it. 
 With us, be it known to new comers, whatever be the hour 
 of the day, a cup of tea, with trimmings, is always in 
 season ; and is considered as the orthodox mode of welcom 
 ing any guest, from the clergyman to the maid that does 
 the meanest chores. We were soon seated at a delicately 
 furnished table. 
 
 The countenance of the good lady had something of 
 peculiar interest for me. It was mild, intelligent, and very 
 pleasing. No envious silver streaked the rich brown locks 
 which were folded with no little elegance above the fair brow. 
 A slight depression of the outer extremity of the eyelid, and 
 of the delicately pencilled arch above it, seemed to tell of 
 sorrow and meek endurance. I was sure that like so many 
 western settlers, the fair and pensive matron had a story ; 
 and when I had once arrived at this conclusion, I determin 
 ed to make a brave push to ascertain the truth of my 
 conjecture. 
 
 I began, while Mrs. Beckworth was absent from the 
 parlor, by telling every thing I could think of; this being 
 the established mode of getting knowledge in this country. 
 Mr. Beckworth did not bite. 
 
 Is this young lady your daughter, Mr. Beckworth ? 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 141 
 
 A daughter of my wife s Mary Jane Harrington ! 
 
 Oh ! ah ! a former marriage ; and the fine young man 
 who brought us into such good quarters is a brother of 
 Miss Harrington I am sure. 
 
 A half brother Charles Boon. 
 
 Mrs. Beckworth thrice married ! impossible ! was my 
 not very civil but quite natural exclamation. 
 
 Our host smiled quietly, a smile which enticed me still 
 further. He was, fortunately for my reputation for civility, 
 too kindly polite not to consent to gratify my curiosity, 
 which I told him sincerely had been awakened by the 
 charming countenance of his wife, who was evidently the 
 object of his highest admiration. 
 
 As we rode through the freshened woods with Mr. 
 Beckworth, who had, with ready politeness, offered to see 
 us safely a part of the way, he gave us the particulars of 
 his early history ; and to establish my claim to the 
 character of a physiognomist, I shall here recount what he 
 told me ; and, as I cannot recollect his words, I must give 
 this romance of rustic life in my own, taking a new chapter 
 for it. 
 
142 A NEW HOME, 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Sudden partings, such as press 
 The life from out young hearts ; and choking sighs 
 Which ne er might be repeated, who could guesg 
 
 If ever more should meet those mutual eyes 
 
 BYRON. 
 
 HENRY BECKWORTH, the eldest son of a Massachusetts 
 farmer, of small means and many mouths, was glad to 
 accept a situation as clerk in the comprehensive variety 
 store of his cousin, Ellis Irving, who was called a great 
 merchant in the neighboring town of Langton. This 
 cousin Ellis had fallen into the dangerous and not very 
 usual predicament of having every body s good word ; and 
 it was not until he had failed in business, that any one 
 discovered that he had a fault in the world. 
 
 While he was yet in his heyday, and before the world 
 knew that he had been so good natured as to endorse for 
 his wife s harum-scarum brother, his clerk, Henry Beck- 
 worth, had never dared to acknowledge, even in his 
 dreams, that he loved to very dizziness his sweet cousin 
 Agnes Irving. But when mortification and apoplexy had 
 done their work upon Mr. Irving, and his delicate wife had 
 ascertained that the remnant of her days must pass in 
 absolute poverty, dependent for food and raiment upon her 
 daughter s needle, Henry found his wits and his tongue, 
 and made so good use of both, that, ere long, his cousin 
 Agnes did not deny that she liked him very well. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 143 
 
 Now young ladies who have been at boarding school and 
 learned to paint water-melons in water colors, and work 
 Rebecca at the well in chenille and gold thread, find real, 
 thrifty, housewifely sewing, very slow and hard work, to 
 earn even bread and salt by ; but the dove-eyed Agnes 
 had been the sole care and pride of a genuine New- 
 England housewife, who could make hard gingerbread as 
 well as soft, and who had plumed herself on being able to 
 put every stitch into six fine shirts between Sunday 
 evening and Saturday night. And so the fair child, 
 though delicately bred, earned her mother s living and her 
 own, with cheerful and ungrudging industry ; and- Henry 
 sent all the surplus of his clerkly gains to his father, who 
 sometimes found the cry of crowdie, crowdie, a the day, 
 rather difficult to pacify. 
 
 But by-and-by, Mrs. Irving became so feeble that Agnes 
 was obliged to nurse her instead of plying her skilful 
 needle ; and then matters went far astray, so that after a 
 while the kind neighbors brought in almost all that was 
 consumed in that sad little household ; Henry Beckworth 
 being then out of employ, and unable for the time to find 
 any way of aiding his cousin, save by his personal services 
 in the sick room. 
 
 He grew almost mad under his distress, and the anxious, 
 careful love which is the nursling of poverty, and at length 
 seeing Mrs. Irving s health a little amended, he gave a long, 
 sad, farewell kiss to his Agnes, and left her with an assu 
 rance that she should hear from him soon. He dared not 
 tell her that he was quitting her to go to sea, in order that 
 he might have immediate command of a trifling sum which 
 he could devote to her service. 
 
 He made his way to the nearest sea-port, secured a 
 
144 A NEW HOME, 
 
 berth before the mast in a vessel about to sail for the East 
 Indies ; and then put into a letter all the love, and hope, 
 and fear, and caution, and encouragement, and resolution, 
 and devotedness, that one poor sheet could carry, giving 
 the precious document into the care of a Langton man, 
 who was returning direct, as he said, to the spot where 
 poor Henry had left his senses. 
 
 This said letter told Agnes, among other things, how and 
 
 when to draw on Messrs. , for Henry s wages, which 
 
 were left subject to her order and the lover went to sea, 
 with a heavy heart indeed, but with a comforting security 
 that he had done all that poverty would let him, for the 
 idol of his heart. 
 
 An East India voyage is very long, and most people 
 experience many a changing mood and many a wayward 
 moment during its course; but Henry Beckworth s heart 
 beat as if it would burst his blue jacket, when he found 
 himself on shore again, and thought of what awaited him 
 at Langton. 
 
 He called on Messrs. , to ascertain whether any 
 
 thing remained of his pay and found that every dollar was 
 untouched. At first this angered him a little ; for, as he 
 justly argued, if Agnes loved me as I love her but never 
 mind ! This I give as a fair specimen of his thoughts on 
 his homeward journey. All his contemplations, however 
 incoherent or wide of the mark, came invariably to one 
 conclusion that Agnes would surely be willing to marry 
 him, poor as he was, rather than he should go to sea 
 again. 
 
 It was evening, and a very dull, lead-colored evening, 
 when the stage that contained our lover stopped at 
 the only public-house in Langton, The True Blue 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 145 
 
 Hotel, kept, as the oval sign which creaked by its side 
 informed the grateful public, by Job Jephson, (at this 
 moment, J. Jephson, Esquire, of Tinkerville, in Michigan,) 
 the very Job Jephson to whose kindly care Henry had 
 committed his parting letter. The stage passed on, and 
 Mr. Beckworth paced the tesselated floor of Mr. Jephson s 
 bar-room, until the worthy proprietor and himself were left 
 its sole occupants. 
 
 Why, Henry, my boy, is that you ? Do tell ! Why 
 your hat was slouched over your eyes so, that I did not 
 know you ! Why, man ! where on airtk have you sprung 
 from ? 
 
 Henry asked after everybody, and then after Agnes 
 Irvincf and her mother. 
 
 O 
 
 Agnes Irving ! 
 
 Dead ! said Henry, wildly enough. 
 
 Dead ! no, married to be sure ! three months ago ; and 
 this very day a week ago, her mother was buried. 
 
 It is really surprising how instantaneously pride comes 
 to one s aid on some occasions. The flashing thought of 
 the loved one s death, had been anguish intolerable and 
 inconcealable ; the certainty of what was far worse only 
 blanched Henry s cheek, and set his teeth firmly together, 
 while his lips questioned on, and the loquacious host of the 
 True Blue proceeded. 
 
 Poor Agnes saw hard times after you went away. 
 She had to give up the house you left her in, and take 
 a room at Mr. Truesdell s. And then Mrs. Irving did 
 nothing but pine after the comforts she had lost, for her 
 mind was kind o broke up by trouble. And Agnes tried 
 to find some other place to board, because her mother 
 took such an awful dislike to Mrs. Truesdell ; but there 
 13 
 
146 A NEW HOME, 
 
 wasn t nobody willing to take them in, because the old 
 lady was so particular. And so, John Harrington you 
 know John ? made up to her again, though she d refused 
 him two or three times before ; and said he loved her 
 better than ever, and that he would take her mother home 
 and do for her as if she was his own. Now, you see, the 
 neighbors had got pretty much tired of sending in things, 
 because they thought Aggy ought n t to refuse such a 
 good offer, and so after a while John got her. After all, 
 the poor old lady did not seem to enjoy her new home, 
 but pined away faster than ever, and said she knew Aggy 
 sold herself for her sake, but that was only a notion you 
 know, for John was an excellent match for a poor 
 
 Did you give my cousin the letter I handed you ? 
 interrupted Henry. 
 
 I 11 just tell you all about that, responded Mr. Jephson, 
 complacently drawing a chair for Henry, and inviting him 
 to sit, as if for a long story. I ll just tell you how that 
 was. When you and I parted that time, I thought I was 
 all ready for a start home ; but there was a chance 
 turned up to spekilate a little, and arter that I went down 
 South to trade away some notions, so that when I got 
 back to Langton it was quite cold weather, and I took off 
 my best coat and laid it away, for where s the use of wear 
 ing good clothes under a great coat, you know ? and there, 
 to be sure was your letter in the pocket of it. Well, 
 before I found it again Agnes was getting ready to be 
 married ; and, thinks I to myself, like enough it s a love- 
 letter, and might break off the match if she got it, gals are 
 so foolish! so I just locked up the letter and said nothing 
 to nobody and there lay Mr. Jephson on his bar 
 room floor. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW ? U? 
 
 Henry turned from the place with some glimmering of 
 an intention to seek his lost love and tell her all, but one 
 moment s lapse cured this madness ; so he only sat down 
 and looked at Job, who was picking himself up and talking 
 all the while. 
 
 Man alive ! what do you put yourself into such plaguy 
 passion for ? I done it all for the best ; and as for forget 
 ting, who does not forget sometimes ? Plague take you I 
 you ve given my back such a wrench I shan t be able to 
 go to trainin to-morrow, and tore my pantaloons besides ; 
 and, arter all, you may likely thank me for it as long as 
 you live. There s as good fish in the sea as ever was 
 caught but, I swan ! you re as white as the wall, and no 
 mistake, and he caught the poor soul as he was falling 
 from his chair. 
 
 Well, now, if this does n t beat cock-fighting ! muttered 
 he, as he laid his insensible guest at full length on the 
 floor and ran to the bar for some * camp hire, which he 
 administered in all haste, to take on so about a gal with 
 out a cent, but he won t come to after all, and I shall have 
 to bleed him : saying which he pulled off one sleeve of 
 Henry s jacket, and proceeded in due form to the ope 
 ration. 
 
 He won t bleed, I vow ! Hang the fellow ! if he dies, 
 I shall be took up for manslaughter. Why, Harry, I say, 
 shaking him soundly, and dragging at his arm with no 
 gentle force. At last blood came slowly, and Beckworth 
 became once more conscious of misery, and Mr. Jeph son s 
 tongue set out as if fresh oiled by the relief of his fears for 
 his own safety. 
 
 Now, Henry, don t make such a fool of yourself! 
 You always used to be a fellow of some sconce. What 
 
148 A NEW HOME, 
 
 can t be cured must be endured. But as Henry s lips 
 resumed their color, and lie raised himself from the floor, 
 Mr. Jephson s habitual prudence urged him farther and 
 farther from the reach of the well arm. His fears were 
 groundless, however, for all that Henry now wanted was 
 to be alone, that he might weep like a woman. 
 
 Promise me that you will never tell any one that I 
 have been here this night, said he at length ; this is all 
 I ask. Since Agnes is another man s wife, God forbid I 
 should wish my name mentioned in her presence. 
 
 Why, law ! I ll promise that, to be sure ; but you 
 should n t make so much out o nothing : Aggy has got 
 the best house in town, and every thing comfortable ; and 
 it a n t no ways likely she would fret after you. And 
 with this comforting assurance Henry prepared for depar 
 ture. 
 
 I say, Beck worth ! said Mr. Jephson as his guest left 
 the room with his valise ; I shan t charge you anything 
 for the bleeding/ 
 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 149 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Now I will believe 
 
 That there are unicorns ; that in Arabia 
 There is one tree, the Phoanix throne ; one Phoenix 
 At this hour reigning there. * * I ll believe both, 
 And what else doth want credit, come to me, 
 And I ll be sworn tis true. 
 
 TEMPEST. 
 
 THE windows of heaven were opened that night. The 
 rain descended in sheets instead of drops ; and it was only 
 by an occasional flash of paly lightning that our unfortunate 
 was able to find the house which he well recollected for 
 John Harrington s. There it was in all its fresh white 
 ness and greenness, and its deep masses of foliage, and its 
 rich screens of honeysuckle and sweetbriar, meet residence 
 for a happy bridegroom and his new-found treasure. The 
 upper half of the parlor shutters was unclosed, and plainly 
 by the clear bright lamp-light could Henry see the delicate 
 papering of the walls, and the pretty French clock under 
 its glass shade on the mantelpiece. Oh ! for one glance at 
 the table, near which he felt sure Agnes was sitting. Wild 
 thoughts of the old song 
 
 We took but ae kiss, an we tore ourselves away, 
 
 were coursing through his brain, and he was deliberating 
 upon the chance that the end window, which looked on a 
 piazza, might be free from the envious shutter, when a man 
 ran against him in the dark. The next flash showed a 
 great-coated figure entering the pretty rural gate to the 
 
150 A NEW HOME, 
 
 little shrubbery ; and in another moment the hall door 
 opened. Henry saw the interior, light and cheerful ; and 
 again all was dark. 
 
 It would have been very wrong to set the house on fire 
 and then go and murder Job Jephson ; and as Henry could 
 not at the moment decide upon any other course of conduct, 
 which would be at all in unison with his feelings, he set out, 
 a human locomotive at the top-speed, in the very teeth of 
 the storm, on his way towards the sea-port again. The 
 worse one feels, the faster one travels, hoping to outrun 
 sorrow ; so it did not take Henry Beckworth long to reach 
 a neighboring town, where he -could find a stage-coach ; 
 and he was far at sea again in the course of a few days. 
 
 His outre-mer adventures are of no importance to my 
 story how, as he stood with two or three messmates, 
 staring, like a true Yankee, at the Tower of London, a 
 press-gang seized them all, and rowed them to a vessel 
 which lay off the Traitors Gate, the Americans protesting 
 themselves such, and the John Bulls laughing at them ; 
 how, when they got on board the man o war, they showed 
 their protections, and the officer of his Majesty s recruiting 
 service said he could do nothing in the case till the ship 
 returned from her cruize and how the ship did not return 
 from her cruize, but after cruizing about for some three 
 years or more, was taken by a French first-rate and carried 
 into Brest. All this is but little to the purpose. But 
 when Henry was thrown into a French prison, his Ameri 
 can certificates procured his release through the consul s 
 good offices, and he shipped at once for New York some 
 what weary of a sea life. 
 
 At New York he learned from a townsman whom he 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 151 
 
 met there that Agnes Harrington had been two years a 
 widow. 
 
 1 Is she rich ? asked Henry. A strange question for a 
 true lover. 
 
 Rich ! Lord bless ye ! John Harrington was n t worth 
 that ; snapping his fingers most expressively. His pro 
 perty was under mortgage to such an extent, that all it 
 would sell for would n t clear it. His widow and child will 
 not have a cent after old Horner forecloses, as he is now 
 doing. And Mrs. Harrington s health is very poor, though 
 to my thinking she s prettier than ever. 
 
 - Henry s movements were but little impeded by baggage, 
 and the journey to Langton was performed in a short time. 
 Once more was he set down at Job Jephson s ; and there 
 was daylight enough this time to see, besides the oval sign 
 before hinted at, which had for years held out hopes of 
 Entertainment for man and beast, a legend over the door 
 in great white characters, Post Office. Good business 
 for Job, thought Henry Beckworth, a board in one window 
 setting forth, Drugs and Medicines, and a card in the 
 other, Tailoring done here. 
 
 Slight salutation contented Henry, when the man of 
 letters made his appearance, and he requested a horse to 
 carry him as far as his father s, saying he would send for 
 his trunk in the morning. Mr. Jephson made some little 
 difficulty and delay, but Henry seemed in fiery haste. In 
 truth he hated the sight of Job beyond all reason; but 
 that complacent personage seemed to have forgotten, very 
 conveniently, all former passages in that memorable bar 
 room. 
 
 You do n t ask after your old friends, Harry/ said he. 
 
152 A NEW HOME, 
 
 A good many things has altered here since I see you last. 
 You came that time a little too late. 
 
 Henry looked dirks at the fellow, but he went on as 
 coldly as ever. 
 
 * Now this time, to my thinkin, you Ve come a leetle too 
 soon. 
 
 Henry tried not to ask him what he meant ; but for his 
 life he could not help it. 
 
 Why, I mean, if John Harrington s widow has not more 
 sense than I think she has, you Ve come in time to spoil a 
 good match. 
 
 A match! was all Henry could say. 
 
 * Ay, a match ; for Colonel Boon came from there yes 
 terday, and sent for old Horner here to this blessed house, 
 and took up the mortgage on Harrington s property ; and 
 every body knows he has been after Aggy this twelve 
 month, offering to marry her and clear the property, and do 
 well by the child. And if there s a good man on airth, 
 Boon is that man, and every body knows it. 
 
 What did Henry Beck worth now ? He unordered his 
 horse, and went quietly to bed. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 153 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 There are thoughts that our burden can lighten, 
 
 Though toilsome and steep be the way, 
 And dreams that like moonlight can brighten 
 
 With a lustre far clearer than day. 
 
 Love nursed amid pleasures is faithless as they, 
 But the love born of sorrow, like sorrow is true. 
 
 MOORE. 
 
 HENRY BECKWORTH came from the hand of Nature 
 abundantly furnished with that excellent qualification 
 known and revered throughout New-England, under the 
 expressive name of spunk. This quality at first prompted 
 him, spite of the croakings of the ill-omened Job, to 
 present himself before the one only object of his constant 
 soul, to tell her all, and to ask her to share with him the 
 weal or woe which might yet be in store for him. But he 
 had now seen a good deal of this excellent world, and the 
 very indifferent people who transact its affairs. He had 
 tasted the tender mercies of a British man o war, and the 
 various agrimens of a French prison; and the practical 
 conclusion which had gradually possessed itself of his 
 mind, was, that money is, beyond all dispute, one of the 
 necessaries of life. 
 
 No way of making money off-hand occurred to him as 
 he tossed and groaned through the endless hours of that 
 weary night. He had neither house nor land, nor yet a 
 lottery ticket nor a place under government and the 
 chest which stood at his bedside, though it contained 
 
154 A NEW HOME, 
 
 enough of this world s goods to keep his fair proportions 
 from the weather ; and a sea-journal a love-log which 
 he hoped might one day, by some romantic chance, come 
 into the fair hands of his beloved, and give her to guess 
 how his sad life had passed held, as he well knew, 
 nothing which she could in anywise eat, or that she would 
 be probably willing, under any contingency, to put on. 
 
 I feel proud of my hero. He was a man of deeds, not 
 words. He loved Agnes so well, that before morning 
 shone on his haggard cheek, he had determined to turn his 
 back forever on the home of his youth, the scene of his first 
 love-dream; and to seek his dark fortune far away from 
 the place which held all that his heart prized on earth. 
 
 This resolution once taken, he arose and addressed him 
 self to his sad journey, waiting only the earliest beam of 
 light before he awakened Mr. Jephson. This worthy com 
 mended much his prudent course, and recommended a long 
 voyage ; an attempt to discover the North- West Passage, 
 or to ascertain the truth of Captain Symmes theory; to 
 take the nonsense out of him and make a little money. 
 
 For five long years did Henry Beckworth box the com 
 pass ; five years of whaling voyages and all their attendant 
 hardships and when at the end of that time he retouched 
 his native shore, richer than he had ever been before in his 
 life, he heard, as the reader will no doubt anticipate, that 
 Agnes Boon was again unmated ; her worthy Colonel 
 having been killed by a fall from his horse in less than two 
 years from his marriage. 
 
 Yet did our phcenix of lovers approach the village which 
 he had vowed never to see again, with many more mis 
 givings than he had experienced on former occasions. 
 Years and a rough life he was well aware had changed him 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 155 
 
 much. He thought of his Agnes, fair and graceful as 
 a snow- drop, and feared lest his weather-beaten visage 
 might find no favor in her eyes. Yet he determined that 
 this time nothing, not even that screech-owl Job Jephson, 
 should prevent him from seeing her, face to face, and 
 learning his fate from her own lips. 
 
 He approached Langton by a road that passed not near 
 the detested house of man and horse entertainment, and 
 was just emerging from a thick grove which skirted the 
 village on that side, when he came near riding over a man 
 who seemed crouched on the ground as if in search of 
 something, and muttering to himself the while. The face 
 that turned hastily round was Job Jephson s. 
 
 Why, it a n t ? Yes, I 11 be switched if it is n t Harry 
 Beckworth rose from the dead ! said this fated tormentor ; 
 and he fastened himself on the bridle-rein in such sort, that 
 Henry could not rid himself of his company without 
 switching him in good earnest. 
 
 Here was I, lookin up some little things for my steam 
 doctorin business, said Mr. Jephson, and little thinkin of 
 any body in the world ; ,and you must come along jist like 
 a sperrit. But I ve a notion you Ve hit it about right this 
 time. I s pose you know Aggy s a rich widow by this 
 time, do n t ye ? 
 
 Henry vouchsafed no reply, though he found it very 
 difficult to maintain a dignified reserve, when so many 
 questions were clustering on his lips. But it was all one to 
 Job question or no question, answer or no answer, he 
 would talk on, and on, and on. 
 
 I 11 tell ye what, he continued, I should n t wonder if 
 Aggy looked higher now, for she s a good spec for any 
 man. I see you ve smarted up a good deal, but do n t be 
 
156 A NEW HOME, 
 
 cock-sure for there s others that would be glad to take 
 her and her two children. I ve been a thinkin my 
 self 
 
 And now Henry gave Job such a switch across the 
 knuckles as effectually cleared the bridle, and changed the 
 current of the steam-doctor s thoughts. In half an hour 
 he rang at Mrs. Boon s door, and was ushered at once into 
 her presence. 
 
 Mr. Beckworth, ma am, said the little waiting-maid as 
 she threw open the parlor door. 
 
 Agnes, the beloved, rose from her seat sat down again 
 tried to speak, and burst into tears ; while Henry looked 
 on her countenance changed indeed, but still lovely in 
 matronly dignity more fondly than in the days of his 
 lighter youthful love ; and seating himself beside her, 
 began at the wrong end of the story, as most people do in 
 such cases, talking as if it were a thing of course that his 
 twice-widowed love should become his wife. 
 
 Marry again ! 0, never ! that was entirely out of the 
 question ; and she wiped her eyes and asked her cousin to 
 stay to dinner. But Henry deferred his ultimatum on this 
 important point, till he should have ravelled out the whole 
 web of his past life before the dewy eyes of his still fair 
 mistress, till he should tell her all his love no, that he 
 could never fully tell, but some of the proofs of it at least, 
 and that first horrible forget of Job Jephson s. And when 
 this was told in many words, Agnes, all sighs and tears, 
 still said no, but so much more faintly that Mr. Beckworth 
 thought he would stay to dinner. And then but why 
 should I tell the rest, when the reader of my true-love 
 story has already seen Mrs. Beckworth like a fair though 
 full-blown china-rose Mr. Beckworth with bien content 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 157 
 
 written on every line of his handsome middle-aged face 
 Mary Jane Harrington a comely marriageable lass, and 
 George Boon a strapping youth of eighteen all flourishing 
 on an oak opening in the depths of Michigan ? 
 
 Let none imagine that this tale of man s constancy must 
 be the mere dream of my fancy. I acknowledge nothing 
 but the prettinesses. To Henry Beckworth himself I refer 
 the incredulous, and if they do not recognise my story in 
 his, I cannot help it. Even a woman can do no more than 
 her best. 
 
 14 
 
158 A NEW HOME, 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 Smelling so sweetly, all musk, and so rushling, I warrant you, in silk and 
 gold; and in such alligant terms. 
 
 SHAKSPEARE Merry Wives of Windsor. 
 
 Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague ? 
 
 SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 My brain s in a fever, my pulses beat quick ; 
 I shall die, or at least be exceedingly sick ! 
 O, what do you think.! after all my romancing 
 My visions of glory, my sighing, my glancing 
 
 Miss BIDDY FUDGE. 
 
 AN addition to our Montacute first circle had lately 
 appeared in the person of Miss Eloise Fidler, an elder 
 sister of Mrs. Rivers, who was to spend some months 
 in this peaceful retreat, to borrow one of her favorite 
 expressions. 
 
 This young lady was not. as handsome as sha would 
 fain have been, if I may judge by the cataracts of ash- 
 colored ringlets which shaded her cheeks, and the exceed 
 ing straitness of the stays which restrained her somewhat 
 exuberant proportions. Her age was at a stand ; but I 
 could never discover exactly where, for this point proved 
 an exception to the general communicativeness of her 
 disposition. I guessed it at eight and twenty ; but perhaps 
 she would have judged this uncharitable ; so I will not 
 insist. Certain it is that it must have taken a good while 
 to read as many novels and commit to memory as much 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 159 
 
 poetry, as lined the head and exalted the sensibilities 
 of our fair visitant. 
 
 Her dress was in the height of fashion, and all her 
 accoutrements point de vice. A gold pencil-case of the 
 most delicate proportions was suspended by a kindred 
 chain round a neck which might be called whity-brown ; 
 and a note-book of lady-like-ness was peeping from the 
 pocket of her highly-useful apron of blue silk ever ready 
 to secure a passing thought or an elegant quotation. Her 
 album she was just the person to have an album was 
 resplendent in gold and satin, and the verses which 
 meandered over its emblazoned pages were of the most 
 unexceptionable quality, overlaid with flowers and gems 
 love and despair. To find any degree of appropriateness 
 in these various offerings, one must allow the fortunate 
 possessor of the purple volume, at least all the various 
 perfections of an admirable Crichton, allayed in some small 
 measure by the trifling faults of coldness, fickleness, and 
 deceit ; and, to judge of Miss Fidler s friends by their 
 hand-writing, they must have been able to offer an edify 
 ing variety of bumps to the fingers of the phrenologist. 
 But here is the very book itself at my elbow, waiting these 
 three months, I blush to say, for a contribution which has 
 yet to be pumped up from my unwilling brains ; and 1 
 have a mind to steal a few specimens from its already 
 loaded pages, for the benefit of the distressed, who may, 
 like myself, be at their wit s end for something to put in 
 just such a book. 
 
 The first page, rich with embossed lilies, bears the invo 
 cation, written in a great black spattering hand, and wear 
 ing the air of a defiance. It runs thus : 
 
160 A NEW HOME, 
 
 If among the names of the stainless few, 
 
 Thine own hath maintained a place, 
 Come dip thy pen in the sable dew, 
 
 And with it this volume grace. 
 
 But oh ! if thy soul e er encourag d a thought 
 
 Which purity s self might blame, 
 Close quickly the volume, and venture not 
 
 To sully its snows with thy name. 
 
 x 
 
 Then we come to a wreath of flowers of gorgeous hues, 
 within whose circle appears in a miminee piminee hand, 
 evidently a young lady s 
 
 THE WREATH OF SLEEP. 
 
 O let me twine this glowing wreath, 
 
 Amid those rings of golden hair, 
 Twill soothe thee with its odorous breath 
 
 To sweet forgetfulness of care. 
 
 Tis form d of every scented flower 
 That flings its fragrance o er the night; 
 
 And gifted with a fairy power 
 To fill thy dreams with forms of light. 
 
 Twas braided by an angel boy 
 
 When fresh from Paradise he came 
 To fill our earth-born hearts with joy 
 
 Ah ! need I tell the cherub s name ! 
 
 This contributor I have settled in my own mind to be a 
 descendant of Anna Matilda, the high-priestess of the 
 Delia Cruscan order. The next blazon is an interesting 
 view of a young lady, combing her hair. As she seems 
 not to have been long out of bed, the lines which follow 
 are rather appropriate, though I feel quite sure they come 
 from the expert fingers of a merchant s clerk from the 
 finished elegance, and very sweeping tails of the chi- 
 rography. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 161 
 
 MORNING. 
 
 Awake ! arise ! art thou slumbering still ? 
 When the sun is above the mapled hill, 
 And the shadows are flitting fast away, 
 And the dews are diamond beneath his ray, 
 And every bird in our vine-roofed bower 
 Is waked into song by the joyous hour: 
 Come, banish sleep from thy gentle eyes, 
 Sister ! sweet sister ! awake ! arise ! 
 
 Yet I love to gaze on thy lids of pearl, 
 And. to mark the wave of the single curl, 
 That shades in its beauty thy brow of snow, 
 And the cheek that lies like a rose below ; 
 And to list to the murmuring notes that fall 
 From thy lips, like music in fairy hall. 
 But it must not be the sweet morning flies 
 Ere thou hast enjoyed it; awake! arise! 
 
 There is balm on the wings of this freshen d air ! 
 Twill make thine eye brighter, thy brow more fair, 
 And a deep, deep rose on thy cheek shall be 
 The meed of an early walk with me. 
 We will seek the shade by the green hill side, 
 Or follow the clear brook s whispering tide; 
 And brush the dew from the violet s eyes 
 Sister ! sweet sister ! awake ! arise ! 
 
 This I transcribe for the good advice which it contains. 
 And what have we here ? It is tastefully headed by an 
 engraving of Hero and Ursula in the pleached bower, and 
 Beatrice running like a lap-wing in the background. It 
 begins ominously. 
 
 TO 
 
 OH, look upon this pallid brow I 
 Say, canst thou there discern one trace 
 
 Of that proud soul, which oft ere now 
 Thou st sworn shed radiance o er my face? 
 
 Chill d is that soul its darling themes, 
 Thy manly honor, virtue, truth, 
 
 14* 
 
162 A NEW HOME, 
 
 Prove now to be but fleeting dreams, 
 Like other lovely thoughts of youth. 
 
 Meet, if thy coward spirit dare, 
 
 This sunken eye; say, dost thou see 
 The rays thou saidst were sparkling there 
 
 When first its gaze was turn d on thee? 
 That eye s young light is quench d forever; 
 
 No change its radiance can repair: 
 Will Joy s keen touch relume it? Never! 
 
 It gleams the watch-light of Despair. 
 
 I find myself growing hoarse by sympathy, and I shall 
 venture only a single extract more, and this because Miss 
 Fidler declares it, without exception, the sweetest thing she 
 ever read. It is written with a crow-quill, and has other 
 marks of femininity. Its vignette is a little girl and boy 
 playing at battledoor. 
 
 BALLAD. 
 
 THE deadly strife was over, and across the field of fame, 
 With anguish in his haughty eye, the Moor Almanzor came; 
 He prick d his fiery courser on among the scatter d dead, 
 Till he came at last to what he sought, a sever d human head. 
 
 It might have seem d a maiden s, so pale it was, and fair; 
 
 But the lip and chin were shaded till they match d the raven hair. 
 
 There lingered yet upon tho brow a spirit bold and high, 
 
 And the stroke of death had scarcely closed the piercing eagle eye. 
 
 Almanzor gnisp d the flowing locks, and he staid not in his flight, 
 Till he reach d a lonely castle s gate where stood a lady bright. 
 Inez ! behold thy paramour ! he loud and sternly cried, 
 And threw his ghastly burden down, close at the lady s side. 
 
 I sought Ihy bower at even-tide, thou syren, false as fair! 
 
 And, would that I had rather died ! I found yon stripling there. 
 
 4 1 turn d me from the hated spot, but I swore by yon dread Heaven, 
 
 To know no rest until my sword the traitor s life had riven. 
 
 The lady stood like stone until he turn d to ride away, 
 And then she oped her marble lips, and wildly thus did say: 
 
 Alas, alas ! thou cruel Moor, what is it thou hast done ! 
 
 * This was my brother Rodriguez, my father s only son. 
 
WHO LL FO LLOW? 163 
 
 And then before his frenzied eyes, like a crush d lily bell, 
 Lifeless upon the bleeding head, the gentle Inez fell. 
 He drew his glittering ataghan he sheath d it in his side 
 And for his Spanish ladye-love the Moor Almanzor died. 
 
 This is not a very novel incident, but young ladies like 
 stories of love and murder, and Miss Fidler s tastes were 
 peculiarly young-lady-like. She praised Ainsworth and 
 James, but thought Bulwer s works very immoral, though 
 I could never discover that she had more than skimmed 
 the story from any of them. Cooper she found pretty ; 
 Miss Sedgwick pretty well, only her characters are such 
 common sort of people. 
 
 Miss Fidler wrote her own poetry, so that she had ample 
 employment for her time while with us in the woods. It 
 was unfortunate that she could not walk out much on 
 account of her shoes. She was obliged to make out with 
 diluted inspiration. The nearest approach she usually 
 made to the study of Nature was to sit on the wood-pile, 
 under a girdled tree, and there, with her gold pencil in 
 hand, and her eyne, grey as glass, rolled upwards, poefy 
 by the hour. Several people, and especially one marriage 
 able lady of a certain age, felt afraid Miss Fidler was kind 
 o crazy. 
 
 And, standing marvel of Montacute, no guest at morning 
 or night ever found the fair Eloise ungloved. Think of it ! 
 In the very wilds to be always like a cat in nutshells, alone 
 useless where all are so busy ! I do not wonder our good 
 neighbors thought the damsel a little touched. And then 
 her shoes ! Saint Crispin Crispianus never had so self- 
 sacrificing a votary. No shoemaker this side of New York 
 could make a sole papery enough ; no tannery out of 
 France could produce materials for this piece of exquisite 
 feminine foppery. Eternal imprisonment within doors, 
 
164 A NEW HOME, 
 
 except in the warmest and driest weather, was indeed 
 somewhat of a price to pay, but it was ungrudged. The 
 sofa and its footstool, finery and novels, would have made 
 a delicious world for Miss Eloise Fidler, if 
 
 But, alas ! all this availeth me nothing, has been ever 
 the song of poor human nature. The mention of that 
 unfortunate name includes the only real personal, pungent 
 distress which had as yet shaded the lot of my interesting 
 heroine. Fidler ! In the mortification adhering to so 
 unpoetical, so unromantic, so inelegant a surname a name 
 irredeemable even by the highly classical elegance of the 
 Eloise, or as the fair lady herself pronounced it, Elovees ; 
 in this lay all her wo ; and the grand study of her life had 
 been to sink this hated cognomen in one more congenial to 
 her taste. Perhaps this very anxiety had defeated itself; 
 
 at any rate, here she was at I did not mean to touch 
 
 on the ungrateful guess again, but at least at mateable 
 years ; neither married, nor particularly likely to be 
 married. 
 
 Mrs. Rivers was the object of absolute envy to the pining 
 Eloise. Anna had been so fortunate, she said; Rivers 
 was the sweetest name ! and Harley was such an elegant 
 fellow ! 
 
 We thought poor Anna had been any thing but fortu 
 nate. She might better have been Fidler or Fiddlestring 
 all her life than to have taken the name of an indifferent 
 and dissipated husband. But not so thought Miss Fidler. 
 It was not long after the arrival of the elegant Eloise, that 
 the Montacute Lyceum held its first meeting in Mr. Simeon 
 Jenkins s shop, lighted by three candles, supported by can 
 delabra of scooped potatoes ; Mr. Jenkins himself sitting 
 on the head of a barrel, as president. At first the debates 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 165 
 
 of the institute were held with closed doors ; but after the 
 youthful or less practised speakers had tried their powers 
 for a few evenings, the Lyceum was thrown open to the 
 world every Tuesday evening, at six o clock. The list of 
 members was not very select as to age, character, or stand 
 ing ; and it soon included the entire gentility of the town, 
 and some who scarce claimed rank elsewhere. The attend 
 ance of the ladies was particularly requested ; and the 
 whole fair sex of Montacute made a point of showing 
 occasionally the interest they undoubtedly felt in the gallant 
 knights who tilted in this field of honor. 
 
 But I must not be too diffuse I was speaking of Miss 
 Fidler. One evening I hope that beginning prepares 
 the reader for something highly interesting one evening 
 the question to be debated was the equally novel and 
 striking one which regards the comparative mental capacity 
 of the sexes ; and as it was expected that some of the best 
 speakers on both sides would be drawn out by the inter 
 esting nature of the subject, every body was anxious to 
 attend. 
 
 Among the rest was Miss Fidler, much to the surprise 
 of her sister and myself, who had hitherto been so un 
 fashionable as to deny ourselves this gratification. 
 
 What new whim possesses you, Eloise ? said Mrs. 
 Rivers ; you who never go out in the day-time. 
 
 0, just per passy le tang said the young lady, who 
 was a great French scholar ; and go she would, and did. 
 
 The debate was interesting to absolute breathlessness, 
 both of speakers and hearers, and was gallantly decided 
 in favor of the fair by a youthful member who occupied 
 the barrel as president for the evening. He gave it as his 
 decided opinion, that if the natural and social disadvan- 
 
166 A NEW HOME, 
 
 tages under which women labored and must ever continue 
 to labor, could be removed ; if their education could be 
 entirely different, and their position in society the reverse 
 of what it is at present, they would be very nearly, if not 
 quite equal to the nobler sex, in all but strength of mind, 
 in which very useful quality it was his opinion that man 
 would still have the advantage, especially in those commu 
 nities whose energies were developed by the aid of deba 
 ting societies. 
 
 This decision was hailed with acclamations, and as soon 
 as the question for the ensuing debate, which is the more 
 useful animal, the ox or the ass ? was announced, Miss 
 Eloise Fidler returned home to rave of the elegant young 
 man who sat on the barrel, whom she had decided to be 
 one of * Nature s aristocracy/ and whom she had discov 
 ered to bear the splendid appellative of Dacre. Edward 
 Dacre, said she, for I heard the rude creature Jenkins 
 call him Ed. 
 
 The next morning witnessed another departure from 
 Miss Fidler s usual habits. She proposed a walk; and 
 observed that she had never yet bought an article at the 
 store, and really felt as if she ought to purchase some 
 thing. Mrs. Rivers chancing to be somewhat occupied, 
 Miss Fidler did me the honor of a call, as she could not 
 think of walking without a chaperon. 
 
 Behind the counter at Skinner s I saw for the first time 
 a spruce clerk, a really well-looking young man, who made 
 his very best bow to Miss Fidler, and served us with 
 much assiduity. The young lady s purchases occupied 
 some time, and I was obliged gently to hint home-affairs 
 before she could decide between two pieces of muslin, 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW ? 167 
 
 which she declared to be so nearly alike, that it was 
 almost impossible to say which was the best. 
 
 When we were at length on our return, I was closely 
 questioned as to my knowledge of that gentleman/ and 
 on my observing that he seemed to be a very decent 
 young man, Miss Fidler warmly justified him from any 
 such opinion, and after a glowing eulogium on his fine 
 countenance, his elegant manners and his grace as a 
 debater, concluded by informing me, as if to cap the 
 climax, that his name was Edward Dacre. 
 
 I had thought no more of the matter for some time, 
 though I knew Mr. Dacre had become a frequent visitor 
 at Mr. Rivers , when Mrs. Rivers came to me one morning 
 with a perplexed brow, and confided to me her sisterly 
 fears that Eloise was about to make a fool of herself, as 
 she had done more than once before. 
 
 * My father, she said, hoped in this remote corner 
 of creation Eloise might forget her nonsense and act like 
 other people ; but I verily believe she is bent upon en 
 couraging this low fellow, whose principal charm in her 
 bewildered eyes is his name. 
 
 * His name ? said I, pray explain ; for I had not then 
 learned all the boundless absurdity of this new Cheru- 
 bina s fancies. 
 
 Edward Dacre ! said my friend, this is what enchants 
 my sister, who is absolutely mad on the subject of her 
 own homely appellation. 
 
 O, is that all? said I, send her to me, then; and 
 I engage to dismiss her cured. 
 
 And Miss Fidler came to spend the day. We talked 
 of all novels without exception, and all poetry of all maga 
 zines, and Miss Fidler asked me if I had read the Youns? 
 
168 ANEW HOME, 
 
 Duke.* Upon my confessing as much, she asked my 
 opinion of the heroine, and then if I had ever heard so 
 sweet a name. May Dacre May Dacre, she repeated, 
 as if to solace her delighted ears. 
 
 Only think how such names are murdered in this 
 country, said I, tossing carelessly before her an account 
 of Mr. Skinner, which bore Edkins Daker below the 
 receipt. I never saw a change equal to that which seemed 
 to come o er the spirit of her dream. I went on with my 
 citations of murdered names, telling how Rodgers was 
 turned into Rudgers, Conway into Coniway, and Montague 
 into Montaig, but poor Miss Fidler was no longer in talk 
 ing mood ; and long before the day was out, she com 
 plained of a head -ache and returned to her sister s. Mr. 
 Daker found her not at home that evening; and when 
 I called next morning, the young lady was in bed, steep 
 ing her long ringlets in tears, real tears. 
 
 To hasten to the catastrophe: it was discovered ere 
 long that Mr. Edkin s Daker s handsome face and really 
 pleasant manners, had fairly vanquished Miss Fidler s 
 romance, and she had responded to his professions of 
 attachment with a truth and sincerity, which, while it 
 vexed her family inexpressibly, seemed to me to atone 
 for all her follies. Mr. Daker s prospects were by no 
 means despicable, since a small capital employed in mer 
 chandize in Michigan, is very apt to confer upon the indus 
 trious and fortunate possessor that crowning charm, with 
 out which handsome faces, and even handsome names, are 
 quite worthless in our Western eyes. 
 
 Some little disparity of age existed between Miss Fidler 
 and her adorer ; but this was conceded by all to be 
 abundantly made up by the superabounding gentility of the 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 169 
 
 lady ; and when Mr. Daker returned from New York with 
 his new stock of goods and his stylish bride, I thought I 
 had seldom seen a happier or better mated couple. And 
 at this present writing, I do not believe Eloise, with all her 
 whims, would exchange her very nice Edkins for the 
 proudest Dacre of the British Peerage. 
 
 15 
 
170 A NEW HOME, 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 By sports like these are all their cares beguiled, 
 The sports of children satisfy the child ; 
 Each nobler aim, repressed by long control, 
 Now sinks at last, or feebly mans the soul; 
 While low delights succeeding fast behind, 
 111 happier meanness occupy the mind. 
 
 GOLDSMITH TRAVELLER. 
 
 THERE is in our vicinity one class of settlers whose con 
 dition has always been inexplicable to me. They seem to 
 work hard, to dress wretchedly, and to live in the most 
 uncomfortable style in all respects, apparently denying 
 themselves and their families every thing beyond the abso 
 lute necessaries of life. They complain most bitterly of 
 poverty. They perform the severe labor which is shunned 
 by their neighbors ; they purchase the coarsest food, and 
 are not too proud to ask for an old coat or a pair of cast 
 boots, though it is always with the peculiar air of dignity 
 and don t care, which is characteristic of the country. 
 
 Yet instead of increasing their means by these penurious 
 habits, they grow poorer every day. Their dwellings are 
 more and more out of repair. There are more and more 
 shingles in the windows, (old hats and red petticoats cannot 
 be spared,) and an increasing dearth of cows, pigs, and 
 chickens. The daughters go to service, and the sons 
 chore round for every body and any body ; and even the 
 mamma, the centre of dignity, is fain to go out washing T y 
 the day. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 171 
 
 A family of this description had fallen much under our 
 notice. The father and his stout sons had performed a 
 good deal of hard work in our service, and the females of 
 the family had been employed on many occasions when 
 help was scarce. Many requests for cast articles, or 
 those of trifling value had been proffered during the course 
 of our acquaintance ; and in several attacks of illness, such 
 comforts as our house afforded had been frequently sought, 
 though no visit was ever requested. 
 
 They had been living through the summer in a shanty, 
 built against a sloping bank, with a fireplace dug in the 
 hill-side, and a hole pierced through the turf by way of 
 chimney. In this den of some twelve feet square, the 
 whole family had burrowed since April ; but in October, a 
 log- house of the ordinary size was roofed in, and though it 
 had neither door nor window, nor chimney, nor hearth, 
 they removed, and felt much elated with the change. 
 Something like a door was soon after swinging on its 
 leathern hinges, and the old man said they were now quite 
 comfortable, though he should like to get a window ! 
 
 The first intelligence we received from them after this, 
 was that Mr. Newland, the father, was dangerously ill with 
 inflammation of the lungs. This was not surprising, for a 
 quilt is but a poor substitute for a window during a 
 Michigan November. A window was supplied, and such 
 alleviations as might be collected, were contributed by 
 several of the neighbors. The old man lingered on, much 
 to my surprise, and after two or three weeks we heard that 
 he was better, and would be able to kick round pretty 
 soon. 
 
 It was not long after that we were enjoying the fine 
 sleighing, which is usually so short-lived in this lakey 
 
172 A NEW HOME, 
 
 region. The roads were not yet much beaten, and we had 
 small choice in our drives, not desiring the troublesome 
 honor of leading the way. It so happened that we found 
 ourselves in the neighborhood of Mr. Newland s clearing ; 
 and though the sun was low, we thought we might stop a 
 moment to ask how the old man did. 
 
 We drove to the door, and so noiseless was our approach, 
 guiltless of bells, that no one seemed aware of our coming. 
 We tapped, and heard the usual reply, Walk ! which I 
 used to think must mean Walk off/ 
 
 I opened the door very softly, fearing to disturb the sick 
 man; but I found this caution quite mal -apropos. Mrs. 
 Newland was evidently in high holiday trim. The quilts 
 had been removed from their stations round the bed, and 
 the old man, shrunken and miserable-looking enough, sat 
 on a chair in the corner. The whole apartment bore the 
 marks of expected hilarity. The logs overhead were 
 completely shrouded by broad hemlock boughs fastened 
 against them ; and evergreens of various kinds were dis 
 posed in all directions, while three tall slender candles, with 
 the usual potato supporters, were placed on the cupboard 
 shelf. 
 
 On the table, a cloth seemed to cover a variety of 
 refreshments; and in front of this cloth stood a tin pail, 
 nearly full of a liquid whose odor was but too discernible ; 
 and on the whiskey, for such it seemed, swam a small tin 
 cup. But I forget the more striking part of the picture, 
 the sons and daughters of the house. The former flaming 
 in green stocks and scarlet watch-guards, while the cut of 
 their long dangling coats showed that whoever they 
 might once have fitted, they were now exceedingly out of 
 place ; the latter decked in tawdry, dirty finery, and wear- 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 1*73 
 
 ing any look but that of the modest country maiden, who, 
 in choosing her garments, counts no bravery in the world 
 like decency. 
 
 The eldest girl, Amelia, who had lived with me at one 
 time, had been lately at a hotel in a large village at some 
 distance, and had returned but a short time before, not 
 improved either in manners or reputation. Her tall com 
 manding person was arrayed in far better taste than her 
 sisters , and by contrast with the place and circumstances, 
 she wore really a splendid air. Her dress was of rich silk, 
 made in the extreme mode, and set off by elegant jewelry. 
 Her black locks were dressed with scarlet berries ; most 
 elaborate pendants of wrought gold hung almost to her 
 shoulders ; and above her glittering basilisk eyes, was a 
 gold chain with a handsome clasp of cut coral. The large 
 hands were covered with elegant gloves, and an em 
 broidered handkerchief was carefully arranged in her lap. 
 
 I have attempted to give some idea of the appearance of 
 things in this wretched log-hut, but I cannot pretend to 
 paint the confusion into which our ill-timed visit threw the 
 family, who had always appeared before us in such differ 
 ent characters. The mother asked us to sit down, how 
 ever, and Mr. Newland muttered something, from which I 
 gathered, that the girls thought they must have a kind of 
 a house- warmin like. 
 
 We made our visit very short, of course ; but before we 
 could make our escape, an old fellow came in with a violin, 
 and an ox-sled approached the door, loaded with young 
 people of both sexes, who were all spilt into the deep 
 snow, by a mistake on purpose of the driver. In the 
 scramble which ensued, we took leave ; wondering no 
 longer at the destitution of the Newlands, or of the other 
 15* 
 
174 A NEW HOME, 
 
 families of the same class, whose young people we had 
 recognized in the melee. 
 
 The Newland family did not visit us as usual after this. 
 There was a certain consciousness in their appearance when 
 we met, and the old man more than once alluded to our 
 accidental discovery with evident uneasiness. He was a 
 person not devoid of shrewdness, and he was aware that 
 the utter discrepancy between his complaints and the 
 appearances we had witnessed, had given us but slight 
 opinion of his veracity ; and for some time we were almost 
 strangers to each other. 
 
 How I was surprised some two months after at being 
 called out of bed by a most urgent message from Mrs. 
 Newland, that Amelia, her eldest daughter, was dying ! 
 The messenger could give no account of her condition, but 
 that she was now in convulsions, and her mother despairing 
 of her life. 
 
 I lost not a moment, but the way was long, and ere I 
 entered the house, the shrieks of the mother and her 
 children, told me I had come too late. Struck with horror 
 I almost hesitated whether to proceed, but the door was 
 opened, and I went in. Two or three neighbors with 
 terrified countenances stood near the bed, and on it lay the 
 remains of the poor girl, swollen and discolored, and 
 already so changed in appearance that I should not have 
 recognized it elsewhere. 
 
 I asked for particulars, but the person, whom I addressed, 
 shook her head and declined answering; and there was 
 altogether an air of horror and mystery which I Avas 
 entirely unable to understand. Mrs. Newland, in her 
 lamentations, alluded to the suddenness of the blow, and 
 when I saw her a little calmed, I begged to know how long 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 175 
 
 Amelia had been ill, expressing my surprise that I had 
 heard nothing of it. She turned upon me as if I had stung 
 her. 
 
 What, you Ve heard their lies too, have ye ? she ex 
 claimed fiercely, and she cursed in no measured terms 
 those who meddled with what did not concern them. I 
 felt much shocked ; and disclaiming all intention of wound 
 ing her feelings, I offered the needful aid, and, when all 
 was finished, returned home uninformed as to the manner 
 of Amelia Newland s death. 
 
 Yet I could not avoid noticing that all was not right. 
 
 Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost 
 
 Of ashy semblance, meagre, pale and bloodless 
 
 but the whole appearance of this sad wreck was quite 
 different from that of any corpse I had ever viewed before. 
 Nothing was done, but much said or hinted on all sides. 
 Rumor was busy as usual; and I have been assured by 
 those who ought to have warrant for their assertions, that 
 this was but one fatal instance out of the many cases, 
 wherein life was perilled in the desperate effort to elude the 
 slow, unmoving finger of public scorn. 
 
 That the class of settlers to which the Newlands belong, 
 a class but too numerous in Michigan, is a vicious and 
 degraded one, I cannot doubt : but whether the charge to 
 which I have but alluded, is in any degree just, I am 
 unable to determine. I can only repeat, I say the tale as 
 twas said to me/ and I may add that more than one 
 instance of a similar kind, though with results less evidently 
 fatal, has since come under my knowledge. 
 
 The Newlands have since left this part of the country, 
 driving off with their own, as many of their neighbors 
 cattle and hogs as they could persuade to accompany 
 
!76 ANBWHOMB, 
 
 them; and not forgetting one of the train of fierce dogs 
 which have not only shown ample sagacity in getting their 
 own living, but, gin a tales be true/ assisted in supporting 
 the family by their habits of nightly prowling. 
 
 I passed by their deserted dwelling. They had carried 
 off the door and window, and some boys were busy pulling 
 the shingles from the roof to make quail-traps. I trust we 
 have few such neighbors left. Texas and the Canada war 
 have done much for us in this way ; and the wide west is 
 rapidly draughting off those whom we shall regret as little 
 as the Kewlands. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 177 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Something that mellows and that glorifies, 
 Ev n like the soft and spiritual glow 
 Kindling rich woods whereon th etherial bow 
 lovingly the while. 
 
 Swift and high 
 The arrowy pillars of the fire-light grew. 
 
 MRS. HEMANS. 
 
 As I have never made any remarkable progress in the 
 heights and depths of meteorolog} -, I am unable to speak 
 with confidence as to the concatenation of causes which may 
 withhold from this fertile peninsula the treasure of the 
 clouds, in the early spring-time, when our land elsewhere 
 is saturated even to repletion with the milky nutriment/ 
 In plain terms, I cannot tell any thing about the reason 
 why we have such dry Springs in Michigan, I can only 
 advert to the fact as occasioning scenes rather striking to 
 the new comer. 
 
 In April, instead of the misty-moisty morning, which 
 proverbially heralds the uncertain glory of the day in 
 that much belied month, the sun, day after day, and week 
 after week, shows his jolly red face, at the proper hour, 
 little by little above the horizon, casting a scarlet glory on 
 the leafless trees, and investing the well-piled brush-heaps 
 with a burning splendor before their time. Now and then 
 a brisk shower occurs, but it is short-lived, and not very 
 abundant ; and after being here through a season or two, 
 one begins to wonder that the soil is so fertile. My own 
 
178 A NEW HOME, 
 
 private theory is, that when the peninsula was covered with 
 water, as it doubtless was before the Niagara met with such 
 a fall, the porous mass became so thoroughly soaked, that 
 the sun performs the office of rain, by drawing from below 
 to the rich surface, the supplies of moisture which, under 
 ordinary circumstances, are necessarily furnished from aerial 
 reservoirs, Such are my views, which I offer with the 
 diffidence becoming a tyro ; but at the same time avowing 
 frankly that I shall not even consider an opposing hypo 
 thesis, until my antagonist shall have traversed the entire 
 state, and counted the marshes and cat-holes from which I 
 triumphantly draw my conclusion. 
 
 Leaving this question then, I will make an effort to 
 regain the floating end of my broken thread. These 
 exceedingly dry Spring-times all sun and a very little 
 east- wind leave every tree, bush, brier, and blade of grass, 
 dry as new tinder. They are as combustible as the heart 
 of a sophomore ; as ready for a blaze as a conclave of 
 ancient ladies who have swallowed the first cup of hyson, 
 and only wait one single word to begin. 
 
 At this very suitable time, it is one of the customs of the 
 country for every man that has an acre of marsh, to burn 
 it over, in order to prepare for a new crop of grass ; and a 
 handful of fire thus applied, wants but a cap-full of wind, 
 to send it miles in any or all directions. The decayed 
 trees, and those which may have been some time felled, 
 catch the swift destruction, and aid the roaring flame ; and 
 while the earth seems covered with writhing serpents of 
 living fire, ever and anon an undulating pyramid flares 
 wildly upward, as if threatening the very skies, only to fall 
 the next moment in crashing fragments, which serve to 
 further the spreading ruin. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 179 
 
 These scenes have a terrible splendor by night ; but the 
 effect by day is particularly curious. The air is so filled 
 with the widely diffused smoke, that the soft sunshine of 
 April is mellowed into the ruddy glow of Autumn, and the 
 mist which seems to hang heavy over the distant hills and 
 woods, completes the illusion. One s associations are those 
 of approaching winter, and it seems really a solecism to 
 be making garden under such a sky. But this is not all. 
 
 We were all busy in the rough, pole-fenced acre, which 
 we had begun to call our garden ; one with a spade, 
 another with a hoe or rake, and the least useful, videlicet, 
 I ? w ith a trowel and a paper of celery -seed, when a rough 
 neighbor of ours shouted over the fence : 
 
 What be you a potterin there for ? You d a plaguy 
 sight better be a fighting fire, / tell ye ! The winfl is this 
 way, and that fire 11 be on your hay-stacks in less than no 
 time, if you do n t mind. 
 
 Thus warned, we gazed at the dark smoke which had 
 been wavering over the north-west all day, and saw that it 
 had indeed made fearful advances. But two well-travelled 
 roads still lay between us and the burning marshes, and 
 these generally prove tolerably effectual barriers when the 
 wind is low. So our operatives took their way toward the 
 scene of action, carrying with them the gardening imple 
 ments, as the most efficient weapons in fighting fire. 
 
 They had to walk a long distance, but the fire was very 
 obliging and advanced more than two steps to meet them. 
 In short, the first barrier was overleapt before they reached 
 the second, and the air had become so heated that they 
 could only use the hoes and spades in widening the road 
 nearest our dwelling, by scraping away the leaves and 
 bushes ; and even there they found it necessary to retreat 
 
180 A NEW HOME 
 
 more rapidly than was consistent with a thorough perform 
 ance of the work. The winds, though light, favored the 
 destroyer, and the more experienced of the neighbors, who 
 had turned out for the general good, declared there was 
 nothing now but to make a back-fire ! So homeward all 
 ran, and set about kindling an opposing serpent which 
 should swallow up the rest ; but it proved too late. The 
 flames only reached our stable and haystacks the sooner, 
 and all that we could now accomplish was to preserve the 
 cottage and its immediate appurtenances. 
 
 I scarce remember a blanker hour. I could not be glad 
 that the house and horses were safe, so vexed did I feel to 
 think that a rational attention to the advance of that black 
 threatening column, would have prevented the disaster. I 
 sat gazing out of the back window, watching the gradual 
 blackening of the remains of our stores of hay scolding 
 the while most vehemently, at myself and every body else, 
 for having been so stupidly negligent ; declaring that I 
 should not take the slightest interest in the garden which 
 had so engrossed us, and wishing most heartily that the 
 fellow who set the marsh on fire, could be detected and 
 fined not more than one thousand dollars, as the law 
 directs ; when our neighbor, long Sam Jennings, the 
 slowest talker in Michigan, came sauntering across the 
 yard with his rusty fowling-piece on his shoulder, and 
 drawled out 
 
 * I should think your dam was broke some ; I see the 
 water in the creek look dreadful muddy. And while Sam 
 took his leisurely way to the woods, the tired fire -fighters 
 raced, one and all, to the dam, where they found the 
 water pouring through a hole near the head gate, at a rate 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 181 
 
 which seemed likely to carry off the entire structure in a 
 very short time. 
 
 But I have purposely refrained from troubling the 
 reader with a detail of any of the various accidents which 
 attended our own particular debut, in the backwoods. 
 I mentioned the fire because it is an annual occurrence 
 throughout the country, and often consumes wheat-stacks, 
 and even solitary dwellings ; and I was drawn in to record 
 the first breach in the mill-dam, as occurring on the very 
 day of the disaster by fire. 
 
 I shall spare my friends any account of the many 
 troubles and vexatious delays attendant on repairing that 
 necessary evil, the dam ; and even a transcript of the three 
 astounding figures which footed the account of expenses 
 on the occasion. I shall only observe, that if long Sam 
 Jennings did not get a ducking for not giving intelligence 
 of the impending evil a full half- hour before it suited his 
 convenience to stroll our way, it was not because he did 
 not richly deserve it and so I close my chapter of 
 accidents. 
 
 16 
 
182 A NEW HOME, 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 Qu aifoublie ? dere is some simples in my closet, dat I vill not for de varld 
 1 shall leave behind. 
 
 ******** 
 Skal. The Council shall hear it ; it is a riot. 
 
 Evans. It is petter that friends is the sword, and end it; and there is an 
 other device in my prain which, peradventure, prings good discretions with it. 
 We will afterwards ork upon the cause with as great discreetly as we can. 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 
 
 AH ! who can tell how hard it is to say any thing 
 
 about an unpretending village like ours, in terms suited 
 to the delicate organization of ears polite/ How can 
 one hope to find any thing of interest about such common 
 place people ? Where is the aristocratic distinction which 
 makes the kind visit of the great lady at the sick-bed 
 of suffering indigence so great a favor, that all the inmates 
 of the cottage behave picturesquely out of gratitude form 
 themselves into tableaux, and make speeches worth record 
 ing ? Here are neither great ladies nor humble cotta 
 gers. I cannot bring to my aid either the exquisite 
 boudoir of the one class, with its captivating bijouterie- -its, 
 velvet couches and its draperies of rose-colored satin, so 
 becoming to the complexions of one s young-lady charac 
 ters nor yet the cot of the other more simple but not less 
 elegant, surrounded with clustering eglantine and clematis, 
 and inhabited by goodness, grace and beauty. These 
 materials are denied me ; but yet I must try to describe 
 something of Michigan cottage life, taking care to avail 
 
WHO LL FO LLOW? 183 
 
 myself of such delicate periphrasis as may best veil the 
 true homeliness of my subject. 
 
 Moonlight and the ague are, however, the same every 
 where. At least I meet with no description in any of the 
 poets of my acquaintance which might not be applied, 
 without reservation, to Michigan moonlight ; and as for 
 the ague, did not great Caesar shake when the fit was 
 on him ? 
 
 T is true, this god did shake : 
 
 His coward lips did from their color fly 
 
 And in this important particular poor Lorenzo Titmouse 
 was just like the inventor of the laurel crown. We 
 Mrs. Rivers and I went to his father s, at his urgent 
 request, on just such a night as is usually chosen for 
 romantic walks by a certain class of lovers. We waited 
 not for escort, although the night had already fallen, and 
 there was a narrow strip of forest to pass in our way ; 
 but, leaving word whither we had gone, we accompanied 
 the poor shivering boy, each carrying what we could. 
 And what does the gentle reader think we carried? A 
 custard or a glass of jelly each perhaps, and a nice sponge 
 cake, or something equally delicate, and likely to tempt 
 the faint appetite of the invalid. No such thing. We 
 had learned better than to offer such nick-nacks to people 
 who a n t used to sweetnin. My companion was doubly 
 arm d : a small tin pail of cranberry sauce in one hand, 
 a bottle of vinegar in the other. I carried a modicum 
 of hop east, and a little bag of crackers ; a scrap of 
 hyson, and a box of quinine pills. Odd enough ; but we 
 had been at such places before. 
 
 We had a delicious walk; though poor Lorenzo, who 
 had a bao- of flour on his shoulders, was fain to rest often. 
 
184 A NEW HOME, 
 
 This was his well day, to be sure ; but he had had some 
 eight or ten fits of ague, enough to wither anybody s pith 
 and marrow, as those will say who have tried it. That 
 innate politeness which young rustics, out of books as well 
 as in them, are apt to exhibit when they are in good 
 humor, made Lorenzo decline, most vehemently, our offers 
 of assistance. But we at length fairly took his bag from 
 him, and passing a stick through the string, carried it 
 between us ; while the boy disposed of our various small 
 articles by the aid of his capacious pockets. And a short 
 half mile from the bridge brought us to his father s. 
 
 It was an ordinary log-house, but quite old and dilapi 
 dated : the great open chimney occupying most of one end 
 of the single apartment, and two double-beds with a 
 trundle-bed, the other. In one of the large beds lay the 
 father and the eldest son ; in the other, the mother and 
 two little daughters, all ill with ague, and all sad and silent, 
 save my friend Mrs. Titmouse, whose untameable tongue 
 was too much even for the ague. Mrs. Titmouse is one 
 of those fortunate beings who can talk all day without 
 saying any thing. She is the only person whom I have 
 met in these regions who appears to have paid her devoirs 
 at Castle Blarney. 
 
 How d ye do, ladies, how d ye do ? Bless my soul ! 
 if ever I thought to be catch d in sitch a condition, and 
 by sitch grand ladies too ! Not a chair for you to sit down 
 on. I often tell Titmouse that we live jest like the pigs ; 
 but he ha n t no ambition. I m sure I m under a 
 thousand compliments to ye for coming to see me. We re 
 expecting a mother of his n to come and stay with us, 
 but she ha n t come yet and I in sitch a condition ; can t 
 show ye no civility. Do set down, ladies, if you can set 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 185 
 
 upon a chest ladies like you. I m sure I m under a 
 
 thousand compliments and so the poor soul ran on 
 
 till she was fairly out of breath, in spite of our efforts 
 to out-talk her with our assurances that we could accom 
 modate ourselves very well, and could stay but a few 
 minutes. 
 
 And now, Mrs. Titmouse, said Mrs. Rivers, in her 
 sweet, pleasant voice, tell us what we can do for you ? 
 
 Do for me ! 0, massy ! 0, nothing, I thank ye. 
 There a n t nothing that ladies like you can do for me. We 
 make out very well, and 
 
 What do you say so for ! growled her husband from 
 the other bed. .You know we ha n t tasted a mouthful 
 since morning, nor had n t it, and I sent Lorenzo my 
 self 
 
 Well, I never ! responded his help-mate ; you re 
 always doing just so : troubling people. You never had 
 no ambition, Titmouse ; you know I always said so. To be 
 sure, we ha n t had no tea this good while, and tea does 
 taste dreadful good when a body s got the agur ; and my 
 bread is gone, and I ha n t been able to set no emptins ; 
 but 
 
 Here we told what we had brought, and prepared at 
 once to make some bread ; but Mrs. Titmouse seemed 
 quite horrified, and insisted upon getting out of bed, though 
 she staggered, and would have fallen if we had not sup 
 ported her to a seat. 
 
 Now tell me where the water is, and I will get it 
 myself, said Mrs. Rivers, and do you sit still and see how 
 soon I will make a loaf. 
 
 Water ! said the poor soul ; I m afraid we have not 
 water enough to make a loaf. Mr. Grimes brought us a 
 16* 
 
188 ANBWHOME, 
 
 barrel day before yesterday, and we ve been dreadful 
 careful of it, but the agur is so dreadful thirsty I m 
 afraid there aVt none. 
 
 * Have you no spring ? 
 
 No ma am; but we have always got plenty of water 
 down by the mash till this dry summer. 
 
 I should think that was enough to give you the ague. 
 Do n t you think the marsh water unwholesome ? 
 
 Well, I do n t know but it is ; but you see he was 
 always a-going to dig a well ; but he ha n t no ambition, 
 nor never had, and I always told him so. And as to 
 the agur, if you ve got to have it, why you can t get 
 clear of it. 
 
 There was, fortunately, water enough left in the barrel 
 to set the bread and half-fill the tea-kettle ; and we 
 soon made a little blaze with sticks, which served to boil 
 the kettle to make that luxury of the woods, a cup of 
 green tea. 
 
 Mrs. Titmouse did not need the tea to help her talking 
 powers, for she was an independent talker, whose gush of 
 words knew no ebb nor exhaustion. 
 
 Alike to her was tide or time, 
 Moonless midnight or matin prime. 
 
 Her few remaining teeth chattered no faster when she 
 had the ague than at any other time. The stream flow 
 ed on 
 
 In one weak washy everlasting flood. 
 
 When we had done what little we could, and were about 
 to depart, glad to escape her overwhelming protestations 
 of eternal gratitude, her husband reminded her that the 
 cow had not been milked since the evening before, when 
 Miss Grimes had been there. Here was a dilemma ! 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 187 
 
 How we regretted our defective education, which prevented 
 our rendering so simple yet so necessary a service to the 
 sick poor. 
 
 We remembered the gentleman who did not know 
 whether he could read Greek, as he had never tried ; and 
 set ourselves resolutely at work to ascertain our powers in 
 the milking line. 
 
 But alas ! the milky mother of the herd had small 
 respect for timid and useless town ladies. 
 
 Crummie kick d, and Crummie flounced, 
 And Crummie whisk d her tail. 
 
 In vain did Mrs. Rivers hold the pail with both hands, 
 while I essayed the arduous task. So sure as I succeeded 
 in bringing ever so tiny a stream, the ill-mannered beast 
 would almost put out my eyes with her tail, and oblige 
 us both to jump up and run away ; and, after a pro 
 tracted struggle, the cow gained the victory, as might 
 have been expected, and we were fain to retreat into the 
 house. 
 
 The next expedient was to support Mrs. Titmouse on the 
 little bench, while she tried to accomplish the mighty work ; 
 and having been partially successful in this, we at length 
 took our leave, promising aid for the morrow, and hearing 
 the poor woman s tongue at intervals till we were far in the 
 wood. 
 
 Lord bless ye ! I m sure I m under an everlastin com 
 pliment to ye ; I wish I know d how I could pay ye. Such 
 ladies to be a waitin on the likes of me ; I m sure I never 
 see nothin like it/ <fec. <fec. 
 
 And now we began to wonder how long it would be 
 before we should see our respected spouses, as poor 
 Lorenzo had fallen exhausted on the bed, and was in no 
 
188 A NEW HOME, 
 
 condition to see us even a part of the way home. The 
 wood was very dark, though we could see glimpses of the 
 mill-pond lying like liquid diamonds in the moonlight. 
 
 We had advanced near the brow of the hill which 
 descends toward the pond, when strange sounds met our 
 ears. Strange sounds for our peaceful village ! Shouts 
 and howlings eldrich scream s- Indian yells the braying 
 of tin horns, and the violent clashing of various noisy 
 articles. 
 
 We hurried on, and soon came in sight of a crowd of 
 persons, who seemed coming from the village to the pond. 
 And now loud talking, threats Duck him ! duck the im 
 pudent rascal ! What could it be ? 
 
 Here was a mob ! a Montacute mob ! and the cause ? I 
 believe all mobs pretend to have causes. Could the choice 
 spirits have caught an abolitionist ? which they thought, as 
 I had heard, meant nothing less than a monster. 
 
 But now I recollected having heard that a ventriloquist, 
 which I believe most of our citizens considered a beast of 
 the same nature, had sent notices of an exhibition for the 
 evening ; and the truth flashed upon us at once. 
 
 * In with him ! in with him ! - they shouted as they 
 approached the water, just as we began to descend the hill. 
 And then the clear fine voice of the dealer in voice was 
 distinctly audible above the hideous din 
 
 Gentlemen, I have warned you ; I possess the means of 
 defending myself, you will force me to use them. 
 
 Stop his mouth, shouted a well-known bully, he lies ; 
 he ha n t got nothing ! in with him ! and a violent struggle 
 followed, some few of our sober citizens striving to protect 
 the stranger. 
 
 One word to Mrs. Rivers, and we set up a united shriek, 
 a screech like an army of sea-gulls. Help ! help ! and 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 189 
 
 we stopped on the hill side, our white dresses distinctly 
 visible in the clear, dazzling moonlight. 
 
 We stinted not nor staid till a diversion was fairly 
 effected. A dozen forms seceded at once from the crowd, 
 and the spirit of the thing was at an end. 
 
 We waited on the spot where our artifice began, certain 
 of knowing every individual who should approach ; and the 
 very first proved those we most wished to see. And now 
 came the very awkward business of explaining our ruse, 
 and Mrs. Rivers was rather sharply reproved for her part 
 of it. Harley Rivers was not the man to object to any 
 thing like a lark, and he had only attempted to effect the 
 release of the ventriloquist, after Mr. Clavers had joined 
 him on the way to Mr. Titmouse s. The boobies who had 
 been most active in the outrage would fain have renewed 
 the sport ; but the ventriloquist had wisely taken advantage 
 of our diversion in his favor, and was no where to be found. 
 The person at whose house he had put up told afterwards 
 that he had gone out with loaded pistols in his pocket ; so 
 even a woman s shrieks, hated of gods and men, may some 
 times be of service. 
 
 Montacute is far above mobbing now. This was the first 
 and last exhibition of the spirit of the age. The most 
 mobbish of our neighbors have flitted westward, seeking 
 more congenial association. I trust they may be so well 
 satisfied, that they will not think of returning ; for it is not 
 pleasant to find a dead pig in one s well, or a favorite dog 
 hung up at the gate-post ; to say nothing of cows milked 
 on the marshes, hen-roosts rifled, or melon-patches cleared 
 in the course of the night. 
 
 We learned afterwards the head and front* of the 
 ventriloquist s offence. He had asked twenty-five cents 
 a-head for the admission of the sovereign people. 
 
190 ANEWHOME, 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 Bah ! bah ! not a bit magic in it at all not a bit. It is all founded on de plane 
 tary influence, and de sympathy and force of numbers. I will show you much 
 finer dan dis. 
 
 ANTIQUARY. 
 
 THE very next intelligence from our urban rival came 
 in the shape of a polite note to Mr. Clavers, offering him 
 any amount of stock in the Merchants and Manufacturer s 
 Bank of Tinker ville. My honored spouse I acknowledge 
 it with regret is any thing but an enterprising man. 
 But our neighbor, Mr. Rivers, or his astute father for him, 
 thought this chance for turning paper into gold and silver 
 too tempting to be slighted, and entered at once into the 
 business of making money on a large scale. 
 
 I looked at first upon the whole matter with unfeigned 
 indifference, for money has never seemed so valueless to me 
 as since I have experienced how little it will buy in the 
 woods ; but I was most unpleasantly surprised when I 
 heard that Harley Rivers, the husband of my friend, was to 
 be exalted to the office of President of the new bank. 
 
 Just as we were beginning to be so comfortable, to 
 think you should leave us, said I to Mrs. Rivers. 
 
 ! dear, no, she replied ; Harley says it will not be 
 necessary for us to remove at present. The business can 
 be transacted just as well here, and we shall not go until 
 the banking-house and our own can be erected/ 
 
 This seemed odd to a novice like myself; but I rejoiced 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 191 
 
 that arrangements were so easily made which would allow 
 me to retain for a while so pleasant a companion. 
 
 As I make not the least pretension to regularity, but 
 only an attempt to body forth an unvarnished picture of 
 the times, I may as well proceed in this place to give the 
 uninitiated reader so much of the history of the Tinkerville 
 Bank, as has become the property of the public ; supposing 
 that the effects of our General Banking Law may not be 
 as familiarly known elsewhere as they unfortunately are in 
 this vicinity. 
 
 When our speculators in land found that the glamour 
 had departed, that the community had seen the ridicule" of 
 the delusion which had so long made 
 
 The cobwebs on a cottage wall 
 
 Seem tapestry in lordly hall; 
 
 A nutshell seem a gilded barge, 
 
 A sheeling seem a palace large, 
 
 And youth seem age, and age seem youth, 
 
 and poverty seem riches, and idleness industry, and fraud 
 enterprise ; some of these cunning magicians set themselves 
 about concocting a new species of gramarye, by means of 
 which the millions of acres of wild land which were left on 
 their hands might be turned into bona fide cash paper- 
 cash at least, to meet certain times of payment of certain 
 moneys borrowed at certain rates of interest during the 
 fervor of the speculating mania. The General Banking 
 Law of enviable notoriety, which allowed any dozen of 
 men who could pledge real estate to a nominal amount, to 
 assume the power of making money of rags ; this was the 
 magic cauldron, whose powers were destined to transmute 
 these acres of wood and meadow into splendid metropolitan 
 residences, with equipages of correspondiag elegance. It 
 was only bubble-bubble/ and burr-oaks were turned into 
 
192 A NEW HOME, 
 
 marble tables, tall tamaracks into draperied bedsteads, 
 lakes into looking-glasses, and huge expanses of wet marsh 
 into velvet couches, and carpets from the looms of Agra 
 and of Ind. 
 
 It is not to be denied that this necromantic power had 
 its limits. Many of these successful wizards seemed after 
 all a little out of place in their palaces of enchantment ; 
 and one could hardly help thinking, that some of them 
 would have been more suitably employed in tramping, with 
 cowhide boot, the slippery marshes on which their great 
 ness was based, than in treading mincingly the piled 
 carpets which were the magical product of those marshes. 
 But that was nobody s business but their own. They con 
 sidered themselves as fulfilling their destiny. 
 
 Some thirty banks or more were the fungous growth of 
 the new political hot-bed ; and many of these were of 
 course without a local habitation, though- they might 
 boast the name, it may be, of some part of the deep 
 woods, where the wild cat had hitherto been the most 
 formidable foe to the unwary and defenceless. Hence the 
 celebrated term Wild Cat, justified fully by the course of 
 these cunning and stealthy bloodsuckers; more fatal in 
 their treacherous spring than ever was their forest proto 
 type. A stout farmer might hope to whip a wild cat or 
 two ; but once in the grasp of a wild cat bank, his 
 struggles were unavailing. Hopeless ruin has been the 
 consequence in numerous instances, and every day adds 
 new names to the list. 
 
 But I have fallen into the sin of generalizing, instead of 
 journalizing, as I promised. The interesting nature of 
 the subject will be deemed a sufficient justification, by 
 such of my readers as may have enjoyed the pleasure of 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 19? 
 
 making alumets of bank-notes, as so many Micliiganians 
 have done, or might have done if they had not been too 
 angry. 
 
 Of the locale of the Merchants and Manufacturers Bank 
 of Tinkerville, I have already attempted to give some faint 
 idea ; and I doubt not one might have ridden over many of 
 the new banks in a similar manner, without suspecting their 
 existence. The rubicund and smooth-spoken father-in-law 
 of my friend was the main-spring of the institution in 
 question ; and his son Harley, who did not love work, 
 was placed in a conspicuous part of the panorama as Presi 
 dent. I thought our Caleb Quotem neighbor, Mr. Simeon 
 Jenkins, would have found time to fulfil the duties of 
 cashier, and he can write S. Jenkins very legibly ; so 
 there would have been no objection on that score : but it 
 was thought prudent to give the office to a Tinkervillian a 
 man of straw, for aught I know to the contrary ; for all I 
 saw or heard of him was his name, A. Bite, on the bills. 
 A fatal mistake this, according to Mr. Jenkins. He can 
 demonstrate, to any body who feels an interest in the facts 
 of the case, that the bank never would have flatted out, 
 if he had had a finger in the pie. 
 
 Just as our Wild Cat was ready for a spring, the only 
 obstacle in her path was removed by the abolition of the 
 old-fashioned-and-troublesome-but-now-exploded plan of 
 specie payments ; and our neighbors went up like the best 
 rocket from Vauxhall. The Tinkerville Astor House, the 
 County Offices, the Banking House, were all begun simul 
 taneously, as at the waving of a wand of power. Monta- 
 cute came at once to a dead stand; for not a workman 
 could be had for love or flour. Those beautifully engraved 
 bills were too much for the public spirit of most of us, and 
 
194 A NEW HOME, 
 
 we forgot our Montacute patriotism for a time. Real 
 estate pledged ; of course the notes were better than gold 
 or silver, because they were lighter in the pocket. 
 
 Time s whirligig went round. Meanwhile &\\ was pros 
 perous at the incipient capital of our rising county. Mr. 
 President Rivers talked much of removing to the bank ; 
 and in preparation, sent to New York for a complete outfit 
 of furniture, and a pretty carriage ; while Mrs. Rivers 
 astonished the natives in our log meeting-house, and the 
 wood chucks in our forest strolls, by a Parisian bonnet of 
 the most exquisite rose-color, her husband s taste. Mr. 
 Rivers senior, and sundry other gentlemen, some ruddy- 
 gilled and full-pocketed like himself, others looking so lean 
 and hungry, that I wondered any body would trust them 
 in a bank a place where, as I supposed in my greenness, 
 
 In bright confusion open rouleaux lie, 
 
 made frequent and closeted sojourn at Montacute. Our 
 mill whirred merrily, and toll- wheat is a currency that 
 never depreciates ; but in other respects, we were only 
 moderately prosperous. Our first merchant, Mr. Skinner, 
 did not clear above three thousand dollars the first year. 
 Slow work for Michigan ; and somehow, Mr. Jenkins was 
 far from getting rich as fast as he expected. 
 
 One bright morning, as I stood looking down Main 
 street, thinking I certainly saw a deer s tail at intervals 
 flying through the woods, two gentlemen on horseback 
 rode deliberately into town. They had the air of men who 
 were on serious business ; and as they dismounted at the 
 door of the Montacute House, a messenger was despatched 
 in an instant to Mr. Rivers. Ere long, I discovered the 
 ruddy papa wending his dignified way towards the Hotel, 
 while the President, on his famous trotter Greenhorn, 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 195 
 
 emerged from the back-gate, and cleared the ground in fine 
 style towards Tinkerville. 
 
 A full hour elapsed before the elder Mr. Rivers was 
 ready to accompany the gentlemen on their ride. He 
 happened to be going that way, which was very convenient, 
 since the Bank Commissioners, for our portly strangers 
 were none other, did not know in what part of the un- 
 surveyed lands the new city lay. The day was far spent 
 when the party returned to take tea with Mrs. Rivers. All 
 seemed in high good humor. The examination prescribed 
 by our severe laws had been exceedingly satisfactory. The 
 books of the Bank were in apple-pie order. Specie certifi 
 cates, a newly-invented kind of gold and silver, were 
 abundant. A long row of boxes, which contained the 
 sinews of peace as well as of war, had been viewed and 
 hefted by the Commissioners. The liabilities seemed as 
 nothing compared with the resources ; and the securities 
 were as substantial as earth and stone could make them. 
 
 If the height of prosperity could have been heightened, 
 Tinkerville would have gone on faster than ever after this 
 beneficent visitation. Mr. Rivers new furniture arrived, 
 and passed through our humble village in triumphal pro 
 cession, pile after pile of huge boxes, provokingly im 
 pervious to the public eye ; and, last of all, the new 
 carriage, covered as closely from the vulgar gaze as a 
 celebrated belle whose charms are on the wane. The 
 public buildings at the county seat were proclaimed 
 finished, or nearly finished, a school-house begun, a meet 
 ing house talked of ; but for the latter, it was supposed to 
 be too early rather premature. 
 
196 A NEW HOME, 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 And whare is your honors gaun the day wi a your picks and shules ? 
 
 ANTIQUARY. 
 
 On peut tre plus fin qu un autre, maia non pas plus fin que tous les autres. 
 
 ROCHEFOUCAULT. 
 
 ALL too soon came the period when I must part with my 
 pleasant neighbor Mrs. Rivers, the open brilliancy of whose 
 lot seemed to threaten a lasting separation, from those 
 whose way led rather through the * cool, sequestered vale/ 
 so much praised and so little coveted. 
 
 Mr. Rivers had for some time found abundant leisure for 
 his favorite occupations of hunting and fishing. The sign 
 ing of bills took up but little time, and an occasional ride to 
 the scene of future glories, for the purpose of superintend 
 ing the various improvements, was all that had necessarily 
 called him away. But now, final preparations for a re 
 moval were absolutely in progress; and I had begun to 
 feel really sad at the thought of losing the gentle Anna, 
 when the Bank Commissioners again paced in official 
 dignity up Main street, and, this time, alighted at Mr. 
 Rivers door. 
 
 The President and Greenhorn had trotted to Tinkerville 
 that morning, and the old gentleman was not in town ; so 
 our men of power gravely wended their way towards the 
 newly-painted and pine-pillared honors of the Merchants 
 and Manufacturers Banking-house, not without leaving 
 behind them many a surmise as to the probable object of 
 this new visitation. 
 
WHO LL FOL LOW? 197 
 
 It was Mr. Skinner s opinion, and Mr. Skinner is a long 
 headed Yankee, that the Bank had issued too many bills ; 
 and for the sincerity of his judgment, he referred his hear 
 ers to the fact that he had for some time been turning the 
 splendid notes of the Merchants and Manufacturers Bank 
 of Tinkerville into wheat and corn as fast as he conve 
 niently could. 
 
 A sly old farmer, who had sold several hundred bushels 
 of wheat to Mr. Skinner, at one dollar twenty-five cents 
 a bushel, winked knowingly as the merchant mentioned 
 this proof of his own farseeing astuteness ; and informed 
 the company that he had paid out the last dollar long ago 
 on certain outstanding debts. 
 
 Mr. Porter knew that the Tinkerville blacksmith had 
 run up a most unconscionable bill for the iron doors, &c. 
 &c., which were necessary to secure the immense vaults 
 of the Bank ; that would give, as he presumed, some hint 
 of the probable object of the Commissioners. 
 
 Mr. Simeon Jenkins, if not the greatest, certainly the 
 most grandiloquent man in Montacute, did n t want to 
 know any better than he did know, that the Cashier of the 
 Bank was a thick- skull ; and he felt very much afraid that 
 the said Cashier had been getting his principals into 
 trouble. Mr. Bite s manner of writing his name was, 
 in Mr. Jenkins view, proof positive of his lack of capacity ; 
 since nobody in the universal world, as Mr. Jenkins 
 averred, ever wrote such a hand as that, that know d 
 anything worth knowing. 
 
 But conjectures, however positively advanced, are, after 
 all, not quite satisfactory ; and the return of the Commis 
 sioners was most anxiously awaited even by the very wor 
 thies who knew their business so well. 
 17* 
 
198 A NEW HOME, 
 
 The sun set most perversely soon, and the light would 
 not stay long after him ; and thick darkness settled upon 
 this mundane sphere, and no word transpired from Tinker- 
 ville. Morning came, and with it the men of office, but, 
 ! with what lengthened faces ! 
 
 There were whispers of an injunction horrid sound ! 
 upon the Merchants and Manufacturers Bank of Tin- 
 kerville. 
 
 To picture the dismay which drew into all sorts of 
 shapes the universal face of Montacute, would require a 
 dozen Wilkies. I shall content myself with saying that 
 there was no joking about the matter. 
 
 The Commissioners were not very communicative ; but 
 in spite of their dignified mystification, something about 
 broken glass and tenpenny nails did leak out before their 
 track was fairly cold. 
 
 And where was Harley Rivers ? Echo answers, where ? 
 His dear little wife watered her pillow with her tears for 
 many a night before he returned to Montacute. 
 
 It seemed, as we afterwards learned, that the Commis 
 sioners had seen some suspicious circumstances about the 
 management of the Bank, and returned with a determina 
 tion to examine into matters a little more scrupulously. 
 It had been found in other cases that certain specie 
 certificates had been locomotive. It had been rumored, 
 since the new batch of Banks had come into operation, that 
 
 Thirty steeds both fleet and wight 
 Stood saddled in the stables day and night- 
 ready to effect at short notice certain transfers of assets and 
 specie. And in the course of the Tinkerville investigation 
 the Commissioners had ascertained by the aid of hammer 
 and chisel, that the boxes of the real stuff which had 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 199 
 
 been so loudly vaunted, contained a heavy charge of broken 
 glass and tenpenny nails, covered above and below with 
 half-dollars, principally bogus Alas, for Tinker ville ! and 
 alas, for poor Michigan ! 
 
 The distress among the poorer classes of farmers which 
 was the immediate consequence of this and other Bank 
 failures, was indescribable. Those who have seen only 
 a city panic, can form no idea of the extent and severity 
 of the sufferings on these occasions. And how many small 
 farmers are there in Michigan who have not suffered from 
 this cause ? 
 
 The only adequate punishment which I should prescribe 
 for this class of heartless adventurers, would be to behold 
 at one glance all the misery they have occasioned ; to be 
 gifted with an Asmodean power, and forced to use it. 
 The hardiest among them, could scarcely, I think, endure 
 to witness the unroofing of the humble log-huts of Michi 
 gan, after the bursting of one of these Dead-sea apples. 
 Bitter indeed were the ashes which they scattered ! 
 
 How many settlers who came in from the deep woods 
 many miles distant where no grain had yet grown, after 
 travelling perhaps two or three days and nights, with a 
 half-starved ox-team, and living on a few crusts by the 
 way, were told when they offered their splendid-looking 
 bank-notes, their hard-earned all, for the flour which was 
 to be the sole food of wife and babes through the long 
 winter, that these hoarded treasures were valueless as the 
 ragged paper which wrapped them ! Can we blame them 
 if they cursed in their agony, the soul-less wretches who 
 had thus drained their best blood for the furtherance of 
 their own schemes of low ambition ? Can we wonder that 
 
200 A NEW HOME, 
 
 the poor, feeling such wrongs as these, learn to hate the 
 rich, and to fancy them natural enemies ? 
 
 Could one of these heart-wrung beings have been intro 
 duced, just as he was, with the trembling yet in his heart, 
 and the curses on his lips, into the gilded saloon of his 
 betrayer, methinks the dance would have nagged, the song 
 wavered, the wine palled, for the moment at least. 
 
 Light is the dance and doubly sweet the lays 
 When for the dear delight another pays. 
 
 But the uninvited presence of the involuntary paymaster, 
 would have been * the hand on the wall to many a suc 
 cessful (!) banker. 
 
 After public indignation had in some measure subsided, 
 and indeed such occurrences as I have described became 
 too common to stir the surface of society very rudely, Mr. 
 Harley Rivers returned to Montacute, and prepared at once 
 for the removal of his family. I took leave of his wife with 
 most sincere regret, and I felt at the time as if we should 
 never meet again. But I have heard frequently from them 
 until quite lately; and they have been living very hand 
 somely (Mr. Rivers always boasted that he would live like 
 a gentleman) in one of the Eastern cities on the spoils of 
 the Tinkerville Wild Cat. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 201 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 I say the pulpit (and I name it filled 
 
 With solemn awe, that bids me well beware 
 
 With what intent I touch that holy thing.) 
 
 COWPER. 
 
 ONE of the greatest deficiencies and disadvantages of the 
 settler in the new world, is the lack of the ordinary means 
 of public religious instruction. This is felt, not only when 
 the Sabbath morn recurs without its call for public worship, 
 and children ask longingly for that mild and pleasing form 
 of religious and moral training, to which they are all attach 
 ed as if by intuition of nature ; but it makes itself but too 
 evident throughout the entire structure and condition of 
 society. Those who consider Religion a gloom and a 
 burden, have only to reside for a while where Religion is 
 habitually forgotten or wilfully set aside. They will soon 
 learn at least to appreciate the practical value of the 
 injunction, Forsake not the assembling of yourselves 
 together. 
 
 We have never indeed been entirely destitute for any 
 length of time of the semblance of public worship. Preach 
 ers belonging to various denominations have, from the 
 beginning, occasionally called meetings in the little log 
 school-house, and many of the neighbors always make a 
 point of being present, although a far greater proportion 
 reserve the Sunday for fishing and gunning. And it must 
 be confessed that there has generally been but little that 
 
202 A NEW HOME, 
 
 was attractive in the attempts at public service. A bare 
 cold room, the wind whistling through a thousand crevices 
 in the unplastered walls, and pouring down through as 
 many more in the shrunken roof, seats formed by laying 
 rough boards on rougher blocks, and the whole covered 
 thick with the week s dirt of the district school ; these are 
 scarcely the appliances which draw the indolent, the care 
 less, the indifferent, the self-indulgent, to the house of 
 worship. And the preacher, the messenger of Heaven/ 
 the legate of the skies, Alas ! I dare not trust my pen 
 to draw the portraits of some of these well-meaning, but 
 most incompetent persons. I can only say that a large 
 part of them seem to me grievously to have mistaken their 
 vocation. 
 
 All are not such. We have occasionally a preacher 
 whose language and manner, though plain, are far from 
 being either coarse or vulgar, and whose sermons, though 
 generally quite curious in their way, have nothing that is 
 either ridiculous or disgusting. If we suffer ourselves to 
 be driven from the humble meeting-house by one preacher 
 with the dress and air of a horse-jockey, who will rant and 
 scream till he is obliged to have incessant recourse to his 
 handkerchief to dry the tears which are the natural result 
 of the excitement into which he has lashed himself, we may 
 perhaps lose a good plain practical discourse from another, 
 who with only tolerable worldly advantages, has yet stu 
 died his Bible with profit, and offers with gentle persuasive 
 ness its message of mercy. Yet to sit from two to three 
 hours trying to listen to the blubberer, is a trial of one s 
 nerves and patience which is almost too much to ask ; 
 greater I confess, than I am often willing to endure, well 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 203 
 
 convinced as I am, that the best good of all, requires the 
 support of some form of public worship. 
 
 I have often been a little amused not only at the very 
 characteristic style of the illustrations which are freely 
 made use of, by all who are in the habit of preaching in 
 the new settlements, but at the extreme politeness with 
 which certain rather too common classes of sins, are touched 
 upon by these pioneers among us. They belong to various 
 denominations, and they are well aware that a still greater 
 number of differing sects are represented in their audience ; 
 and each is naturally desirous to secure as many adherents 
 as possible to his own view of religious truth. It becomes 
 therefore particularly necessary to avoid giving personal 
 offence. Does the speaker wish to show the evils and 
 penalties of Sabbath-breaking, of profanity, of falsehood, of 
 slander, of dishonest dealings, or any other offence which 
 he knows is practised by some at least among his auditors, 
 he generally begins with observing that he is quite a 
 stranger, very little acquainted in the neighborhood, entirely 
 ignorant whether what he is going to say may or may not be 
 especially applicable to any of his hearers, and that he only 
 judges from the general condition of human nature, that 
 such cautions or exhortations may be necessary, &c., exhib 
 iting a constant struggle between his sense of duty and his 
 fear of making enemies. 
 
 The illustrative style to which I have alluded, is certainly 
 much better calculated to excite the attention, and keep 
 alive the interest of an unlettered audience, than the most 
 powerful argument could possibly be, but it is sometimes 
 carried so far that the younger part of the congregation 
 find it hard to maintain the gravity befitting the time. It 
 is not long since I heard a good man preach from the text 
 
204 ANEWHOME, 
 
 * Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth/ He 
 began by saying that it could not be necessary to show 
 the literal truth of this observation of the Apostle ; For 
 you yourselves know, my friends, especially at this time of 
 year, when most of you have had to fight fire more or less, 
 how easy it is to kindle what is so difficult to put out. You 
 know that what fire a man can carry in his hand, applied 
 to the dry grass on the marshes, will grow so, that in ten 
 minutes a hundred men could not put it out, and, if you 
 do n t take care, it will burn up your hay-stacks and your 
 bams too, ay, and your houses, if the wind happens to be 
 pretty strong. And if you get a cannon loaded up with 
 powder, it won t take but a leetle grain of fire to produce a 
 great explosion, and maybe kill somebody. And I dare 
 say that some of you have seen the way they get along in 
 making railroads in the winter, when the ground s froze so 
 hard that they can t dig a bit ; they blast off great bodies 
 of the hard ground, just as they blast rocks. And it don t 
 take any more than a spark to set it a-going Even so, a 
 woman s tongue can set a whole neighborhood together by 
 the ears, and do more mischief in a minute, than she can 
 undo in a month. At this all the young folks looked at 
 each other and smiled, and as the preacher went on in a 
 similar strain, the smile was frequently repeated ; and such 
 scenes are not very uncommon. 
 
 It was some little time before we could learn the rules 
 of etiquette which are observed among these itinerent or 
 voluntary preachers. We supposed that if a meeting was 
 given out for Sunday morning at the school-house by a 
 Baptist, any other room might be obtained and occupied at 
 the same hour by a Presbyterian or Methodist, leaving it to 
 the people to choose which they would hear. But this is 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 205 
 
 considered a most ungenerous usurpation, and such things 
 are indignantly frowned upon by all the meeting-goers in 
 the community. If a minister of any denomination has 
 appointed a meeting, no other must preach at the same 
 hour in the neighborhood ; and this singular notion gives 
 rise to much of the petty squabbling and ill-will which 
 torments Montacute as well as other small places. 
 
 This is one of the many cases wherein it is easier to waive 
 one s rights than to quarrel for them. I hope, as our 
 numbers increase rapidly, the evil will soon cure itself, 
 since one room will not long be elastic enough to contain 
 all the church-goers. 
 
 Of the state of religion, a light work like this affords no 
 fitting opportunity to speak ; but I may say that the really 
 devoted Christian can find no fairer or ampler field. None 
 but the truly devoted will endure the difficulties and dis 
 couragements of the way. Pride, sloth, and silken ease/ 
 find no favor in the eyes of the fierce, reckless, hard-handed 
 Wolverine. He needs 
 
 A preacher such as Paul, 
 Were he on earth, would hear, approve and own. 
 
 Ministers who cannot or will not conform themselves to 
 the manners of the country, do more harm than good. 
 PRIDE is, as I have elsewhere observed, the bugbear of the 
 western country ; and the appearance of it, or a suspicion 
 of it, in a clergyman, not only destroys his personal influ 
 ence, but depreciates his office. 
 
 It takes one a long while to become accustomed to the 
 
 unceremonious manner in which the meetings of all sorts 
 
 are conducted. Many people go in and out whenever they 
 
 feel disposed ; and the young men, who soon tire, give 
 
 18 
 
206 A NEW HOME, 
 
 unequivocal symptoms of their weariness, and generally 
 walk off with a nonchalant air, at any time during the 
 exercises. Women usually carry their babies, and some 
 times two or three who can scarcely walk ; and the 
 restlessness of these youthful members, together with an 
 occasional display of their musical talents, sometimes inter 
 rupts in no small measure the progress of the speaker. 
 The stove is always in the centre of the room, with benches 
 arranged in a hollow square around it ; and the area thus 
 formed is the scene of infantile operations. I have seen a 
 dozen people kept on a stretch during a whole long sermon, 
 by a little, tottering, rosy-cheeked urchin, who chose to 
 approach within a few inches of the stove every minute or 
 two, and to fall at every third step, at the imminent danger 
 of lodging against the hot iron. And the mamma sat 
 looking on with an air of entire complacency, picking up 
 the chubby rogue occasionally, and varying the scene by 
 the performance of the maternal office. 
 
 I fancy it would somewhat disconcert a city clergyman, 
 on ascending his sumptuous pulpit, to find it already 
 occupied by a deaf old man, with his tin ear-trumpet ready 
 to catch every word. This I have seen again and again ; 
 and however embarrassing to the preacher, an objection or 
 remonstrance on the subject would be very ill-received. 
 And after all, I must confess, I have heard sermons preach 
 ed in such circumstances, which would have reflected no 
 disgrace on certain gorgeous draperies of velvet and gold. 
 
 The meliorating influence of the Sunday school is felt 
 here as everywhere else, and perhaps here more evidently 
 than in places where society is farther advanced. When 
 books are provided, the children flock to obtain them, with 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 207 
 
 a zest proportioned to the scarcity of those sweeteners 
 of solitude. Our little Montacute library has been well- 
 thumbed already, by old and young ; and there is nothing I 
 long for so much as a public library of works better suited to 
 children of a larger growth. But le bon temps viendra. 
 
208 A NEW HOME, 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 There is a cunning which we in England call the turning of the cat in the 
 pan ; which is, when that which a man says to another, he lays it as if an 
 other had said it to him. 
 
 BACON. 
 
 MY near neighbor, Mrs. Nippers, whose garden joins 
 ours, and whose keepin room, I regret to say it, looks 
 into my kitchen, was most cruelly mortified that she was 
 not elected President of the Montacute Female Beneficent 
 Society. It would have been an office so congenial to 
 her character, condition, and habits ! T was cruel to give 
 it to Mrs. Skinner, merely, as Mrs. Nippers declares, 
 * because the society wanted to get remnants from the 
 store ! 
 
 Mrs. Campaspe Nippers is a widow lady of some 
 thirty-five, or thereabouts, who lives with her niece alone 
 in a small house, in the midst of a small garden, in the 
 heart of the village. I have never noticed anything 
 peculiar in the construction of the house. There are not, 
 that I can discover, any contrivances resembling ears ; 
 or those ingenious funnels of sail cloth which are employed 
 on board ship to coax fresh air down between-decks. Nor 
 are there large mirrors, nor a telescope, within doors, nor 
 yet a camera obscura. I have never yet detected any 
 telegraphic signals from without. Yet no man sneezes 
 at opening his front door in the morning ; no woman sweeps 
 her steps after breakfast ; no child goes late to school ; 
 no damsel slips into the store ; no bottle out of it ; no family 
 
MRS. CAMFASPE NIPPERS 
 
 p 208, 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 209 
 
 has fried onions for dinner ; no hen lays an egg in the after 
 noon ; no horse slips his bridle ; no cow is missing at 
 milking-time, and no young couple after tea ; but Mrs. 
 Nippers, and her niece, Miss Artemisia Clinch, know all 
 about it, and tell it to everybody who will listen to them. 
 
 A sad rumor was raised last winter, by some spiteful 
 gossip, against a poor woman who had taken lodgers to 
 gain bread for her family ; and when Mrs. Nippers found 
 it rather difficult to gain credence for her view of the story, 
 she nailed the matter, as she supposed, by whispering with 
 mysterious meaning, while her large light eyes dilated 
 with energy and enjoyment I have myself seen a light 
 there after eleven o clock at night ! 
 
 In vain did the poor woman s poor husband, a man who 
 worked hard, but would make a beast of himself at times, 
 protest that malice itself might let his wife escape ; and dare 
 any man to come forward and say aught against her. Mrs. 
 Nippers only smiled, and stretched her eye-lids so far apart, 
 that the sky-blue whites of her light-grey eyes were visible 
 both above and below the scarce distinguishable iris, and 
 then looked at Miss Artemisia Clinch with such triumphant 
 certainty ; observing, that a drunkard s word was not 
 worth much. It is impossible ever to convince her, in 
 any body s favor. 
 
 But this is mere wandering. Association led me from 
 my intent, which was only to speak of Mrs. Nippers as 
 connected with the Montacute Female Beneficent Society. 
 This Association is the prime dissipation of our village, 
 the magic circle within which lies all our cherished exclu- 
 
 O 
 
 siveness, the stronghold of caste, the test of gentility, the 
 temple of emulation, the hive of industry, the mart of 
 fashion, and I must add, though reluctantly, the fountain 
 18* 
 
210 A NEW HOME, 
 
 of village scandal, the hot-bed from which springs every 
 root of bitterness among the petticoated denizens of Mon- 
 tacute. I trust the importance of -the Society will be 
 enhanced in the reader s estimation, by the variety of 
 figures I have been compelled to use in describing it. 
 Perhaps it would have been enough to have said it is a 
 Ladies Sewing Society, and so saved all this wordiness; 
 but I like to amplify. 
 
 When the idea was first started, by I know not what 
 fortunate individual, Mrs. Nipper does, I dare say, -this 
 same widow-lady espoused the thing warmly, donned her 
 India-rubbers, and went all over through the sticky mud, 
 breakfasted with me, dined with Mrs. Rivers, took tea with 
 Mrs. Skinner, and spent the intervals and the evening with 
 half-a-dozen other people, not only to recommend the plan, 
 but to give her opinion how the affair ought to be con 
 ducted, to what benevolent uses applied, and under what 
 laws and by-laws ; and though last, far from least, who 
 ought to be its officers. Five Directresses did she select, 
 two Secretaries, and a Treasurer, Managers and Auditors, 
 like the military play of my three brothers, who always 
 had fore -captain, hind-captain, and * middle-captain, 
 but no privates. But in all this Mrs. Campaspe never once 
 hinted the name of a Lady President. She said, to be 
 sure, that she should be very glad to be of any sort of 
 service to the Society ; and that from her position she 
 should be more at leisure to devote time to its business, 
 than almost any other person; and that both herself and 
 her niece had been concerned in a sewing society in a 
 certain village at the East, whose doings were often 
 quoted by both ladies, and concluded by inquiring who 
 her hearer thought would be the most suitable president. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 211 
 
 In spite of all this industrious canvassing, when the 
 meeting for forming the society took place at Mrs. Skin 
 ner s, Mrs. Campaspe Nipper s name was perversely omit 
 ted in the animated ballot for dignities. No one said a 
 word, but every one had a soil of undefined dread of so 
 active a member, and, by tacit consent, every office 
 which she had herself contrived, was filled, without 
 calling upon her. Her eyes grew preternaturally pale, 
 and her lips wan as whit-leather, when the result was 
 known ; but she did not trust herself to speak. She 
 placed her name on the list of members with as much 
 composure as could be looked for, under such trying 
 circumstances, and soon after departed with Miss Artemisia 
 Clinch, giving a parting glance which seemed to say, w r ith 
 Sir Peter Teazle, I leave my character behind me. 
 
 A pawkie smile dawned on two or three of the sober 
 visages of our village dames, as the all-knowing widow and 
 her submissive niece closed the door, but no one ventured 
 a remark on the killing frost which had fallen upon Mrs. 
 Nippers s anticipated budding honors, and, after agreeing 
 upon a meeting at our house, the ladies dispersed. 
 
 The next morning, as I drew my window curtain, to see 
 whether the sun had aired the world enough to make it 
 safe for me to get up to breakfast, I do not often dispute 
 the pas with Aurora, I saw Mrs. Nippers emerge from 
 the little front door of her tiny mansion, unattended by her 
 niece, for a marvel, and pace majestically down Main street. 
 
 I watched her in something of her own prying spirit, to 
 see whither she could be going so early; but she disap 
 peared in the woods, and I turned to my combs and 
 brushes, and thought no more of the matter. 
 
 But the next day, and the next, and the day after, 
 
212 A NEW HOME, 
 
 almost as early each morning, out trotted my busy neigh 
 bor ; and although she disappeared in different directions 
 sometimes P. S. and sometimes 0. P. she never returned 
 till late in the afternoon. My curiosity began to be 
 troublesome. 
 
 At length came the much- desired Tuesday, whose 
 destined event was the first meeting of the society. I had 
 made preparations for such plain and simple cheer as is 
 usual at such feminine gatherings, and began to think of 
 arranging my dress with the decorum required by the occa 
 sion, when, about one hour before the appointed time, came 
 Mrs. Nippers and Miss Clinch, and ere they were un- 
 shawled and unhooded, Mrs. Flyter and her three children 
 the eldest four years, and the youngest six months. 
 Then Mrs. Muggles and her crimson baby, four Aveeks old. 
 Close on her heels, Mrs. Briggs and her little boy of about 
 three years standing, in a long tailed coat, with vest and 
 decencies of scarlet Circassian. And there I stood in my 
 gingham wrapper and kitchen apron ; much to my discom 
 fiture and the undisguised surprise of the Female Beneficent 
 Society. 
 
 I always calculate to be ready to begin at the time 
 appointed, remarked the gristle-lipped widow. 
 
 So do I, responded Mrs. Flyter and Mrs. Muggles, 
 both of whom sat the whole afternoon with baby on knee, 
 and did not sew a stitch. 
 
 What ! is n t there any work ready ? continued Mrs. 
 Nippers, with an astonished aspect; well, I did suppose 
 that such smart officers as we have would have prepared 
 all beforehand. We always used to, at the East. 
 
 Mrs. Skinner, who is really quite a pattern-woman in all 
 that makes woman indispensable, viz., cookery and sewing, 
 
VV H O L L F O L L W ? 213 
 
 took up the matter quite warmly, just as I slipped away in 
 disgrace to make the requisite reform in my costume. 
 
 When I returned, the work was distributed, and the 
 company broken up into little knots or coteries ; every 
 head bowed, and every tongue in full play. 1 took my 
 seat at as great a distance from the sharp widow as might 
 be, though it is vain to think of eluding a person of her 
 ubiquity, and reconnoitred the company who were done 
 off (indigenous,) in first-rate style, for this important 
 occasion. There were nineteen women with thirteen babies 
 or at least * young uns, (indigenous,) who were not 
 above gingerbread. Of these thirteen, nine held large 
 chunks of gingerbread, or dough-nuts, in trust, for the 
 benefit of the gowns of the society ; the remaining four 
 were supplied with bunches of maple sugar, tied in bits of 
 rag, and pinned to their shoulders, or held dripping in the 
 fingers of their mammas. 
 
 Mrs. Flyter was slicked up for the occasion, in the 
 snuff-colored silk she was married in, curiously enlarged in 
 the back and not as voluminous in the floating part as is 
 the wasteful custom of the present day. Her three im 
 mense children, white-haired and blubber-lipped like their 
 amiable parent, were in pink ginghams and blue glass 
 beads. Mrs. Nippers wore her unfailing brown merino, 
 and black apron ; Miss Clinch her inevitable scarlet calico ; 
 Mrs. Skinner her red merino with baby of the same ; Mrs. 
 Daker shone out in her very choicest city finery, (where 
 else could she show it, poor thing?) and a dozen other 
 Mistresses shone in their t other gowns, and their tam 
 boured collars. Mrs. Doubleday s pretty black-eyed dolly 
 was neatly stowed in a small willow basket, where it lay 
 looking about with eyes full of sweet wonder, behaving 
 
214 A NEW HOME, 
 
 itself with marvellous quietness and discretion, as did most 
 of the other little torments, to do them justice. 
 
 Much consultation, deep and solemn, was held as to the 
 most profitable kinds of work to be undertaken by the 
 society. Many were in favor of making up linen, cotton 
 linen of course, but Mrs. Nippers assured the company that 
 shirts never used to sell well at the East, and therefore she 
 was perfectly certain that they would not do here. Pin 
 cushions and such like feminilities were then proposed ; but 
 at these Mrs. Nippers held up both hands, and showed a 
 double share of blue- white around her eyes. Nobody 
 about here needed pincushions, and besides where should 
 we get materials ? Aprons, capes, caps, collars, were all 
 proposed with the same ill success. At length Mrs. 
 Doubleday, with an air of great deference, inquired what 
 Mrs. Nippers would recommend. 
 
 The good lady hesitated a little at this. It was more 
 her forte to object to other people s plans, than to suggest 
 better; but, after a moment s consideration, she said she 
 should think fancy-boxes, watch-cases, and alum-baskets 
 would be very pretty. 
 
 A dead silence fell on the assembly, but of course it did 
 not last long. Mrs. Skinner went on quietly cutting out 
 shirts, and in a very short time furnished each member 
 with a good supply of work, stating that any lady might 
 take work home to finish if she liked. 
 
 Mrs. Nippers took her work and edged herself into a 
 coterie of which Mrs. Flyter had seemed till then the 
 magnet. Very soon I heard, I declare it s a shame ! I 
 do n t know what 11 be done about it ! She told me so 
 with her own mouth ! 0, but I was there myself ! etc., 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 215 
 
 etc., in many different voices ; the interstices well filled 
 with ^indistinguishable whispers not loud but deep. 
 
 It was not long before the active widow transferred her 
 seat to another corner ; Miss Clinch plying her tongue, not 
 her needle, in a third. The whispers and the exclamations 
 seemed to be gaming ground. The few silent members 
 were inquiring for more work. 
 
 Mrs. Nippers has the sleeve ! Mrs. Nippers, have you 
 finished that sleeve ? 
 
 Mrs. Nippers colored, said No, and sewed four stitches. 
 At length the * storm grew loud apace. It will break up 
 the society 
 
 What is that? asked Mrs. Doubleday, in her sharp 
 treble. What is it, Mrs. Nippers ? You know all about 
 it. 
 
 Mrs. Nippers replied that she only knew what she had 
 heard, etc., etc., but, after a little urging, consented to 
 inform the company in general, that there was great 
 dissatisfaction in the neighborhood ; that those who lived in 
 log-houses at a little distance from the village, had not been 
 invited to join the society; and also that many people 
 thought twenty-five cents quite too high for a yearly sub 
 scription. 
 
 Many looked aghast at this. Public opinion is nowhere 
 so strongly felt as in this country, among new settlers. 
 And, as many of the present company still lived in log- 
 houses, a tender string was touched. 
 
 At length, an old lady, who had sat quietly in a corner 
 all the afternoon, looked up from behind the great woollen 
 sock she was knitting 
 
 * Well, now ! that s queer ! said she, addressing Mrs. 
 Nippers with an air of simplicity simplified. Miss Turner 
 
216 A NEW HOME, 
 
 told me you went round her neighborhood last Friday, and 
 told that Miss Clavers and Miss Skinner despised every 
 body that lived in log-houses ; and you know you told Miss 
 Briggs that you thought twenty-five cents was too much ; 
 did n t she, Miss Briggs ? Mrs. Briggs nodded. 
 
 The widow blushed to the very centre of her pale eyes, 
 but / e en though vanquished, she lost not her assurance. 
 Why, I m sure I only said that we only paid twelve-and- 
 a-half cents at the East ; and as to log-houses, I do n t 
 know, I can t just recollect, but I did n t say more than 
 others did. 
 
 But human nature could not bear up against the mortifi 
 cation ; and it had, after all, the scarce credible effect of 
 making Mrs. Nippers sew in silence for some time, and 
 carry her colors at half-mast for the remainder of the after 
 noon . 
 
 At tea each lady took one or more of her babies into her 
 lap and much grabbing ensued. Those who wore calicoes 
 seemed in good spirits and appetite, for green tea at least, 
 but those who had unwarily sported silks and other un- 
 washables, looked acid and uncomfortable. Cake flew 
 about at a great rate, and the milk and water, which ought 
 to have gone quietly down sundry juvenile throats, was 
 spirted without mercy into various wry faces. But we got 
 through. The astringent refreshment produced its usual 
 crisping effect upon the vivacity of the company. Talk ran 
 high upon almost all Montacutian themes. 
 
 Do you have any butter now ? When are you going 
 to raise your barn? Is your man a going to kill this 
 week? I ha n t seen a bit of meat these six weeks. 
 Was you to meetin last Sabbath ? Has Miss White got 
 any wool to sell? Do tell if you ve been to Detroit! 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 217 
 
 Are you out of candles? Well, I should think Sarah 
 Teals wanted a new gown ! I hope we shall have milk in 
 a week or two/ and so on ; for, be it known, that, in a state 
 of society like ours, the bare necessaries of life are subjects 
 of sufficient interest for a good deal of conversation. More 
 than one truly respectable woman of our neighborhood has 
 told me, that it is not very many years since a moderate 
 allowance of Indian meal and potatoes was literally all that 
 fell to their share of this rich world for weeks together. 
 
 Is your daughter Isabella well ? asked Mrs. Nippers of 
 me solemnly, pointing to little Bell who sat munching her 
 bread and butter, half asleep, at the fragmentious table. 
 
 Yes, I believe so, look at her cheeks. 
 
 Ah yes ! it was her cheeks I was looking at. They are 
 so very rosy. I have a little niece who is the very image 
 of her. I never see Isabella without thinking of Jerushy ; 
 and Jerushy is most dreadfully scrofulous ! 
 
 Satisfied at having made me uncomfortable, Mrs. Nippers 
 turned to Mrs. Doubleday, who was trotting her pretty 
 babe with her usual proud fondness. 
 
 Do n t you think your baby breathes rather strangely ? 
 said the tormentor. 
 
 Breathes ! how ! said the poor thing, off her guard in 
 an instant. 
 
 Why, rather croupish, I think, if / am any judge. I 
 have never had any children of my own to be sure, but 
 I was with Mrs. Green s v baby when it died, and 
 
 Come, we 11 be off ! said Mr. Doubleday, who had 
 come for his spouse. Do n t mind the envious vixen 
 aside to his Polly. 
 
 Just then, somebody on the opposite side of the room 
 19 
 
218 A NEW HOME, 
 
 happened to say, speaking of some cloth affair, Mrs. Nip 
 pers says it ought to be sponged. 
 
 Well, sponge it then, by all means, said Mr. Double- 
 day, nobody else knows half as much about sponging; ; 
 and, with wife and baby in tow, off walked the laughing 
 Philo, leaving the widow absolutely transfixed. 
 
 What could Mr. Doubleday mean by that ? was at 
 length her indignant exclamation. 
 
 Nobody spoke. 
 
 I am sure, continued the crest-fallen Mrs. Campaspe, 
 with an attempt at a scornful giggle, I am sure if any 
 body understood him, I would be glad to know what he 
 did mean. 
 
 Well now, I can tell you; said the same simple old lady 
 in the corner, who had let out the secret of Mrs. Nippers s 
 morning walks. Some folks call that sponging when you 
 go about getting your dinner here and your tea there, and 
 sich like ; as you know you and Meesy there does. That 
 was what he meant, I guess. And the old lady quietly 
 put up her knitting, and prepared to go home. 
 
 There have been times when I have thought that almost 
 any degree of courtly duplicity would be preferable to the 
 brusquerie of some of my neighbors : but on this occasion I 
 gave all due credit to a simple and downright way of stating 
 the plain truth. The scrofulous hint probably brightened 
 my mental and moral vision somewhat. 
 
 Mrs. Nippers s claret cloak and green bonnet, and Miss 
 Clinch s ditto ditto, were in earnest requisition, and I do 
 not think either of them spent a day out that week. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 219 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 We will rear new homes under trees which glow 
 As if gems were the fruitage of every bough ; 
 O er our white walls we will train the vine 
 And sit in its shadow at day s decline. 
 
 MRS. HKMANS. 
 
 Alas! they had been friends in youth 
 But whispering tongues will poison truth. 
 
 They stood aloof, the scars remaining, 
 A dreary sea now flows between. 
 
 CHRISTABEL. 
 
 MANY English families reside in our vicinity, some of 
 them well calculated to make their way any where ; close, 
 penurious, grasping and indefatigable ; denying themselves 
 all but the necessaries of life, in order to add to their lands, 
 and make the most of their crops ; and somewhat apt in 
 bargaining to overreach even the wary pumpkin-eaters, 
 their neighbors ; others to whom all these things seem so 
 foreign and so unsuitable, that one cannot but wonder that 
 the vagaries of fortune should have sent them into so 
 uncongenial an atmosphere. The class last mentioned, 
 generally live retired, and show little inclination to mingle 
 with their rustic neighbors ; and, of course, they become at 
 once the objects of suspicion and dislike. The principle of 
 let-a-be for let-a-be holds not with us. Whoever exbibits 
 any desire for privacy is set down as praoud/ or something 
 worse ; no matter how inoffensive, or even how benevolent 
 he may be ; and of all places in the world in which to live 
 
220 A NEW HOME, 
 
 on the shady side of public opinion, an American back 
 woods settlement is the very worst, as many of these 
 unforfunately mistaken emigrants have been made to feel. 
 
 The better classes of English settlers seem to have left 
 their own country with high-wrought notions of the 
 unbounded freedom to be enjoyed in this; and it is with 
 feelings of angry surprise that they learn after a short 
 residence here, that this very universal freedom abridges 
 their own liberty to do as they please in their individual 
 capacity ; that the absolute democracy which prevails in 
 country places, imposes as heavy restraints upon one s free 
 will in some particulars, as do the over-bearing pride and 
 haughty distinctions of the old world in others ; and after 
 one has changed one s whole plan of life, and crossed the 
 wide ocean to find a Utopia, the waking to reality is attend 
 ed with feelings of no slight bitterness. In some instances 
 within my knowledge these feelings of disappointment have 
 been so severe as to neutralize all that was good in 
 American life, and to produce a degree of sour discontent 
 which increased every real evil, and went far towards 
 alienating the few who were kindly inclined toward the 
 stranger. 
 
 I ever regarded our very intelligent neighbors, the 
 Brents, as belonging to the class who have emigrated by 
 mistake, they seemed so well-bred, so well-off, so amiable 
 and so unhappy. They lived a few miles from us, and we 
 saw them but seldom, far less frequently than I could have 
 wished, for there were few whose society was so agreeable. 
 Mr. Brent was a handsome, noble-looking man of thirty, or 
 perhaps a little more, well-read, and passionately fond of 
 literary pursuits ; no more fit to be a Michigan farmer than 
 to figure as President of the Texan republic ; and his wife, 
 
WHO LL FOL LOW? 221 
 
 a gentle and timid woman, very dependent and very lovely, 
 was as ill fitted to bear the household part of a farmer s lot. 
 But all this seemed well-arranged, for the farm was man 
 aged on shares by a stout husbandman and his family, 
 tolerably honest and trustworthy people as times go ; and 
 Mr. Brent and his pale and delicate Catherine disposed of 
 their hours as they thought proper ; not however without 
 many secret and some very audible surmises and wonder- 
 ings on the part of their immediate neighbors, wftich were 
 duly reported, devoutly believed, and invariably added to, 
 in the course of their diffusion in Montacute. 
 
 I might repeat what I heard at a Montacute tea-party ; 
 I might give Mrs. Flyter s views of the probable duration 
 of Mr. Brent s means of living on the occasion of having 
 learned from Mrs. Holbrook that Mrs. Brent did not see to 
 the butter-making, and had never milked a cow in her life. 
 I might repeat Mrs. Allerton s estimate of the cost of Mrs. 
 Brent s dress at meeting on a certain Sunday. But I shall 
 only tell what Mrs. Nippers said, for I consider her as 
 unimpeachable authority in such matters. Her decided 
 and solemn assertion was that Mrs. Brent was jealous. 
 
 Jealous of whom ? 
 
 Why, of Mr. Brent to be sure ! 
 
 But it is to be supposed that there is some body else 
 concerned. 
 
 Ah, yes ! but I do n t know. Mrs. Barton did n t 
 know. 
 
 0, it was Mrs. Barton who told you, then ? 
 
 Mrs. Nippers had declined giving her authority, and 
 
 Mrs. Barton was the wife of Mr. Brent s farmer. So she 
 
 colored a little, and said that she did not wish it repeated, 
 
 as Mrs. Barton had mentioned it to her in confidence. But 
 
 19* 
 
222 A NEW HOME, 
 
 since it had come out by mere chance, she did n t know but 
 she might just as well tell that Mrs. Barton was sure that 
 Mrs. Brent was jealous of some body in England, or some 
 body that was dead, she did n t know which. She hoped 
 that none of the ladies would mention it. 
 
 There were some fourteen or so in company, and they 
 had not yet had tea. After tea the poor Brents were 
 completely used up, to borrow a phrase much in vogue 
 with usjk-and the next day I was not much surprised at 
 being asked by a lady who made me a three hours 
 morning call, beginning at nine o clock, if I had heard that 
 Mr. and Mrs. Brent were going to part. 
 
 I declared my ignorance of anything so terrible, and tried 
 to trace back the news, but it must have passed through 
 several able hands before it came to me. 
 
 We rode over to see the Brents that afternoon, found 
 them as usual, save that Mrs. Brent seemed wasting, 
 but she always declared herself quite well ; and her hus 
 band, whose manner towards her is that of great tender 
 ness, yet not exactly that of husbands in general, a little 
 constrained, was reading aloud to her as she lay on the 
 sofa. They seemed pleased to see us, and promised an 
 afternoon next week, to meet a few friends, that is 
 the term, I believe, but not Mrs. Nippers. 
 
 Among those whom I invited to partake our strawberries 
 and cream on the occasion, were Mr. Cathcart and his 
 beautiful wife, English neighbors from a little vine-clad 
 cottage on the hill west of our village ; much older 
 residents than the Brents, who had not yet been a year 
 in our vicinity. Mrs. Cathcart is one of the most beautiful 
 women I have ever seen, and certainly a very charming 
 one in all respects, at least to me, who do not dislike a 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 223 
 
 good share of spirit and energy in a lady. Her spouse, 
 though far different, has his good points, and can make 
 himself agreeable enough when he is in the humor ; which 
 sometimes occurs, though not often. He is at least twenty 
 years older than his lady, and as ugly as she is handsome, 
 and horribly jealous, I say it myself, of everything and 
 everybody which or whom Mrs. Cathcart may chance 
 to look at or speak to, or take an interest in, gentle or 
 simple, animate or inanimate. It is really pitiable some 
 times to see the poor man grin in the effort to suppress the 
 overboiling of his wrath, for he is a very polite person, and 
 generally says the most disagreeable things with a smile. 
 
 These neighbors of ours are persons of taste taste in 
 pictures, in music, in books, in flowers ; and thus far they 
 are well mated enough. But there are certain glances 
 and tones which betray to the most careless observer 
 that there are points of difference, behind the scenes at 
 least ; and little birds have whispered that after Mrs. Cath 
 cart had spent the morning in transplanting flowers, train 
 ing her honeysuckles and eglantines, and trimming the 
 turf seats which are tastefully disposed round their pretty 
 cottage, Mr. Cathcart has been seen to come out and 
 destroy all she had been doing ; ploughing up the neat 
 flower-beds with his knife, tearing down the vines, and 
 covering the turf sofas with gravel. And the same little 
 birds have added, that when Mr. Cathcart, sated with 
 mischief, turned to go into the house again, he found 
 the front-door fastened, and then the back-door fastened ; 
 and after striding about for some time till his bald head 
 was well nigh fried, he was fain to crawl in at the little 
 
 latticed window, and then but further these deponents 
 
 say not. 
 
224 A NEW HOME, 
 
 Well ! our little strawberry party was to consist of these 
 English neighbors and some others, and I made due provision 
 of the fragrant rubies, and all the et-ceteras of a rural 
 tea- visit. Roses of all hues blushed in my vases a-hem ! 
 they were not pitchers, for the handles were broken off 
 and forests of asparagus filled the fire place. Alice and 
 Arthur figured in their Sundays, little Bell had a new 
 calico apron, and Charlie a shining clean face ; so we 
 were all ready. 
 
 First of all came the Cathcarts, and their one only and 
 odd son of three years old ; a child who looked as old as 
 his father, and walked and talked most ludicrously like 
 him. It did seem really a pity that the uncommonly fine 
 eyes of his beautiful mamma had not descended to him ; 
 those large-pupiled grey eyes, with their long black lashes ! 
 and her richest of complexions, brighter in bloom and 
 contrast than the sunniest side of a ripe peach ; and her 
 thousand graces of face and person. But there he was, 
 a frightful little dwarf, just what his father would seem, 
 looked at through a reversed telescope, or in a convex 
 mirror. And Mr. Cathcart was all smiles and politeness, 
 and brought a whole pocket-full of literary novelties lately 
 received from home. And Mrs. Cathcart, always charm 
 ing, looked lovelier than usual, in a pale-colored silk and 
 very delicate ornaments. 
 
 She was sitting at the piano, playing some brilliant 
 waltzes for the children, and Mr. Cathcart looking over 
 some New York papers which lay on the table, when Mrs. 
 Brent, wan and feeble as usual, glided into the room. 
 I introduced her to my guests, with whom she was 
 evidently unacquainted, and in the next moment Mr. Brent 
 entered. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 225 
 
 It needed but one glance to convince me that, to Mrs. 
 Cathcart at least,- there was no occasion to introduce the 
 latest comer. She half rose from her seat, painful blushes 
 overspread her beautiful countenance, and instantly subsi 
 ding left it deathly pale, while Mr. Brent seemed equally 
 discomposed, and Mr. Cathcart gazed in undisguised and 
 most angry astonishment. I went through with the cere 
 mony of presentation as well as I could, awkwardly enough, 
 and an embarrassed pause succeeded, when in walked 
 Mrs. Nippers and Miss Clinch. 
 
 Well, good folks, said the widow, fanning herself with 
 a wide expanse of turkey s feathers, which generally hung 
 on her arm in warm weather ; this is what you may call 
 toiling for pleasure. Mrs. Cathcart, how do you manage 
 to get out in such melting weather ? Well ! I declare you 
 do all look as if you was overcome by the weather or some 
 thing else ! and she laughed very pleasantly at her 
 own wit. 
 
 Warm or cool, I beiieve we had better return home, 
 Mrs. Cathcart, said her amiable spouse, with one of his 
 ineffable grins. She obeyed mechanically, and began put 
 ting her own straw bonnet on little Algernon. 
 
 I declare, said the agreeable Mrs. Campaspe, I 
 thought I was in hopes you were going to stay, and we 
 -ould have had such a nice sociable time ; for Mrs. Nippers 
 was very fond of inviting company to other people s 
 houses. 
 
 No, Madam ! said Mr. Cathcart, we must go instantly. 
 Fanny, what are you doing ? Can t you tie the child s 
 hat? 
 
 One word, sir ! said Mr. Brent, whose fine countenance 
 had undergone a thousand changes in the few moments 
 
226 A NEW HOME, 
 
 which have taken so many lines in telling : and he stepped 
 into the garden path with a bow which Mr. Cathcart 
 returned very stiffly. He followed, however, and, in less 
 than one minute, returned, wished us a very good day with 
 more than the usual proportion of smiles rather grinnish 
 ones, t is true ; but very polite ; and almost lifting his trem 
 bling wife into the vehicle, which still stood at the gate, 
 drove off at a furious rate. 
 
 And how looked the pale and gentle Catherine during 
 this brief scene ? As one who feels the death-stroke ; like 
 a frail blighted lily. 
 
 And beside her stood in silence 
 
 One with a brow as pale, 
 And white lips rigidly compress d 
 
 Lest the strong heart should fail. 
 
 * Your ride has been too much for you, Mrs. Brent, said 
 I; you must rest awhile; and I drew her into a small 
 room adjoining the parlor, to avoid the industrious eyes of 
 Mrs. Nippers. 
 
 She spoke not, but her eyes thanked me, and I left her, 
 to receive other guests. Mrs. Nippers made a very faint 
 move to depart when she began to perceive that company 
 had been invited. 
 
 Remain to tea, Mrs. Nippers, I said, could one say 
 less ? and she simpered, and said she was hardly decent, 
 
 but and added in a stage-whisper, If you could lend 
 
 me a smart cap and cape, I don t know but I would. 
 So she was ushered in due form to my room, with unbound 
 ed choice in a very narrow circle of caps and capes, and a 
 pair of thin shoes, and then clean stockings, were success 
 ively added as decided improvements to her array. And 
 when she made her appearance in the state-apartments, she 
 looked, as she said herself, pretty scrumptious ; but took 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 227 
 
 an early opportunity to whisper, I did n t know where 
 you kept your pocket-handkerchiefs. So Alice was 
 despatched for one, and the lady was complete. 
 
 Mr. Brent, with Bella in his arms, paced the garden 
 walk, pretending to amuse the child, but evidently agitated 
 and unhappy. 
 
 Did you ever see anything so odd ? whispered Mrs. 
 Nippers, darting a glance toward the garden. 
 
 But fortunately, the person honored by her notice was 
 all unconscious ; and happening to observe his wife as he 
 passed the low window in the little -west-room, he stopped 
 a few moments in low and earnest conversation with her. 
 It was not long before Mrs. Brent appeared, and, apologiz 
 ing with much grace, said, that feeling a little better, she 
 would prefer returning home. I took leave of her with 
 regretful presentiments. 
 
 In less than a week, Mrs. Nippers had more than she 
 could attend to. The Brents had left the country, and 
 Mrs. Cathcart was alarmingly ill. The unfortunate straw 
 berry-party so unexpectedly marred by this rencontre, was 
 the theme of every convention within five miles, to speak 
 moderately ; and by the time the story reached home 
 again, its own mother could not have recognized it. 
 
 A letter from Mr. Brent to say farewell and a little more, 
 gave us in a few words the outlines of a sad story ; and 
 while all Montacute is ringing with one of which not the 
 smallest particular is lacking, I am not at liberty to disclose 
 more of the OWRE TRUE TALE, than the reader will already 
 have conjectured a priory tachment. 
 
 The way Mrs. Nippers rolls up her eyes when the Eng 
 lish are mentioned is certainly a caution. 
 
228 A NEW HOME, 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 Away with these! true wisdom s world will be 
 
 Within its own creation, or in thine, 
 
 Maternal Nature! * * * 
 
 Are not the mountains, waves and skies a part 
 
 Of me and of my soul, as I of them ? 
 
 Is not the love of these deep in my heart 
 
 With a pure passion? 
 
 CHILDE HAROLD. Canto III. 
 
 WHEN we first took our delighted abode in the framed 
 house, a palace of some twenty by thirty feet, flanked by 
 a shanty kitchen, and thatched with oak shingles, a sober 
 neighbor, who having passed most of his life in the country, 
 is extremely philosophical on the follies of civilization, took 
 my husband to task on the appearance of the ghost of a 
 departed parlor carpet, which he said w T as introducing 
 luxury. Whether from this bad example, I cannot tell, 
 but it is certain that our neighbors , are many of them 
 beginning to perceive that carpets save trouble. Women 
 are the most reasonable beings in the world ; at least, I am 
 sure nobody ever catches a woman without an unanswerable 
 reason for anything she wishes to do. Mrs. Micah Bal- 
 whidder only wanted a silver tea-pot, because, as all the 
 world knows, tea tastes better out of silver ; and Mrs. 
 Primrose loved her crimson paduasoy, merely because her 
 husband had happened to say it became her. 
 
 Of the mingled mass of our country population, a goodly 
 and handsome proportion goodly as to numbers and 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 229 
 
 handsome as to cheeks and lips, and thews and sinews, 
 consists of young married people just beginning the world ; 
 simple in their habits, moderate in their aspirations, and 
 hoarding a little of old-fashioned romance, unconsciously 
 enough, in the secret nooks of their rustic hearts. These 
 find no fault with their bare loggeries. With a shelter and 
 a handful of furniture they have enough. If there is the 
 wherewithal to spread a warm supper for th old man 
 when he comes in from work, the young wife forgets the 
 long, solitary, wordless day, and asks no greater happiness 
 than preparing it by the help of such materials and such 
 utensils as would be looked at with utter contempt in a 
 comfortable kitchen ; and then the youthful pair sit down 
 and enjoy it together, with a zest that the orgies parfaites 
 of the epicure can never awaken. What lack they that this 
 world can bestow ? They have youth and health, and 
 love and hope, occupation and amusement, and when you 
 have added meat, clothes, and fire/ what more has Eng 
 land s fair young queen ? These people are contented, of 
 course. 
 
 There is another class of settlers neither so numerous nor 
 so happy ; people, who have left small farms in the east 
 ward States, and come to Michigan with the hope of 
 acquiring property at a more rapid rate. They have sold 
 off, perhaps at considerable pecuniary disadvantage, the 
 home of their early married life ; sacrificed the convenient 
 furniture which had become necessary to daily comfort, and 
 only awake when it is too late, to the fact that it kills old 
 vines to tear them from their clinging-places. These people 
 are much to be pitied, the women especially. 
 
 The ladies first 
 Gin murmur as becomes the softer sex. 
 
 20 
 
230 A NEW HOME, 
 
 Woman s little world is overclouded for lack of the old 
 familiar means and appliances. The husband goes to his 
 work with the same axe or hoe which fitted his hand in his 
 old woods and fields, he tills the same soil, or perhaps a 
 far richer and more hopeful one he gazes on the same 
 book of nature which he has read from his infancy, and 
 sees only a fresher and more glowing page ; and he returns 
 to his home with the sun, strong in heart and full of self- 
 gratulation on the favorable change in his lot. But he 
 finds the home-bird drooping and disconsolate. She has 
 been looking in vain for the reflection of any of the 
 cherished features of her own dear fire-side. She has 
 found a thousand deficiencies which her rougher mate can 
 scarce be taught to feel as evils. What cares he if the 
 time-honored cupboard is meagerly represented by a few 
 oak-boards lying on pegs and called shelves ? His tea- 
 equipage shines as it was wont the biscuits can hardly 
 stay on the brightly glistening plates. Will he find fault 
 with the clay-built oven, or even the tin reflector ? His 
 bread never was better baked. What does he want with 
 the great old cushioned rocking-chair ? When he is tired 
 he goes to bed, for he is never tired till bed-time. Women 
 are the grumblers in Michigan, and they have some 
 apology. Many of them have made sacrifices for which 
 they were not at all prepared, and which detract largely 
 from their every-day stores of comfort. The conviction of 
 good accruing on a large scale does not prevent the 
 wearing sense of minor deprivations. 
 
 Another large class of emigrants is composed of people 
 of broken fortunes, or who have been unsuccessful in past 
 undertakings. These like or dislike the country on various 
 grounds, as their peculiar condition may vary. Those who 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 231 
 
 are fortunate or industrious, look at their new home with a 
 kindly eye. Those who learn by experience that idlers are 
 no better off in Michigan than elsewhere, can find no term 
 too virulent in which to express their angry disappointment. 
 The profligate and unprincipled lead stormy and uncomforta 
 ble lives any where ; and Michigan, now at least, begins to re 
 gard such characters among her adopted children, with a stern 
 and unfriendly eye, so that the few who may have come among 
 us, hoping for the unwatched and unbridled license which 
 we read of in regions nearer to the setting sun, find them 
 selves marked and shunned as in the older world. 
 
 As women feel sensibly the deficiencies of the salvage 
 state, so they are the first to attempt the refining process, 
 the introduction of those important nothings on which so 
 much depends. Small additions to the more delicate or 
 showy part of the household gear are accomplished by the 
 aid of some little extra personal exertion. Spinning 
 money buys a looking-glass perhaps, or butter money a 
 nice cherry table. Eglantines and wood-vine, or wild- 
 cucumber, are sought and transplanted to shade the 
 windows. Narrow beds round the house are bright with 
 balsams and sweet-williams, four-o clocks, poppies and 
 marigolds ; and if th* old man is good natured, a little 
 gate takes the place of the great awkward bars before the 
 door. By and by a few apple-trees are set out ; sweet 
 briers grace the door yard, and lilacs and currant-bushes ; 
 all by female effort at least I have never yet happened to 
 see it otherwise where these improvements have been made 
 at all. They are not all accomplished by her own hand 
 indeed, but hers is the moving spirit, and if she do her 
 spiriting gently, and has any thing but a Caliban for a 
 minister, she can scarcely fail to throw over the real home- 
 
232 A NEW HOME, 
 
 liness of her lot something of the magic of that IDEAL 
 which has been truely sung 
 
 Nymph of our soul, and brightener of our being ; 
 She makes the common waters musical 
 Binds the rude night-winds in a silver thrall, 
 Bids Hybla s thyme and Tempe s violet dwell 
 Round the green marge of her moon-haunted cell. 
 
 * * * * # * 
 
 This shadowy power, or power of shadows, is the arch- van 
 quisher of time and care every where ; but most of all needed 
 in the waveless calm of a strictly woodland life, and there 
 most enjoyed. The lovers of unwritten poetry may find 
 it in the daily talk of our rustic neighbors in their 
 superstitions in the remedies which they propose for 
 every ill of humanity, the ideal makes the charm of their 
 life as it does that of all the world s, peer and poet, wood 
 cutter and serving-maid. 
 
 After allowing due weight to the many disadvantages 
 and trials of a new-country life, it would scarce be fair to 
 pass without notice the compensating power of a feeling, 
 inherent as I believe, in our universal nature, which rejoices 
 in that freedom from the restraints of pride and ceremony 
 which is found only in a new country. To borrow from a 
 brilliant writer of our own, I think we have an instinct, 
 dulled by civilization, which is like the caged eaglet s, or 
 the antelope s that is reared in the Arab s tent ; an instinct 
 of nature that scorns boundary and chain ; that yearns to 
 the free desert ; that would have the earth like the sky, 
 unappropriated and open ; that rejoices in immeasurable 
 liberty of foot and dwelling-place, and springs passionately 
 back to its freedom, even after years of subduing method 
 and spirit-breaking confinement ! 
 
 This instinct, so beautifully noticed by Willis, is what 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 233 
 
 I would point to as the compensating power of the wilder 
 ness. Those who are to the manner born feel this most 
 sensibly, and pity with all their simple hearts the walled- 
 u p denizens of the city. And the transplanted ones 
 those who have been used to no forests but forests of 
 chimneys, though the parted bosom clings to wonted 
 home/ soon learn to think nature no step-mother, and to 
 discover many redeeming points even in the half-wild state 
 at first so uncongenial. 
 
 That this love of unbounded and unceremonious liberty is 
 a natural and universal feeling, needs no argument to 
 show ; I am only applying it on a small scale to the novel 
 condition in which I find myself in the woods of Michigan. 
 I ascribe much of the placid contentment, which seems the 
 heritage of rural life, to the constant familiarity with woods 
 and waters 
 
 All that the genial ray of morning gilds, 
 
 And all that echoes to the song of even ; 
 All that the mountain s sheltering bosom yields, 
 
 And all the dread magnificence of heaven 
 
 to the harmony which the Creator has instituted between 
 the animate and inanimate works of His hands. 
 
 Authorities crowd upon me, and I must be allowed to 
 close my chapter with a favorite paragraph from Hazlilt. 
 
 The heart reposes in greater security on the immensity 
 of Nature s works, expatiates freely there, and finds elbow- 
 room and breathing-space. We are always at home with 
 Nature. There is neither hypocrisy, caprice, nor mental 
 reservation in her favors. Our intercourse with her is not 
 liable to accident or change, suspicion or disappointment : 
 she smiles on us still the same. * * In our love of 
 Nature there is all the force of individual attachment, com 
 bined with the most airy abstraction. It is this circumstance 
 20* 
 
234 A NEW HOME, 
 
 which gives that refinement, expansion and wild interest to 
 feelings of this sort. * * Thus Nature is a sort of 
 universal home, and every object it presents to us an old 
 acquaintance, with unaltered looks ; for there is that con 
 stant and mutual harmony among all her works one 
 undivided spirit pervading them throughout that to him 
 who has well acquainted himself with them, they sp<3ak 
 always the same well-known language, striking on the 
 heart amidst unquiet thoughts and the tumult of the world, 
 like the music of one s native tongue heard in some far-off 
 country/ 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 235 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 Per mezz i boschi inospiti e selvaggi 
 
 Onde vanno a gran rischio uomini, ed arme 
 
 Vo secur io ; che non pud spaventarme 
 
 Aitri, che 1 Sol 1 
 
 E vo cantando 
 
 Raro ua silenzio, un solitario orrore 
 
 D ombrosa selva mai tanto mi piacque. 
 
 PKTRARCA, Son. CXLI1. 
 
 A. BRIDLE-PATH through the deep woods which lie south 
 west of our village had long been a favorite walk on those 
 few days of our boreal summer, when shade had seemed an 
 essential element of comfort. The forest itself is so entirely 
 cumbered with shrubs and tangled vines, that to effect 
 even a narrow path through it had been a work of no little 
 time and labor; and, as no money was likely to flow in 
 upon us from that direction, I had no fears of a road, but 
 considered the whole as a magnificent pleasaunce for the 
 special delight of those who can discern glory and splendor 
 in grass and wild-flowers. 
 
 We lacked not carpets, for there was the velvet sward, 
 embroidered with blossoms, whose gemmy tints can never 
 be equalled in Brussels or in Persia; nor canopy, for an 
 emerald dome was over us, full of trembling light, and 
 festooned and tasselled with the starry eglantine, the 
 pride of our Western woods ; nor pillars, nor arches ; for, 
 beloved forests of my country ! where can your far-sound 
 ing aisles be matched for grandeur, your * alleys green for 
 
236 A NEW HOME, 
 
 beauty ? We had music too, fairy music, gushes of wild 
 song, soft, sighing murmurs, such as flow from 
 
 The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell, 
 
 and recalling, like those other murmurs, the summer swell 
 of the distant ocean ; and withal, the sound of a bubbling 
 stream, which was ever and anon sweetly distinct amid the 
 delicate harmony. 
 
 Many a dreamy hour have I wandered in this delicious 
 solitude, not * book-bosomed ; for, at such times, my rule 
 is peu lire, penser beaucoup ; nor yet moralizing, like the 
 melancholy Jaques, on the folly and inconstancy of the 
 world ; but just daundering, to borrow an expression 
 from Mr. Gait ; perhaps Fanny Kemble would have said 
 dawdling ; so I leave the choice with my reader, and 
 make an effort to get on with my story, which seems as 
 much inclined to loiter in my favorite wood as I am my 
 self. 
 
 I had never ventured far from Montacute in my strolls 
 with the children, or with my female friends. To say 
 nothing of my sad paresse, I hate it in English, but t is 
 not half so shocking in French ; not to mention that at 
 all, there are other lions in the way ; massasaugas for 
 instance, and Indians, and blue racers, six or eight feet 
 long, and as thick as a man s arm ; harmless, say the 
 initiated, but fen doute, and my prime and practical 
 favorite among mottoes and maxims is ware snakes ! then 
 toads ; but if I once mount a toad, I shall not get back this 
 great while. 
 
 It so happened that one morning when the atmosphere 
 was particularly transparent, and the shower-laid earth in 
 delicious order for a ride, I had an invitation from my 
 husband for a stroll a splorification on horseback ; and 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 237 
 
 right joyously did I endue myself with the gear proper to 
 such woodcraft, losing not a moment, for once, that I might 
 be ready for my beautiful Orelio, old Jupiter, when he 
 should come round. We mounted, and sought at once 
 the dim wood of which I have been speaking. 
 
 We followed the bridle-path for miles, finding scarcely a 
 trace of human life. We scared many a grey rabbit, and 
 many a bevy of quails, and started at least one noble buck : 
 I said two, but may be the same one was all around us, 
 for so it seemed. I took the opportunity of trying old 
 Jupiter s nerves and the woodland echoes, by practising 
 poor Malibran s Tourment d Amour, at the expense of the 
 deepest recess of my lungs, while my companion pretended 
 to be afraid he could not manage Prince, and finally let 
 him go off at half speed. Old Jupiter, he is deaf I believe, 
 jogged on as before, and I still amused myself by arousing 
 the Dryads, and wondering whether they ever heard a 
 Swiss refrain before, when I encountered a sportsman, 
 belted, pouched, gunned, and dogged, quite comme il faut, 
 and withal, wearing very much such a face as Adonis must 
 have looked at when he arrayed himself at the fountain. 
 
 What an adventure for a sober village matron ! I almost 
 think I must have blushed. At least I am sure I must 
 have done so had the affair happened only ten years 
 earlier. 
 
 I thought seriously of apologizing to the stranger for 
 singing in the woods, of which he seemed like the tutelar 
 deity; but fortunately Mr. Clavers at this moment re 
 turned, and soon engaged him in conversation ; and it was 
 not long before he offered to show us a charming variety in 
 the landscape, if we would ride on for a quarter of a mile. 
 
 We had been traversing a level tract, which we had 
 
238 A NEW HOME, 
 
 supposed lay rather low than high. In a few minutes, we 
 found ourselves on the very verge of a miniature precipice ; 
 a bluff which overhung what must certainly have been 
 originally a lake, though it is now a long oval-shaped valley 
 of several miles in extent, beautifully diversified with wood 
 and prairie, and having a lazy, quiet stream winding 
 through it, like like like a snake in a bottle of spirits ; 
 or like a long strip of apple-paring, when you have thrown 
 it over your head to try what letter it will make on the 
 carpet ; or like the course of a certain great politician whom 
 we all know. My third attempt hits it exactly, neither of 
 the others was crooked enough. 
 
 The path turned short to the right, and began, not far 
 from where we stood, to descend, as if to reach at some 
 distance and by a wide sweep, the green plain below us. 
 This path looked quite rocky and broken ; so much so, that 
 I longed to try it, but my companion thought it time to 
 return home. 
 
 Let me first have the pleasure of showing you my 
 cottage, said our handsome guide, whose air had a curious 
 mixture of good-breeding with that sort of rustic freedom 
 and abruptness, which is the natural growth of the wilder 
 ness. As he spoke, he pointed out a path in the wood, 
 which we could not help following, and which brought us 
 in a few minutes to a beautiful opening, looking on the 
 basin below the bluff on one side, and on the deep woods 
 on the other. And there was a long, low, irregularly- 
 shaped house, built of rich brown tamarack logs, nearly 
 new, and looking so rural and lovely that I longed to alight. 
 Every thing about the house was just as handsome and 
 picturesque-looking as the owner ; and still more attractive 
 was the fair creature who was playing with a little girl 
 
WHO LL F L L O W ? 239 
 
 under the tall oaks near the cottage. She came forward to 
 welcome us with a grace which was evidently imported 
 from some civilized region ; and as she drew near, I recog 
 nized at once an old school-friend : the very Cora Mansfield 
 
 who used to be my daughter at Mrs. s ; at least the 
 
 dozenth old acquaintance I have met accidentally since we 
 came to the new world. 
 
 Mutual introductions of our honored spouses were now 
 duly performed, and we of Montacute did not refuse to 
 alight and make such short tarry with our ten-mile neigh 
 bors, as the lateness of the hour permitted. We found the 
 house quite capacious and well divided, and furnished as 
 neatly though far less ostentatiously than a cottage ornee in 
 the vicinity of some great metropolis. There was a great 
 chintz-covered sofa a very jewel for your siesta and 
 some well-placed lounges ; and, in an embayed Avindow 
 draperied with wild vines, a reading-chair of the most 
 luxurious proportions, with its foot-cushion and its pro 
 longed rockers. Neat, compact presses, filled with books, 
 new as well as old, and a cabinet piano-forte, made up 
 nearly all the plenishin , but there was enough. The whole 
 was just like a young lady s dream, and Cora and her Thai- 
 aba of a husband looked just fit to enjoy it. 
 
 The contrast was amusing enough when I recalled where 
 I had last seen Cora. It was at a fancy ball at Mrs. 
 
 L s, when she was a little, dimpled, pink-and-silver 
 
 maid of honor to Mary of Scots, or some such great per 
 sonage, flitting about like a humming-bird over a honey 
 suckle, and flirting most atrociously with the half-fledged 
 little beaux who hung on her footsteps. She looked far 
 lovelier in her woodland simplicity, to my simplified eyes at 
 least. She had not, to be sure, a sweet white dress, with 
 
240 A NEW HOME, 
 
 straw-colored kid gloves, and a dog tied to a pink ribbon, 
 like * the fair Curranjel, but she wo/e a rational, home-like 
 calico horrors! I hear my lady readers exclaim ay, a 
 calico, neatly fitted to her beautiful figure ; and her darkly- 
 bright eyes beamed not less archly beneath her waving 
 
 locks than they had done years before. You did 
 
 not think I was going to tell, did you ? 
 
 Two hundred and forty questions, at a moderate guess, 
 and about half as many answers, passed between us, while 
 Mr. Hastings did n t I say his name was Hastings ? was 
 showing Mr. Clavers his place. Cora and I had no leisure 
 for statistics or economics on this our first rencontre. She 
 rocked the basket-cradle with her foot, and told me all 
 about her two little daughters ; and I had a good deal to 
 say of the same sort ; and at length, when superior autho 
 rity said we could not stay one moment longer, we cantered 
 off, with promises of re- union, which have since been amply 
 redeemed on both sides. And now shall I tell, all in due 
 form, what I have gathered from Cora s many talks, touch 
 ing a wild prank of hers ? She said I might, and I will, 
 with the reader s good leave. 
 
WHO LL FOL LOW? 241 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 Love sat on a Lotus-leaf afloat, 
 And saw old Time in his loaded boat; 
 Slowly he cross d Life s narrow tide, 
 While Love sat clapping his wings and cried, 
 Who will pass Time ? 
 
 EVERARD HASTINGS, a tall, bright-haired, elegant-looking 
 boy of nineteen, handsome as Antinous, and indolent as any 
 body on record, left college with his head as full of 
 romance and as far from any thing like plain, practical, 
 common-sense views of life and its wearisome cares and its 
 imperious duties, as any young New Yorker of his stand 
 ing ; and he very soon discovered that his charming cousin 
 Cora Mansfield was just the bewitching little beauty for 
 such a hero to fall shockingly in love with. To be freed 
 from college restraints and to be deeply in love, were both 
 so delightful, that Everard argued sair to persuade his 
 father not to be in such haste to immure him in a law-office. 
 He thought his health rather delicate exertion certainly 
 did not agree with him. He passed his slender fingers 
 through the cherished love-locks which had been much his 
 care of late ; looked in the glass and wished he was of age 
 and had finished his studies ; and then went and sat the 
 evening w T ith Cora. And though law did not get on very 
 fast, love made up for it by growing wondrously. 
 
 His diary in those days, if he had found time to keep a 
 diary, must have run somewhat on this wise : 
 21 
 
242 A N E W H O M E , 
 
 Monday morning. Rose at eight. Got to the office 
 about ten, or pretty soon after. Mr. J. looked a little dry. 
 
 Went with Cora at twelve to see s pictures. Took 
 
 us a long time. Dined at uncle Phil s and found all in 
 bed but Pa when I came home. 
 
 Tuesday. Overslept. Office at ten, or perhaps a little 
 after. Mr. J. asked me if I was not well. Vexed to think 
 how I colored as I said not very/ Cora and I were 
 engaged to make a bridal call with Mrs. L. Carriage 
 called for me at the office. Dined at uncle Phil s and went 
 to the theatre with aunt Charlotte and the girls. Cora 
 grows prettier. Henry Tracy says she is handsomer than 
 the great beauty, Miss , of Boston. 
 
 Wednesday. All dined with us, and company in the 
 evening. Did not get to the office at all. 
 
 Thursday. Rose early. Walked with the girls on the 
 battery, and breakfasted at uncle Phil s. Felt quite ill. 
 Rising early never did agree with me. Obliged to lie on 
 the sofa and have my forehead bathed with Cologne till it 
 was too late to go to the office. Dined at uncle Phil s, and 
 rode with girls afterwards, &c. &c. 
 
 And what were uncle Phil and aunt Charlotte thinking 
 of all this time ? Why, that Everard and Cora were but 
 children ; and that by-and-by, when the fitting time should 
 come, a marriage would be just the very thing most agreea- 
 He to all concerned. 
 
 When spring came delicious tempting days of warm 
 sun and bright skies both families prepared for their usua* 
 summer flight to their rural palaces on the North River, 
 not far from town ; and Everard pleaded so hard for one 
 single summer, or part of a summer, that his father, who 
 was too indulgent by half, gave way and suffered him to 
 
W HO LL FOLLOW? 243 
 
 postpone his studies ; hoping of course that Everard would 
 gain studious habits by sauntering in the woods with his 
 cousins. T is pity parents can so seldom stop at the juste 
 milieu between weak compliance and severe requisition ; but 
 then I should have had no story to tell, so it is better as 
 it is. 
 
 * How fond the children are of each other ! said Mrs. 
 Hastings to Mrs. Mansfield. 
 
 What parent ever thought that a child had arrived 
 at maturity ? 
 
 I have heard of an octogenarian who declined staying 
 two days with a relative because he was afraid the boys 
 could not get along without him ; one of the boys a 
 bachelor of fifty, the other a grandfather. But to return. 
 
 Wandering one afternoon over the woody hills which 
 make so charming a part of those elegant places on the 
 Hudson, Cora and Everard, by one of those chances Avhich 
 will occur, spite of all one can do, were separated from 
 their companions. 
 
 Everard, said the fair girl, stopping short and looking 
 around her with delight, only see ! it seems now as if we 
 were in a lonely wilderness without a single trace of man 
 but this little path. Would n t it be charming if it were 
 really so ? if there were nobody within, ! ever so many 
 miles, but just ourselves she stopped and blushed. 
 
 Ah, Cora ! said Everard, passionately, if you only 
 
 loved me half as well as but he had not time to finish, 
 
 for the little hand which had lain quietly within his arm 
 was snatched away, leaving the glove behind it, and Cora, 
 running away from her own blushes, was at the river side 
 quick as lightning. 
 
 Love had not blinded Everard s eyes when he called 
 
244 A NEW HOME, 
 
 Cora a beauty. She was a beauty, and of the most 
 bewitching style too; with eyes of all sorts of colors, just 
 as she happened to feel ; but the fringing lashes were 
 always silky black, and the eyes seemed so too, to the 
 unconcerned spectator. She might have passed for one 
 of Spam s dark-glancing daughters/ if one looked at her 
 elastic form, and her tiny hands and feet, but her skin 
 was too exquisitely white to warrant the supposition, and 
 besides, she had mind enough in her face to have furnished 
 forth a dozen senoras. 
 
 Imagine such a being, graceful as a sylph, and withal, 
 
 Ruby-lipp d and tooth d with pearl 
 
 and you have Cora Mansfield before you, as she stood on 
 the beach, every charm heightened by the sudden exertion, 
 and the confusion into which Everard s last speech (of 
 which I gave only an inkling) had thrown her. 
 
 There had long been a tacit understanding between the 
 young lovers; but, after all, the first words of love will, 
 whatever may have been the preparation, inevitably overset 
 a woman s philosophy. 
 
 Cora was almost sixteen,, reader, and thought herself a 
 woman at least, though her mother but that s quite 
 another thing. 
 
 It was sunset before Everard and Cora found their way 
 back to the house ; but they did not stop on the lawn as 
 usual, to talk about the western sky. Cora s little heart 
 throbbed audibly, as a heroine s ought ; and as for Everard 
 he walked with his eyes fixed on the earth, though he 
 thought only of the bright being beside him. Both looked 
 most terribly conscious, but nobody thought of noticing 
 them, and Mrs. Mansfield, whom they found in the parlor, 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 245 
 
 only said, Cora, child, you are very imprudent to be 
 running about after sunset without your bonnet. 
 
 Now Cora did hate, above all other things, to be called 
 child, and it was quite a comfort to her that evening to 
 reflect, Mamma would not be always calling me child, 
 if she knew ! 
 
 It was not long before Mamma knew all about it, for 
 there was no motive for concealment except the extreme 
 youth of the parties. Everard said three years would soon 
 pass away, which is very true, though he did not think so. 
 
 I forgot, when I was describing Cora, to say she was 
 even more deeply tinged with romance than Everard 
 himself. She lived entirely in an ideal world. Her mind 
 was her kingdom or her cottage her ball-room or her 
 dungeon as the imaginary drama shifted the unities. 
 Everard s reveries had in them nothing denned. There 
 was always a beautiful creature, just like Cora, but the 
 inferior parts of fancy s sketch were usually rather dim. 
 With his fairy mistress the case was different. The first 
 
 poem her Italian master, the Marquis , had put into her 
 
 hands, had been the Pastor Fido ; and the Care beate 
 selve of Amaryllis had been ever since the favorite theme 
 of her musings. And then the sweet little enchanting 
 Isola Disabitata of Metastasio proved, just as young ladies 
 like to have things proved, that people, nay, women 
 alone, can live in a wilderness, and even in a desert island ; 
 and 0, what a pretty variety of paradises she wove out 
 of these slight materials ! She was always herself the 
 happy tenant of a cottage ; so happy in herself that even 
 Everard did not always find a place in the dream. She 
 had her books, her needle-work, and her music ; a harp of 
 course, or a guitar at the very least ; ever-smiling skies and 
 21* 
 
246 A NEW HOME, 
 
 ever-rippling rivulets ; the distant murmur of a water-fall, 
 or perhaps a boat upon a deep-shaded lake ; and a fair hill 
 side with some picturesque sheep grazing upon it. 
 
 No sound of hammer or of saw was there, 
 
 no thought of dinner, no concern about the wash/ no 
 setting of barrels to catch rain-water oh, dear ! only think 
 of coming to Michigan to realize such a dream as that ! 
 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 247 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 Go follow the breeze that flies over the sea, 
 
 Go fasten the rainbow s dyes; 
 Go whistle the bird from yonder tree, 
 
 Or catch on the wave the sparkles that rise; 
 This to do thou shalt easier find, 
 Than to know the thoughts of a woman s mind. 
 
 WITH a head full of such fantastic notions, it is hardly 
 surprising that the distant prospect of an old-fashioned 
 wedding all the aunts and uncles and fifteenth cousins 
 duly invited a great evening party, and then a stiff sitting- 
 up for company had not many charms for our heroine, 
 and that Everard, almost equally romantic, and eperdument 
 amoureux, should have learned to think with his pretty 
 wilful cousin in this as in all other particulars. 
 
 He did not at all relish Cora s living so much in these 
 home-made worlds of hers. He sometimes questioned her 
 pretty closely as to particulars, and I regret to say, was 
 often more jealous than he cared to own, of certain cava 
 liers who played conspicuous parts in Cora s dramas. She 
 declared they all meant Everard, but he thought some of 
 them but poor likenesses. 
 
 He found her one day crying her pretty eyes red, over 
 one of Barry Cornwall s Dramatic Scenes, sweet and 
 touching enough for anybody to cry over. It ran thus : 
 
 There stiff and cold the dark-eyed Guido lay, 
 His pale face upward to the careless day, 
 That smiled as it was wont. 
 
248 A NEW HOME, 
 
 And he was found 
 
 His young limbs mangled on the rocky ground, 
 And mid the weltering weeds and shallows cold 
 His dark hair floated, as the phantom told: 
 And like the very dream, his glassy eye 
 Spoke of gone mortality ! 
 
 And he took it quite hard of her to weep over a handsome 
 boy, who was not a bit like him. Cora declared he was, 
 and they made quite a pretty quarrel of it. 
 
 It must come out at last I have put it off as long as 1 
 decently could, and I am sorry to be obliged to tell it but 
 this silly young couple in their dreamy folly concluded that 
 since all the papas and mammas were quite willing they 
 should marry, it could be no great harm if they took the 
 how and the when into their own hands, and carved out 
 for themselves a home in the wilderness, far from law- 
 offices and evening parties, plum-cake and white satin. 
 Accordingly, on pretence of dining with an aunt in town, 
 the imprudent pair were irrevocably joined by a certain 
 reverend gentleman, who used to be very accommodating 
 in that way, and the very next evening set out clan 
 destinely for , some hundreds of miles west of 
 
 Albany. 
 
 Cora left, all in due form, a note of apology on her 
 dressing-table ; placed whatever money and valuables she 
 possessed in security about her person, I believe she did 
 not take any particular heroine for a model in these 
 arrangements, but all ; and then prepared to leave her 
 father s house. 
 
 Unfortunately nobody was watching. There was no 
 possible excuse for jumping out of the window, but she 
 waited till all were in bed, and then unlocked a door with 
 much care, and let herself out. She felt a sort of pang 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 249 
 
 as she looked back at the house, but the flurry of her 
 spirits scarcely allowed her to be as sentimental as the 
 occasion demanded. 
 
 Everard, whose purse had just been replenished by his 
 father s bountiful half-yearly allowance, joined her before 
 she had reached the high-road. He was a shade less 
 thoughtless than his volatile companion, who had been ever 
 a spoiled child, and his heart felt portentously heavy ere 
 they had lost sight of their happy homes. 
 
 It was a beautiful moonlight night, somewhat near the 
 middle of July, and a slight shower in the afternoon had 
 rendered the walking delightful. Cora was enchanted : the 
 hour, the scene, the excitement of her romantic-ridden 
 brain, conspired to raise her spirits to an extravagant pitch, 
 and to make her forget all that ought to have deterred her 
 from the mad step she was now taking. She only regretted 
 that the whole journey could not be performed on foot ; 
 and it was with some difficulty that Everard convinced her 
 of the impracticability of this, her first and darling scheme. 
 
 It was to have been what my friend Mrs. calls a 
 
 predestinarian-tower. 
 
 To be indebted to wheels and boilers for transportation, 
 detracted terribly from the romance of the thing; but 
 she was comforted by the thought that it was only by 
 travelling as rapidly as possible, that they could hope 
 to elude the search which she doubted not would be 
 immediately commenced, by the astonished friends they 
 had left behind. 
 
 Cora confessed herself a little weary when they reached 
 the little Dutch tavern where they were to find the carriage 
 which was to bear them to a landing on the river. By 
 some mistake the carriage had not yet arrived, and the hour 
 
250 A NEW HOME, 
 
 which elapsed before it came was one of feverish anxiety to 
 both. A dreary, unfurnished room, lighted by one forlorn 
 little candle, was rather too much for Cora s philosophy. 
 She began to feel terribly sleepy, and, if the truth must be 
 told, wished herself safely in bed at home. 
 
 But she would not have lisped such a thing for the 
 world ; and to Everard s repeated inquiry, My dearest 
 Cora, what has become of all your charming spirits ? Do 
 you repent already ? almost hoping she would say, yes, 
 she still replied, 
 
 * No, indeed ! Do you think I have so little resolu 
 tion ! 
 
 And she silenced the loud whispers of her better feelings, 
 aided as they were by this temporary depression of spirits, 
 by the consideration that it was now too late to recede ; 
 since, although she had found it easy to quit her father s 
 house unnoticed, to re-enter it in the same manner would 
 now be impossible, and to return in the morning was not to 
 be thought of. 
 
 The rapid motion of the carriage, and the refreshing air 
 of approaching morning, revived her flagging energies; 
 and they had not proceeded many miles before her fancy 
 had drawn for her one of its brightest pictures, and this 
 soon after subsided into a most fantastically charming 
 dream. In short, she fell asleep, and slept till day-break. 
 At sunrise they found themselves at the landing, and, in 
 the course of half an hour, on board the steamer. 
 
 The morning was express. No lovelier sunshine ever 
 encouraged a naughty girl in her naughtiness. A cold rain 
 would have sent her back probably, wilted and humble 
 enough, but this enchanting morning was but too propitious. 
 Cora felt her little heart dilate with pleasure as the boat 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 251 
 
 shot through the foaming waters, and the bugles awakened 
 the mountain echoes. She kept her green silk veil closely 
 drawn, until she had ascertained that all on board were 
 strangers to her ; and Everard, who could not adopt the 
 same means of masking his Apollo front, was much relieved 
 at making the same discovery. 
 
 A few hours brought them to Albany, and here Everard 
 would gladly have remained a few days ; but there was 
 now an anxious restlessness in Cora s heart which sought 
 relief in rapid motion ; and she entreated him to proceed 
 immediately. So he disposed of his watch for who needs 
 a time-piece in the woods, where there is nothing to do but 
 watch the shadows all day ? and, with much reluctance, 
 of a ring of Cora s ; a rich diamond, a splendid birth-day 
 gift from the grandmother who had done Cora the favor to 
 spoil her by every possible indulgence. The jeweller, who, 
 fortunately for the headlong pair, proved very honest as 
 times go, agreed to receive these articles only in pledge, on 
 being allowed what he called a moderate interest for one 
 year, the time he engaged to retain them. 
 
 To our wise lovers the sum now in their possession 
 seemed inexhaustible. All difficulties seemed at an end, 
 and they set out with all sails filled by this happy raising 
 of the wind. T is, after all, a humiliating truth, that 
 
 Lips, though blooming, must still be fed. 
 
 To wander over the woody hills all the morning with 
 the poet or the novelist whom the reader loves best ; to 
 watch the sailing clouds till the sultry noon is past, then 
 linger by the shadowy lake till its bosom begins to purple 
 with day s dying tints, while it fills the soul with dreamy 
 happiness, only makes the unsympathizing body prodigious 
 ly hungry ; and then to go home, wondering what on earth 
 
252 A NEW HOME, 
 
 we can have for dinner, strikes me as a specimen of pungent 
 bathos. But to return. 
 
 Cora s desire to perform certain parts of the westward 
 journey on foot, Everard himself bearing the two small 
 valises which now enveloped all their earthly havings; 
 some kinds of baseness are nobly undergone; this wish 
 had yielded to that feverish haste, that secret desire to fly 
 from her own pursuing thoughts, to which I have before 
 alluded. So they travelled like common people. 
 
 At Utica, Everard purchased a few books ; for Cora had 
 not been able to crowd into her travelling basket more than 
 two mignon volumes of her darling Metastasio ; and to live 
 in a wilderness without books, was not to be thought of. 
 Robinson Crusoe would have been .the most rational pur 
 chase, but I dare say he did not buy that. Perhaps Atala, 
 
 perhaps Gertrude of Wyoming, perhaps but these are 
 
 only conjectures. For my own part, I should have recom 
 mended Buchan s Domestic Medicine, the Frugal House 
 wife, the Whole Duty of Man, and the Almanac for 18 . 
 But, counselled only by their own fantasies, these sober 
 friends were, I doubt, omitted, in favor of some novels and 
 poetry-books, idle gear at best. 
 
 With this reinforcement of the stuff that dreams are 
 made of, they proceeded ; and, after some two or three 
 days travel, found themselves in a small village, in the 
 south-western part of New York. Here Cora was content 
 to rest awhile ; and Everard employed the time in sundry 
 excursions for the purpose of reconnoitring the face of the 
 country ; wishing to ascertain whether it was rocky, and 
 glenny, and streamy enough to suit Cora, whose soul dis 
 dained any thing like a level or a clearing. 
 
 Ere long he found a spot, so wild and mountainous and 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 253 
 
 woody, as to be considered entirely impracticable by any 
 common-sense settler ; so that it seemed just the very place 
 for a forest-home for a pair who had set out to live on 
 other people s thoughts. Cora was so charmed with 
 Everard s description of it, and whispered be it so tired 
 
 of living at the Hotel, that she would not hear of 
 
 going first to look and judge for herself, but insisted on 
 removing at once, and finding a place to live in afterwards. 
 
 22 
 
254 ANEWHOME, 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 Love conceives 
 
 No paradise but such as Eden was, 
 With two hearts beating in it. 
 
 WILLIS BIANCA VISCONTI. 
 
 ON the confines of this highland solitude stood a com 
 fortable-looking farm-house, with only the usual comple 
 ment of sheds and barns ; but, on approaching near enough 
 to peep within its belt of maples and elms, a splendid sign 
 was revealed to the delighted eye of the weary traveller, 
 promising good entertainment for man and beast. Thus 
 invited, Everard and Cora sought admission, and were 
 received with a very civil nod from the portly host, who sat 
 smoking his pipe by the window, thinking of nothing at 
 all ; at least so said his face, while his great dog lay just 
 outside, ready to bark at customers. 
 
 The cognomen of this worthy transplanted Yankee, the 
 landlord, not the dog, was, as the sign assured the world, 
 Bildad Gridley ; and the very tall, one-eyed ottomy who 
 sat knitting by the other window, was addressed by him as 
 Miss Dart. Mr. Gridley, a widower in the decline of life, 
 and * Miss Dart, a poor widow, who, in return for a com 
 fortable home, assisted his daughter Arethusa to do the 
 chores. There was yet another member of the family, Mr. 
 Gridley s son Ahasuerus, but he had not yet appeared. 
 Miss Arethusa was a strapping damsel, in a / two- blues 
 calico, and a buff gingham cape, with a towering horn comb 
 
W H O r L L F O L L O W ? 255 
 
 stuck on the very pinnacle of her head, and a string of gold 
 beads encircling her ample neck. 
 
 The arrival of our city travellers at this secluded public, 
 produced at first quite a sensation. Few passengers, save 
 the weary pedlar, or the spruce retailer of books, clocks, or 
 nutmegs, found their way to these penetralia of Nature. 
 Now and then, indeed, some wandering sportsman, or some 
 college student picturesquing during his fall vacation, or 
 perhaps a party of surveyors, rested for a night at the 
 Moon and Seven Stars ; but usually, although those much 
 bedaubed luminaries had given place to an exact likeness, 
 as said Mr. Gridley, of Giner l Lay-Fyette, with his 
 name, as was most meet, in yellow letters below the 
 portrait, the house was as silent as if it had not borne the 
 ambitious title of an Inn, and the farming business went on 
 with scarcely an occasional interruption. 
 
 But now the aspect of things was* materially changed. 
 Everard had signified his desire to remain in so beautiful a 
 spot for a week or two at least, provided Mr. Gridley could 
 board himself and and this lady, he added, for he 
 could not call Cora his wife, though he tried. 
 
 The landlord, with a scrutinizing glance at poor Cora, 
 said he rather guessed he could accommodate him for a 
 spell; and then went to consult the other powers. Our 
 happy pair, each tormented by an undefined sense of 
 anxiety and conscious wrong, which neither was willing to 
 acknowledge to the other, awaited the return of honest 
 Bildad with a trembletnent du coeur, which they in vain 
 endeavored to overcome. At length his jolly visage re 
 appeared, and they were much relieved to hear him say in 
 a more decided tone than before, Well, sir ! I guess we 
 can commodate ye. 
 
256 A NEW HOME, 
 
 And here, how I might moralize upon the humbling 
 effects of being naughty, which could make these proud 
 young citizens, who had felt so wondrously well-satisfied 
 with their own dignity and consequence only a week before, 
 now await, with fearful apprehension, the fiat of a plain old 
 farmer, who after all was only to board and lodge them. 
 The old gentleman had such a fatherly look, that both 
 Everard and Cora thought of their own papas ; and now 
 began to reflect that maybe these papas might not after all 
 see the joke in its true light. But neither of them said 
 such a word, and so I shall pass the occasion in silence. 
 
 They were shown to a small white-washed room on the 
 second floor, possessing one window, guiltless of the paint 
 brush, now supported by means of that curious notched 
 fixture called a button, so different from the article to 
 which the title of right belongs. A bed adorned with a 
 covering on which the taste of the weaver had expatiated, 
 in the production of innumerable squares and oblongs of 
 blue and white ; a very diminutive and exceedingly rickety 
 table stained red ; a looking-glass of some eight inches 
 breadth, framed in a strip of gorgeous mahogany, and 
 showing to the charmed gazer a visage curiously elongated 
 cross-wise, with two nondescript chairs, and an old hair trunk, 
 bearing the initials B. G./ described in brass nails on its 
 arched top, constituted the furniture of the apartment. 
 
 Cora busied herself in arranging things as well as she 
 could. Mr. Gridley called her quite a handy young 
 woman, considering she had n t been brought up to 
 nothing ! and while this employment lasted, she managed 
 to maintain a tolerable degree of cheerfulness ; but when 
 all was done, and she paused to look around her, such a 
 tide of feelings rushed upon her, that her pride at length 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW! 257 
 
 gave way, and sitting down on the old trunk, she buried 
 her face in her lap, and burst into a passion of tears. 
 
 Everard tried to comfort her as well as he could, but his 
 own heart was overcharged ; and after a few ineffectual 
 efforts, he threw himself on the floor at her side, and wept 
 almost as heartily as she did. As soon as his feelings were 
 relieved by this overflowing of nature, he felt heartily 
 ashamed of himself, and lifting Cora to the window, insisted 
 that she should look out upon the glorious prospect which 
 it commanded. She struggled to regain her low seat, that 
 she might indulge to the uttermost this paroxysm of re 
 morse and misgiving ; but he pursued his advantage, and 
 held her before the window till the fresh breeze had 
 changed the current of her sad thoughts, and thrown her 
 rich curls into a most becoming confusion ; and then, reach 
 ing the eight-inch mirror, held it suddenly before her still 
 streaming eyes. And now, like true boy and girl, they were 
 both seized with uncontrollable laughter, and sat down and 
 enjoyed it to the uttermost. 
 
 How foolish we look, said Cora at length. 0, Eve 
 rard ! if mamma but at that word her pretty eyes began 
 to fill again, and Everard declared she should not say 
 another word. 
 
 Let us take a walk, said he, one of your own long 
 rambling walks. You know we have yet to find a spot 
 lovely enough for you to live in ! And the volatile girl 
 was all gaiety in a moment. 
 
 They were on their return after a very long ramble, 
 when they came to a dell deep enough to make one think 
 of listening to the talkers in Captain Symmes world ; and 
 this Cora declared to be the very home of her dreams. 
 
 This and none other should be her forest sanctuary ; 
 22* 
 
258 A NEW HOME, 
 
 Qu. What was she flying from ? here should the cottage 
 stand under whose lowly roof was to be realized all of bliss 
 that poet ever painted. 
 
 Mighty shades, 
 
 Weaving their gorgeous tracery overhead, 
 With the light melting through their high arcades, 
 As through a pillar d cloister s. 
 
 ! it was too delicious ! and all the good thoughts took 
 flight again. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 Gon. Here is every thing advantageous to life. 
 Ant. True, save means to live. 
 
 TEMPEST. 
 
 THAT evening after tea, Everard began his negotiations 
 with Mr. Gridley for the purchase of the much-admired 
 glen. 
 
 Glen ! said honest Bildad, who sat as usual, pipe in 
 mouth, by the front window. 
 
 Everard explained. 
 
 Why, Lord bless ye! yes, I own two hundred and 
 seventy odd acres jist round there ; and that ere gulf is 
 part on t. Ahasuerus began to make a clearin there, but 
 it s so plaguily lumber d up with stuns, and so kind o 
 slantin besides, that we thought it would never pay for 
 ploughin. So Hazzy has gone to work up north here, and 
 gets along like smoke. 
 
 Would you be willing to sell a small place there ? in 
 quired Everard, who felt inexpressibly sheepish when he 
 set about buying this stunny spot. 
 
 Mr. Gridley stared at him in unfeigned astonishment. 
 
 After a moment s pause, he answered, after the manner 
 of his nation, by asking, 
 
 * Why, do you know any body that wants to buy ? 
 
 I have some thoughts of settling here myself, said his 
 guest. 
 
26 A N E W H O M E , 
 
 Another stare, and the landlord fell to smoking with all 
 his might, looking withal full of meditation. 
 
 At length You settle here ! he said ; what for, in all 
 natur ? 
 
 I Ve taken a fancy to the place, said Everard ; and if 
 you choose to sell, I may perhaps be a purchaser/ 
 
 Well ! said the landlord, laying his pipe on the window- 
 sill, if this aint the queerest But I 11 tell ye what, Mr. 
 
 , I never can think o your name, if you really want 
 
 the place, why, I 11 but here he stopped again. He 
 fixed his eyes on Everard, as if he would look through his 
 mortal coil. 
 
 There s one thing, proceeded he again, may I jist be 
 so sa acy as to ask you I do n t know as you d think it a 
 very civil question ; but I do n t know as we can get on 
 without it. Are you sure, speaking very deliberately 
 are you sure that you re married to this young gal ? 
 
 Married ! said Everard, his fine eyes flashing lightning, 
 while poor Cora, completely humbled, felt ready to sink 
 through the floor, Married ! he repeated, in high indigna 
 tion, which an instant s pause served to calm. I can 
 assure you I can assure you 
 
 And he was flying after Cora, who had slipped out of 
 the room, but the good man called him back. 
 
 No casion, no casion ! you say you sartainly are, and 
 that s enough ; but ra ly you and your wife both looked so 
 young, that we ve been plaguily puzzled what to make 
 on V 
 
 Everard, deeply mortified, reverted as speedily as possi 
 ble to his desired purchase ; and after a few observations as 
 to the unprofitableness of the scheme, Mr. Gridley con 
 cluded, with an air of kindness, which soothed the feelings 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 261 
 
 of his young auditor, You know your own business best, I 
 dare say; and if so be you are determined upon it, you 
 may have it, and make use of it as long as you like ; and I 
 s pose you won t think o puttin up much of a house upon 
 sich a place as that ! when you are tired on t we 11 settle 
 the matter one way or t other. 
 
 Everard readily agreed to this proposition, for he knew 
 himself the avowed heir of the rich bachelor uncle whose 
 name he bore, and he was little concerned about the pecu 
 niary part of his affairs. 
 
 And there was a house to be built on a green hill-side in 
 the deep woods ; and this grande opus fully absorbed our 
 friends until it was completed. In taking possession of it 
 and in arranging the simple requisites which formed its 
 furniture, Cora found herself happier than she had been 
 since she left home. It must be confessed that every day 
 brought its inconveniences ; one can t at first snuff the 
 candle well with the tongs. Here were neither papa s 
 side-boards nor mamma s dressing tables ; but there was 
 the charm of house -keeping, and every young wife knows 
 what a charm that is, for a year or two at least ; and then 
 pride whispered, that whenever papa did find them out, he 
 would acknowledge how very well they had managed to be 
 happy in their own way. 
 
 After all, it must be confessed, that the fairy-footed Cora 
 nourished in some unexplored nook of her warm little, heart, 
 a fund of something which she dignified by the names of 
 resolution, firmness, perseverance, &c., but which ill-natured 
 and severe people might perhaps have been disposed to 
 call obstinacy, or self-will. But she was a spoiled child, 
 and her boy-husband the most indulgent of human beings, 
 so we must excuse her if she was a little naughty as well 
 
262 A N E W H O M E , 
 
 as very romantic. The world s harshness soon cures ro 
 mance, as well as some other things that we set out with ; 
 but Cora had as yet made no acquaintance with the world, 
 that most severe of all teachers. 
 
 But no word yet of inquiries from home. No advertise 
 ments, no rewards, no afflicted parents. This was rather 
 mortifying. At length Everard ventured to propose writing 
 to his uncle, and though Cora pretended to be quite indif 
 ferent, she was right glad to have an excuse for opening a 
 communication with home. But no answer came. The 
 cold winds of autumn turned the maple leaves yellow, then 
 scarlet, then brown and no letter ! The whole face of the 
 earth presented to the appalled eye of the city-bred beauty, 
 but one expanse of mud deep, tenacious, hopeless mud. 
 No walks either by day or evening ; books all read and re 
 read ; no sewing, for small change of dress suffices in the 
 woods ; no company but Squire Bildad or Mrs. Dart, the 
 squire s gal was teaching school for the winter, and the 
 interesting Hazzy thought Everard * a queer stick to set all 
 day in the house a readin, and did not much affect his 
 society. 
 
 Deep winter, and no word from New York. 
 
 Everard now wrote to his father, the most indulgent of 
 fathers; but though he often saw the name of the well- 
 known firm in a stray newspaper, no notice whatever was 
 taken of his missives. This was a turn of affairs for which 
 he was entirely unprepared. Cora tossed her pretty head, 
 and then cried, and said she did not care, and cried again. 
 But now a new interest arose. The prospect of becoming 
 a mother awakened at once the most intense delight and 
 a terror amounting almost to agony; and Cora at length 
 wrote to her mother. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 263 
 
 Spring came and with the flowers a little daughter ; and 
 Cora found in the one-eyed, odd-looking widow the kindest 
 and most motherly of nurses, while Mr. Gridley and his 
 family kindly interested in their inexperienced neighbors, 
 were not lacking in aid of any sort. So Cora made out 
 much better than she deserved. 
 
 When she was able to venture out, the good squire came 
 with his wagon to fetch her to spend the day by way of 
 change ; and Cora most thankfully accepted this and the 
 other kindnesses of her rustic friends. A short residence in 
 the woods modifies most surprisingly one s views on certain 
 points. 
 
 Some travellers emigrating to far Michigan had been 
 resting at Mr. Gridley s when Cora spent her day there, 
 and it was to this unlucky encounter that we must ascribe 
 the sickening of Cora s darling, who was after some days 
 attacked with an alarming eruption. Mrs. Dart declared it 
 the small-pox, and having unfortunately less judgment than 
 kindness, she curtained its little bed from every breath of 
 air, and fed it with herb-teas and other rustic stimulants, 
 till the poor little thing seemed like to stifle ; and just at 
 this juncture Everard was taken ill with the same symp 
 toms. 
 
 Cora bore up wonderfully for a few days, but the baby 
 grew worse, and Everard no better. Medical aid was 
 sought, but the doctor proved quite as much of an old 
 woman as Mrs. Dart. 
 
 The dear baby s strength was evidently diminishing, the 
 spots in its little cheeks assumed a livid appearance ; Mrs. 
 Dart s pale face grew paler, and Cora awaited, with an 
 agony which might be read in her wild and vacant eye, the 
 destruction of her hopes. The recollection of her own 
 
264 A Nfi-W HOME, 
 
 undutiful conduct towards .her parents was at her heart, 
 weighing it down like a mill-stone. Everard who might 
 have assisted and comforted her was stretched helpless, and 
 at times slightly delirious. 
 
 I fear the baby is going, said the kind widow with 
 trembling lips. 
 
 The wretched mother cast one look at its altered counte 
 nance, and with a wild cry sunk senseless on the floor. Her 
 punishment was fulfilled. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 265 
 
 CHAPTER X L 1 1 . 
 
 On the breast 
 
 That rocked her childhood, sinking in soft rest ; 
 Sweet mother gentlest mother! can it be? 
 
 MRS. HEMANS. 
 
 Pros. If I have too austerely punished you 
 
 Your compensation makes amends; for I 
 Have give you here a thread of mine own life- 
 Here afore heaven 
 I ratify this my rich gift. 
 
 TEMPEST. 
 
 Hath not old custom made this life more sweet, 
 Than that of painted pomp ? 
 
 As YOU LIKE IT. 
 
 SHE became conscious of resting on a soft bosom her 
 hands were gently chafed, and a whispering voice whose 
 thrilling sounds aroused her very soul, recalled her to a 
 sense of her situation. She looked first at her infant s little 
 bed. It was empty. 
 
 My baby ! my baby ! she shrieked in agony. 
 
 Her mother, her own dear mother, laid it on her bosom 
 without a word, but she saw that it breathed in a soft sleep, 
 and tears relieved her bursting heart. 
 
 0, mother, mother, can you forgive * was all that 
 she could say, and it was enough. Her father too was 
 there, and he took her in his arms, and weeping blest her 
 and forgave all. 
 
 The crisis or turn of the disease, had been so severe as 
 23 
 
266 A NEW HOME, 
 
 to assume the aspect of approaching dissolution, and from 
 that hour the precious baby, (the wilderness is the place 
 to love children,) began to amend, and the young papa 
 with it. And then came such long talks about the past, 
 the present, and the future ; such minute explanations of 
 all feelings and plans ; Everard and Cora seemed to live a 
 whole year extra in these few weeks which succeeded the 
 time of this sore trial. And Cora was a new creature, a 
 rational being, a mother, a matron, full of sorrow for the 
 past and of sage plans for the future. 
 
 The silent disregard of the letters had been systematic. 
 The flying pair had been recognized by some person on 
 their journey westward ; and the parents, indulgent as they 
 were, felt that some atonement was due for this cruel dis 
 regard of their feelings, and forgetfulness of the common 
 obligations. When months passed on without any evidence 
 of repentance they felt still more deeply hurt, as well as 
 seriously anxious ; and though Everard s letters relieved in 
 some measure their solitude for the welfare of their undu- 
 tiful children, it was not until Cora wrote to her mother, 
 that the visit was resolved on which proved so opportune 
 and so delightful. 
 
 And there was more to be told. Fortune had become 
 weary of smiling on the long-established house of Hastings 
 and Mansfield, and heavy losses had much impaired the 
 worldly means of these worthy people. The summer- 
 palaces on the Hudson were about to pass into other hands, 
 and great changes were to be made in many particulars. 
 And Everard must get his own living. This was a thing 
 which Cora at least had never included in her plans. 
 
 After much consultation it was conceded on all hands, 
 that it would be rather awkward returning to Mr. J. s 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 267 
 
 office after this little excursion. A frolic is a frolic to be 
 sure, but people don t always take the view we wish them 
 to take of our vagaries. Mr. Mansfield proposed his Michi 
 gan lands. 
 
 And Everard, and his subdued and humbled but happy 
 Cora, confessed that they had imbibed a taste for the 
 wilderness, an unfashionable liking for early rising and 
 deshabille ; a yearning, common to those who have lived 
 in the free woods, 
 
 To forsake 
 Earth s troubled waters for a purer spring. 
 
 Visionary still ! says the reader. Perhaps so ; but to 
 Michigan they came, and with a fine large fertile tract, 
 managed by a practical farmer and his family, they find it 
 possible to exist, and are, I had almost said, the happiest 
 people of my acquaintance. 
 
268 A NEW HOME, 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 On ne doit pas juger du merite d un homme par ses grandes qualites, mais 
 par 1 usage qu il en salt faire. 
 
 ROCHEFOOCAULT. 
 
 Des mots longs d une toise, 
 De grands mots qui tiendroint d ici jusqu a Pontoise. 
 
 RACINE LES PLAIDEURS. 
 
 But what he chiefly valued himself on, was his knowledge of metaphysics, 
 in which, having once upon a time ventured too deeply, he came well nigh 
 being smothered in a slough of unintelligible learning. 
 
 IRVING KNICKERBOCKER. 
 
 MR. SIMEON JENKINS entered at an early stage of his 
 career upon the arena of public life, having been employed 
 by his honored mother to dispose of a basket full of hard 
 boiled eggs, on election day, before he was eight years old. 
 He often dwells with much unction upon this his debut ; 
 and declares that even at that dawning period he had cut 
 his eye-teeth. 
 
 * There was n t a feller there/ Mr. Jenkins often says, that 
 could find out which side I was on, for all they tried hard 
 enough. They thought I was soft, but I let em know I 
 was as much baked as any on em. Be you a dimocrat ? 
 says one. Buy some eggs and I 11 tell ye, says I ; and by 
 the time he d bought his eggs, I could tell well enough 
 which side he belonged to, and I d hand him out a ticket 
 according, for I had blue ones in one end o my basket, and 
 white ones in the other, and when night come, and I got 
 off the stump to go home, I had eighteen shillin and four- 
 pence in my pocket. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 269 
 
 From this auspicious commencement may be dated Mr. 
 Jenkins s glowing desire to serve the public. Each succes 
 sive election-day saw him at his post. From eggs he 
 advanced to pies, from pies to almanacs, whiskey, powder 
 and shot, foot-balls, playing-cards, and at length, for 
 ambition ever did grow with what it fed on, he brought 
 into the field a large turkey, which was tied to a post and 
 stoned to death at twenty-five cents a throw. By this 
 time the still youthful aspirant had become quite the man 
 of the world ; could smoke twenty-four segars per diem, if 
 any body else would pay for them; play cards in old 
 Hurler s shop from noon till day-break, and rise winner; 
 and all this with suitable trimmings of gin and hard words. 
 But he never lost sight of the main-chance. He had made 
 up his mind to serve his country, and he was all this time 
 convincing his fellow-citizens of the disinterested purity of 
 his sentiments. 
 
 Patriotism ! he would say, patriotism is the thing ! 
 any man that s too proud to serve his country aint fit to 
 live. Some thinks so much o themselves, that if they 
 can t have jist what they think they re fit for, they won t 
 take nothin; but for my part, / call myself an American 
 citizen ; and any office that s in the gift o the people 
 will suit me. I m up to any thing. And as there aint 
 no other man about here, no suitable man, I mean, 
 that s got a horse, why I d be willing to be constable, 
 if the people s a mind to, though it would be a dead loss 
 to me in my business to be sure ; but I could do any thing 
 for my country. Hurra for patriotism ! them s my sen 
 timents. 
 
 It can scarcely be doubted that Mr. Jenkins became a 
 very popular citizen, or that he usually played a conspicu- 
 23* 
 
270 A NEW HOME, 
 
 ous part at the polls. Offices began to fall to his share, 
 and though they were generally such as brought more 
 honor than profit, office is office, and Mr. Jenkins did not 
 grumble. Things were going on admirably. 
 
 The spoils of office glitter in his eyes, 
 He climbs, he pants, he grasps them 
 
 or thought he was just going to grasp them, when, presto ! 
 he found himself in the minority ; the wheel of fortune 
 turned, and Mr. Jenkins and his party were left undermost. 
 Here was a dilemma! His zeal in the public service was 
 ardent as ever, but how could he get a chance to show it 
 unless his party was in power ? His resolution was soon 
 taken. He called his friends together, mounted a stump 
 which had fortunately been left standing not far from the 
 door of his shop, and then and there gave reasons for my 
 ratting in terms sublime enough for any meridian. 
 
 My friends and feller-citizens, said this self-sacrificing 
 patriot, I find myself conglomerated in such a way, that 
 my feelins suffers severely. I m sitivated in a peculiar 
 sitivation. one side, I see my dear friends, pussonal 
 friends friends, that s stuck to me like wax, through 
 thick and thin, never shinny in off and on, but up to the 
 scratch, and no mistake. O t other side I behold my 
 country, my bleedin country, the land that fetch d me 
 into this world o trouble. Now, since things be as they 
 be, and can t be no otherways as I see, I feel kind o 
 screwed into an auger-hole to know what to do. If I hunt 
 over the history of the universal world from the creation 
 of man to the present day, I see that men has always had 
 difficulties ; and that some has took one way to get shut 
 of em, and some another. My candid and unrefragable 
 opinion is, that rather than remain useless, buckled down 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 271 
 
 to the shop, and indulging in selfishness, it is my solemn 
 dooty to change my ticket. It is severe, my friends, but 
 dooty is dooty. And now, if any man calls me a turn 
 coat, continued the orator, gently spitting in his hands, 
 rubbing them together, and rolling his eyes round the 
 assembly, all I say is, let him say it so that I can 
 hear him. 
 
 The last argument was irresistible, if even the others 
 might have brooked discussion, for Mr. Jenkins stands six 
 feet two in his stockings, when he wears any, and gesticu 
 lates with a pair of arms as long and muscular as Rob 
 Roy s. So, though the audience did not cheer him, they 
 contented themselves with dropping off one by one, without 
 calling in question the patriotism of the rising statesman. 
 
 The very next election saw Mr. Jenkins justice of the 
 peace, and it was in this honorable capacity that I have 
 made most of my acquaintance with him, though we began 
 with threatenings of a storm. He called to take the 
 acknowledgment of a deed, and I, anxious for my country s 
 honor, for I too am something of a patriot in my own way, 
 took the liberty of pointing out to his notice a trifling slip 
 of the pen ; videlicet, Justas of Piece, which manner of 
 writing those words I informed him had gone out of 
 fashion. 
 
 He reddened, looked at me very sharp for a moment, 
 and then said he thanked me : but subjoined, 
 
 Book-learning is a good thing enough where there 
 aint too much of it. For my part, I Ve seen a good 
 many that know d books that did n t know much else. 
 The proper cultivation and edication of the human intellect 
 has been the comprehensive study of the human under 
 standing from the original creation of the universal world 
 
272 A NEW HOME, 
 
 to the present day, and there has been a good many ways 
 tried besides book-learning. Not but what that s very 
 well in its place. 
 
 And the justice took his leave with somewhat of a 
 swelling air. But we are excellent friends, notwithstand 
 ing this hard rub ; and Mr. Jenkins favors me now and 
 then with half an hour s conversation, when he has had 
 leisure to read up for the occasion in an odd volume of 
 the Cyclopedia, which holds an honored place in a corner 
 of his shop. He ought in fairness, to give me previous 
 notice, that I might study the dictionary a little, for the 
 hard words with which he arms himself for these keen 
 encounters, often push me to the very limits of my English. 
 
 I ought to add, that Mr. Jenkins has long since left off 
 gambling, drinking, and all other vices of that class, except 
 smoking ; in this point he professes to be incorrigible. But 
 as his wife, who is one of the nicest women in the world, 
 and manages him admirably, pretends to like the smell 
 of tobacco, and takes care never to look at him when he 
 disfigures her well-scoured floor, I am not without hopes 
 of his thorough reformation. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 273 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 Dandin. Ta, ta, ta, ta. Voila bien instruire une affaire! 
 A-t-on jamais plaid6 d une telle mthode? 
 Mais qu en dit l : assemble ? 
 ***** 
 Ma foi! je n y concois plus rien, 
 De monde, de chaos, j ai la tte troublee, 
 He ! concluez. 
 
 RACINE LES PLAIDEURS. 
 
 IT was an honor that I dreamed not of, to be called 
 before this same Squire Jenkins in his dignified capacity 
 of Justas. I had not even heard a murmur of the 
 coming storm, when I was served with a subpoena, and 
 learned at the same time the astounding fact, that at least 
 half the Montacute Female Beneficent Society were about 
 to receive a shilling s worth of law on the same occasion. 
 A justice court! 
 
 My flesh d ; .d creep, and each particular hair 
 Did stand on end 
 
 but there was no remedy. 
 
 The court was to be held at the squire s, and as Mrs. 
 Jenkins was a particular friend of mine, I went early, 
 intending to make her a call before the awful hour should 
 approach, and hoping that in the interval I might be able 
 to learn something of the case in which I was expected 
 to play the important part of witness. 
 
 But good Mrs. Jenkins, who was in her Sunday gown 
 and looked very solemn, considered herself bound to main 
 tain an official mysteriousness of deportment, and she 
 
274 ANEW HOME, 
 
 therefore declined entering upon the subject which was so 
 soon to come under the cognizance of the good people 
 of this State. All she would be persuaded to say was, 
 that it was a slander suit, and that she believed women 
 folks were at the bottom of it. 
 
 But ere long the more prominent characters of the 
 drama began to drop in. Mrs. Flyter and her old man, 
 and two babies were among the first, and the lady looked 
 so prodigiously sulky, that I knew she was concerned in 
 the fray at least. Then entered Squire Jenkins himself, 
 clean shaved for once, and arrayed in his meetin coat. He 
 asked his wife where the pen and ink was, and said he 
 should want some paper to write down the dispositions. 
 
 And the next comer was the plaintiff, the Schneider 
 of our village, no Robin Starveling he, but a magnificent 
 Hector-looking fellow, tall enough to .have commanded 
 Frederick of Prussia s crack regiment ; and so elegantly 
 made, that one finds it hard to believe his legs have ever 
 been crossed on a shop-board. The beetle-brows of this 
 stitching hero were puckered like the seams of his newest 
 prentice, and he cast magnanimous glances round the 
 assembly, as who should say 
 
 Come one, come all! this rock shall fly 
 From its firm base as soon I! 
 
 Though the rock was but slenderly represented by Mrs. 
 Jenkins s bureau, against which he leaned. 
 
 The world now began to flock in. The chairs were soon 
 filled, and then the outer edges of the two beds. Three 
 young pickles occupied the summit of the bureau, to the 
 imminent jeopardy of the mirrored clock which shone 
 above it. Boards were laid to eke out the chairs, and 
 when the room was packed so that not a chink remained, 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 275 
 
 a sensation was created by the appearance of Mrs. Nippers 
 and Miss Clinch. Much turning out and tumbling over 
 was now to be done, although those active ladies appeared 
 less than usually desirous of attracting attention. 
 
 All was at length ready, and the squire opened the 
 court by blowing his nose without calling upon his pocket 
 handkerchief. 
 
 What was my surprise when I learned that our most 
 magnanimous mouse, Mr. Shafton, the tailor, had been 
 set down a thief; and that Mr. Flyter had been called 
 on, by the majesty of law, to answer for the calumny; 
 not that he had ever thought of bringing such a charge 
 against his neighbor, for he was a silent man, who always 
 had his mouth too full of tobacco to utter slander, or 
 anything else ; but that his lady, on a certain occasion 
 where women had convened in aid of one of the afflicted 
 sisterhood, had, most imprudently, as she said herself, 
 given vent to certain angry feelings towards Mr. Shafton, 
 * in manner as aforesaid. To think of bringing a woman 
 into trouble for what she happened to say after tea ! I 
 began to consider Mr. Shafton as no more than the ninth 
 part of a man after all. 
 
 Things went on very quietly for a while. The dispo 
 sitions occupied a good deal of time, and a vast amount 
 of paper ; the scribe finding the pen less germain to his 
 fingers than the plough, and making his lines bear no small 
 resemblance to the furrows made by a breaking-up team. 
 But when the ladies began to figure on the stage, the 
 aspect of affairs was altered. Each wished to tell the 
 truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth ; and 
 to ask one question, elicited never less than one dozen 
 answers ; the said answers covering a much larger ground 
 
276 A NEW HOME, 
 
 than the suit itself, and bring forward the private affairs 
 and opinions of half the village. In vain did Mr. Jenkins 
 roar silence ! his injuctions only made the ladies angry, 
 and of course gave their tongues a fresh impetus. 
 
 Cabbage ! yes, you said he took a quarter of a yard of 
 satinett, and that that was as bad as stealing ! Yes ! and 
 then Miss Flyter said he did steal cloth, and thread and 
 buttons too ! Well, Miss Nippers told me so, and she 
 said she see a chair-cushion at Miss Shafton s, that was 
 made all out of great pieces of fulled cloth ! Who ? I ? 
 0, mercy ! I do n t believe I ever said such a word ! 0, 
 you did, you did ! I m willin to take my afferdavy of it ! 
 Silence ! vociferated Squire Jenkins. Ladies, began 
 Mr. Phlatt, the plaintiff s counsel, if you would wait a 
 minute 
 
 In vain alas! in vain, ye gallant few I 
 
 In vain do you essay to control 
 
 The force of female lungs, 
 Sighs, sobs and passions, and the war of tongues. 
 
 And Mr. Phlatt sat down in despair, looked out of the 
 window, and drummed on the table with his fingers, as 
 if to pass away the time till he could be heard. . 
 
 Squire Jenkins, who was but newly dignified, and did 
 not like to proceed to extremities, now adjourned the court 
 for one hour, a recess much needed by the exhausted 
 state of some of the witnesses. During this interval, 
 and while the wordy war was waxing stronger and 
 stronger, Mr. Flyter and Mr. Shafton very wisely withdrew, 
 and in less than five minutes returned, and informed the 
 company that they had settled it. Mr. Flyter was to pay 
 Mr. Shafton three dollars and fifty cents worth of lumber 
 for big character, with costs of suit ; and Mrs. Flyter was 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 277 
 
 to unsay all she had said, and confess that three yards 
 of satinett for a pair of pantaloons, would leave the tailor 
 no more than his regular cabbage. 
 
 So here was four hours time of something near thirty 
 people spent to good purpose in chasing a will-o -the-wisp. 
 And Montacute sees equally important suits at law every 
 few weeks ; expensive enough, if settled midway as 
 they often are, between the parties themselves ; still more 
 so if left to pursue the regular course, and be decided by 
 the justice. 
 
 The intelligence of the settlement was received with 
 various aspects by the persons concerned. The counsel 
 on both sides were of course disappointed, for they had 
 calculated largely upon the spunk of the splendid-looking 
 son of the shears, and had counted on a jury -trial at least, 
 if not an appeal. Mrs. Flyter was evidently much relieved 
 to find that she had come off so easily ; and sundry other 
 ladies, who had been trembling under the consciousness 
 of conversational sins un whipped of justice, shawled 
 and india-rubbered with more than usual alacrity, and 
 I doubt not made vows sincere, whether well-kept or not, 
 to let their neighbors business alone for some time. 
 
 Mr. Jenkins was evidently disappointed at the tame 
 result of so much glorious preparation. He had made 
 up his own mind on the first statement of the case, and had 
 prepared his decision, with the addition of a concise view 
 of the universe from chaos to the present day. But that 
 will do for the next time, and he will not be obliged 
 to reserve it long. Bartholine Saddletree himself would 
 weary of the never-ending, still-beginning law-pleas of 
 Montacute. Bad fences, missing dogs, unruly cattle, pigs 
 ears, and women s tongues, are among the most prolific 
 24 
 
278 A NEW HOME, 
 
 sources of litigation ; to say nothing of the satisfactory 
 amount of business which is created by the collection 
 of debts, a matter of glorious uncertainty in Michigan. 
 These suits are so frequent, that they pass as part and 
 parcel of the regular course of things ; and you would 
 find it impossible to persuade a thorough-bred Wolverine, 
 that there was anything unfriendly in suing his next-door 
 neighbor for a debt of however trifling amount. 
 
 Actions for trespass and for slander are rather more 
 enjoyed, as being somewhat less frequent ; but anything 
 like a trial will always be enough to keep half a dozen 
 unconcerned people idle for a day or more. 
 
 Mr. Shafton s spirited defence of his fair fame will, I see 
 plainly, prove a lasting benefit to the talking sex of Monta- 
 cute. It is perfectly incredible how much was done and 
 how little said at the last week s meeting of the Female 
 Beneficent Society. Mrs. Nippers to be sure had the ague, 
 and did her chattering at home, and Miss Clinch staid to 
 take care of her, as in duty bound. But I think that alone 
 would not account for the difference. We shall see next 
 week. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW7 2*79 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 See ! sae close as they re written down to the very seal ! and a to save 
 p ostage ! 
 
 ANTIQUARY. 
 
 Ant. We sent our schoolmaster 
 Is he come back? 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. 
 
 I HAVE departed from all rule and precedent in these 
 wandering sketches of mine. I believe I set out, a great 
 many pages ago, to tell of the interesting changes, the pro 
 gressive improvements in this model of a village of ours. 
 My intention, as far as I had any, was to convey to the 
 patient reader some general idea of our way of life in these 
 remote arid forgotten corners of creation. But I think I 
 have discovered that the bent of my genius is altogether 
 towards digression. Association leads me like a will-o -the- 
 wisp. I can no more resist following a new train of 
 thought, than a coquette the encouraging of a new lover at 
 the expense of all the old ones, though often equally con 
 scious that the old are most valuable. This attempt to 
 write one long coherent letter about Montacute, has at least 
 been useful in convincing me that History is not my forte. 
 I give up the attempt in despair, and lower my ambition to 
 the collection of scattered materials for the use of the future 
 compiler of Montacutian annals. 
 
 Yet it seems strange, even to my desultory self, how I 
 could have passed in silence the establishment of a weekly 
 
280 ANEWHOME, 
 
 mail, that sweetener of our long delicious winter evenings 
 that rich atonement for all that we lack of fresh scandal 
 and new news. Since this treasure was ours, I have learned 
 to pity most sincerely those who get their letters and papers 
 at all sorts of unexpected and irregular times ; a shower of 
 scattering fire, feeble and ineffectual a dropping in at all 
 hours, seasonable and unseasonable, like some classes of 
 visiters ; coming often when one s mood is anything but 
 congenial ; and sure to stay away when one longs for com 
 pany gay ones intruding when we are determined to be 
 blue and miserable, and sad ones casting their long shadows 
 on our few sunny hours. 
 
 But a weekly mail ! a budget that one waits and gets 
 ready for ; a regularly-recurring delight, an unfailing 
 pleasure, (how few such have we !) hours, nay days, of 
 delicious anticipation sure harvest of past care and toil, an 
 inundation of happiness ! Let no one think he has exhaust 
 ed all the sources of enjoyment till he has lived in the 
 back- woods and learned to expect a weekly mail with his 
 lap-full of letters and its tumulus of papers ; a feast 
 enjoyed by anticipation for a whole week previous, and 
 affording ample materials for resumees for that which 
 succeeds. 
 
 This pleasure has become so sacred in my eyes, that 
 nothing vexes me so intolerably as seeing our lanky mail- 
 bags dangling over the bony sides of Major Bean s lame 
 Canadian, and bestridden and over-shadowed by the portly 
 form of the one-eyed Major himself, trotting or rather hob 
 bling down Main-street on some intermediate and unpre 
 meditated day. Men of business are so disagreeable and 
 inconsiderate ! To think of any body s sending fourteen 
 interminable miles over bush and bog to B***, up hill both 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 2gl 
 
 ways, as every one knows, just to learn the price of flour 
 or salt three days sooner, and thereby spoiling the rest of 
 the week, leaving an objectless blank where was befojre a 
 delicious chaos of hopes ; substituting dull certainty for the 
 exquisite flutterings of that sort of doubt which leaves us 
 after all quite sure of a happy result. I have often thought 
 T would not open the treasures which reached me in this 
 unauthorized, over-the-wall sort of way. I have declared 
 that I would not have Saturday evening spoiled and the 
 next week made ten days long. But this proper and 
 becoming spirit has never proved quite strong enough to 
 bear me through so keen a trial of all feminine qualities. 
 One must be more or less than woman to endure the sight 
 of unopened letters longer than it takes to find the scissors. 
 I doubt whether Griselidis herself would not have blenched 
 at such a requisition, especially if she had been transplanted 
 to the wilderness, and left behind hosts of friends, as well 
 as many other very comfortable things. 
 
 Another, subject of the last interest which I have as yet 
 .wholly neglected, is the new school -house, a gigantic step 
 in the march of improvement. This, in truth, I should 
 have mentioned long ago, if I could have found anything to 
 say about it. It has caused an infinity of feuds, made 
 mortal enemies of two brothers, and separated at least one 
 pair of partners. But the subject has been exhausted, 
 worn to shreds in my hearing ; and whenever I have 
 thought of searching for an end of the tangled clew, in 
 order to open its mazes for the benefit of all future school- 
 committees and their constituency, I have felt that every 
 possible view of the case had been appropriated, and there 
 fore must be borrowed or stolen for the occasion. I might 
 indeed have given a description of the building as it now 
 24* 
 
282 A NEW HOME, 
 
 smiles upon me from the opposite side of the public square. 
 But the reader may imagine St. Paul s, St. Peter s, the Parthe 
 non, the Mosque of Sophia, or any edifice of that character, 
 and then think of the Montacute school-house as something 
 inexpressibly different, and he will have as good an idea of 
 it as I could give him in half a page. I think it resembles 
 the Temple of the Winds more nearly than any other 
 ancient structure I have read of; at least, I have often 
 thought so in cold weather, when I have beguiled the hours 
 of a long sermon by peeping through the cracks at the drift 
 ing snow ; but it is built of unplaned oak-boards, and has no 
 underpinning ; and the stove-pipe, sticking out of one win 
 dow, looks rather modern ; so the likeness might not strike 
 every body. 
 
 The school-ma am, Miss Cleora Jenkins, I have elsewhere 
 introduced to the reader. From April till October, she 
 sways the rod of empire ; and truly may it be said, 
 
 There through the summer-day 
 Green boughs are waving, 
 
 though I believe she picks the leaves off, as tending to 
 defeat the ends of justice. Even the noon-spell shines no 
 holiday for the luckless subjects of her domination, for she 
 carries her bread and pickles rolled up in her pocket-hand 
 kerchief, and lunches where she rules, reading the while 
 The Children of the Abbey, which took her all sum 
 mer, and making one of the large girls comb her hair by 
 the hour. 
 
 During the snowy, blowy, wheezy, and freezy Tmonths, 
 the chair has been taken not filled by Mr. Cyrus 
 Whicher, not Switcher, a dignitary who had boarded 
 round till there was very little of him left. 1 have been 
 told, that when he first bore the birch, in his own hand I 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 283 
 
 mean, he was of a portly and rather stolid exterior ; had 
 good teeth and flowing locks ; but he was, when I knew 
 him, a mere cuticle a skellinton, as Mr. Weller would 
 say shaped like a starved greyhound in the collapsed 
 stage, his very eyes faded to the color of the skim-milk, 
 which has doubtless constituted his richest potation since 
 he attained the empty honors of a district school. 
 
 When he came under my care, in the course of his 
 unhappy gyrations, I did my best to fatten him ; and, to 
 do him justice, his efforts were not lacking : but one cannot 
 make much progress in one week, even in cramming a 
 turkey poult, and he went as ethereal as he came. 
 
 One additional reason for his lean and hungry looks I 
 thought I discovered in his gnawing curiosity of soul I 
 suppose it would be more polite to say, his burning thirst 
 for knowledge. When he first glided into my one only 
 parlor, I asked him to sit down, expecting to hear his bones 
 rattle as he did so. To my astonishment he noticed not my 
 civility, but gazing on the wall as who should say 
 
 Look yoii, how pale he glares! 
 
 he stood as one transfixed. 
 
 At length Whose profile is that ? he exclaimed, point 
 ing to a portrait of my dear, cheerful-looking grand-mamma 
 a half-length, by Waldo. 
 
 I told all about it, as I thought, but left room for a 
 dozen questions at least, as to her relationship whether by 
 father s or mother s side her age when the picture was 
 taken, &c. &c. ; and Mr. Whicher s concluding remark, as 
 he doubled up to sit down, was 
 
 1 Well ! she s a dreadful sober-lookin old critter, aint 
 she now ? But ere he touched the chair, he opened again 
 
284 ANEWHOME, 
 
 like a folded rule out of a case of instruments, and stood 
 erect, save head and shoulders. 
 
 Is that a pi-anner ? he asked with a sort of chuckle of 
 delight. Well ! I heard you had one, but I did n t hardly 
 believe it. And what s this thing ? twirling the music- 
 stool with all his might, and getting down on his poor 
 knees to look underneath both these curiosities. 
 
 Jest play on it, will ye ! 
 
 Dinner is ready, Mr. Whicher : I will play afterwards/ 
 
 He balanced for one moment between inanition and 
 curiosity ; then, with his head over his shoulder turn d, 
 he concluded to defer pleasure to business. He finished 
 his meal by the time others had fairly begun ; and then 
 throwing himself back in his chair, said, I m ready when 
 ever you be. 
 
 I could not do less than make all possible speed, and 
 Mr. Whicher sat entranced until he was late for school : 
 not so much listening to the tinkling magic, as prying into 
 the nature and construction of the instrument, which he 
 thought must have taken a good bunch of cypherin. 
 
 That week s sojourn added a good deal to the school 
 master s stores of knowledge. He scraped a little of the 
 crystalized green off my inkstand to find out how it was 
 put on ; pulled up a corner of the parlor-carpet, to see 
 whether it was wove like a bed-spread ; whether it was 
 over-shot or under-shot ; and not content with ascertain 
 ing by personal inspection the construction of every article 
 which was new to him, he pumped dry every member 
 of the household, as to their past mode of life, future 
 prospects, opinion of the country, religious views, and 
 thoughts on every imaginable subject. I began to feel 
 
" And what s this thing" twirling the music stool with, all his 
 might, and getting down on his poor knees to look under neath 
 both these curiosities." p. 284 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 285 
 
 croupish before he left us, from having talked myself 
 quite out. 
 
 One of his habits struck me as rather peculiar. He 
 never saw a letter or a sealed paper of any kind that he 
 did not deliberately try every possible method, by peeping, 
 squeezing, and poking, to get at its contents. I at first 
 set this down as something which denoted a more than 
 usually mean and dishonest curiosity ; but after I had 
 seen the same operation performed in my presence without 
 the least hesitation or apology, by a reverend gentleman 
 of high reputation, I concluded that the poor schoolmaster 
 had at least some excuse for his ill-breeding. 
 
 Mr. Whicher had his own troubles last winter. A 
 scholar of very equivocal, or rather unequivocal character, 
 claimed admission to the school, and, of all concerned, not 
 one had courage or firmness to object to her reception. 
 She was the daughter of a fierce, quarrelsome man, who 
 had already injured, either by personal abuse, or by vexa 
 tious litigation, half the people in the place ; and though 
 all detested her, and dreaded contamination for their 
 daughters, not a voice was raised not a girl removed 
 from the school. This cowardly submission to open and 
 public wrong seems hardly credible ; but I have observed 
 it in many other instances, and it has, in most cases, 
 appeared to arise from a distrust in the protecting power 
 of the law, which has certainly been hitherto most imper 
 fectly and irregularly administered in Michigan. People 
 suppress their just indignation at many abuses, from 
 a. fear that they may get into trouble ; i. e. be haled 
 before an ignorant justice of the peace, who will be quite 
 as likely to favor the wrong as the right, as interest or 
 prejudice may chance to incline him. Thus a bad man, 
 
286 ANEWHOME, 
 
 if he have only the requisite boldness, may trample on the 
 feelings, and disturb the peace of a whole community. 
 
 When Hannah Parsons applied for admission to the 
 district school, Mr. Which er made such objections as he 
 dared in his timidity. He thought she was too old her 
 mother said she was not nineteen, though she had a son 
 of two years and upwards. And she did not wish to 
 study anything but arithmetic and writing ; so that there 
 could be no objection as to classes. And the wretched 
 girl forced herself into the ranks of the young and innocent, 
 for what purpose or end I never could divine. 
 
 From this hour the unfortunate Whicher was her victim. 
 She began by showing him the most deferential attention, 
 watching his looks, and asking his aid in the most trivial 
 matters ; wanting her pen mended twenty times in the 
 course of one copy, and insisting upon the school-master s 
 showing her again and again exactly how it should be held. 
 She never went to school without carrying a tribute of 
 some sort, a custard, or an apple, apples are something 
 with us, or a geranium leaf at least. Now these offerings 
 are so common among school- children, that the wretched 
 master, though writhing with disgust, knew not how to 
 refuse them, and his life wore away under the anguish 
 inflicted by his tormentor. 
 
 At length it was whispered that Hannah Parsons would 
 again bring to the eye of day a living evidence of her 
 shame ; and the unfortunate schoolmaster saw himself the 
 victim of a conspiracy. 
 
 It needed but this to complete his distraction. He fled 
 in imbecile despair ; and after the wonder had died away, 
 and the scandal had settled on the right head, we heard 
 no word of the innocent pedagogue for a long time. But 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 287 
 
 after that came news, that Cyrus Whicher, in the wretched 
 ness of his poverty, had joined a gang of idlers and despe 
 radoes who had made a vow against honest industry ; and 
 it is not now very long since we learned that he had the 
 honor of being hanged at Toronto as a Patriot/ 
 
288 A NEW HOME, 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 Go with speed 
 
 To some forlorn and naked hermitage, 
 Remote from all the pleasures of the world ; 
 There stay until the twelve celestial signs 
 Have brought about their annual reckoning. 
 
 If this austere, insociable life 
 
 If frosts and fasts, hard lodging and thin weeds 
 Nip not the gaudy blossoms of your pride 
 
 LOVE S LABOR LOST. 
 
 They wear themselves in the cap of time there; do muster true gait, eat, 
 Bpeak, and move, under the influence of the most received star; and though 
 the devil lead the measure, such are to be followed. 
 
 ALL S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. 
 
 ONE must come quite away from the conveniences and 
 refined indulgences of civilized life to know any thing about 
 them. To be always inundated with comforts is but too 
 apt to make us proud, selfish, and ungrateful. The mind s 
 health, as well as the body s, is promoted by occasional 
 privation or abstinence. Many a sour-faced grumbler I 
 wot of, would be marvellously transformed by a year s 
 residence in the woods, or even in a Michigan village of as 
 high pretensions as Montacute. If it were not for casting 
 a sort of dishonor on a country life, turning into a magnifi 
 cent beterinhaus these 
 
 Haunts of deer, 
 
 And lanes in which the primrose ere her time 
 Peeps through the moss, 
 
 I should be disposed to recommend a course of Michigan to 
 the Sybarites, the puny exquisites, the world-worn and 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 289 
 
 sated Epicureans of our cities. If I mistake not, they 
 would make surprising advances in philosophy in the course 
 of a few months training. I should not be severe either. 
 I should not require them to come in their strictly natural 
 condition as featherless bipeds. I would allow them to 
 bring many a comfort nay, even some real luxuries ; 
 books, for instance, and a reasonable supply of New York 
 Safety-Fund notes, the most tempting form which world s 
 gear can possibly assume for our western, wild-cat-wear 
 ied eyes. I would grant to each neophyte a ready-made 
 loggery, a garden fenced with tamarack poles, and ever-y 
 facility and convenience which is now enjoyed by the better 
 class of our settlers, yet I think I might after all hope to 
 send home a reasonable proportion of my subjects com 
 pletely cured, sane for life. 
 
 I have in the course of these detached and desultory 
 chapters, hinted at various deficiencies and peculiarities, 
 which strike, with rather unpleasant force, the new resident 
 in the back- woods ; but it would require volumes to enu 
 merate all the cases in which the fastidiousness, the taste, 
 the pride, the self-esteem of the refined child of civilization, 
 must be wounded by a familiar intercourse with the persons 
 among whom he will find himself thrown, in the ordinary 
 course of rural life. He is continually reminded in how 
 great a variety of particulars his necessities, his materials 
 ,for comfort, and his sources of pain, are precisely those of 
 the humblest of his neighbors. The humblest did I say ? 
 He will find that he has no humble neighbors. He will 
 very soon discover, that in his new sphere, no act of kind 
 ness, no offer of aid, will be considered as anything short 
 of insult, if the least suspicion of condescension peep out. 
 Equality, perfect and practical, is the sine qua non ; and 
 25 
 
200 A NEW HOME, 
 
 any appearance of a desire to avoid this rather trying fra 
 ternization, is invariably met by a fierce and indignant 
 resistance. The spirit in which was conceived the motto 
 of the French revolution, La fraternite ou la mort, exists 
 in full force among us, though modified as to results. In 
 cities we bestow charity in the country we can only 
 exchange kind offices, nominally at least. If you are per 
 fectly well aware that your nearest neighbor has not tasted 
 meat in a month, nor found in his pocket the semblance 
 of a shilling to purchase it, you must not be surprised, 
 when you have sent him a piece, to receive for reply, 
 
 ! your pa wants to change, does he ? Well, you may 
 put it down. And this without the remotest idea that the 
 time for repayment ever will arrive, but merely to avoid 
 saying I thank you/ a phrase especially eschewed, so far 
 as I have had opportunity to observe. 
 
 This same republican spirit is evinced rather amusingly, 
 in the reluctance to admire, or even to approve, any thing 
 like luxury or convenience which is not in common use 
 among the settlers. Your carpets are spoken of as one 
 way to hide dirt ; your mahogany tables as dreadful 
 plaguy to scour ; your kitchen conveniences, as lumberin 
 up the house for nothin ; and so on to the end of the chap 
 ter. One lady informed me, that if she had such a pantry 
 full of dishes, under which general term is included every 
 variety of china, glass and earthenware, she should set up, 
 store, and sell them off pretty quick, 3 for she would not 
 be plagued with them. Another, giving a slighting 
 glance at a French mirror of rather unusual dimensions, 
 larger by two-thirds, I verily believe, than she had ever 
 seen, remarked, that would be quite a nice glass, if the 
 frame was done over. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 291 
 
 Others take up the matter reprovingly. They do n t 
 think it right to spend money so; they think, too, that 
 pride never did nobody no good ; and some will go so far 
 as to suggest modes of disposing of your superfluities. 
 
 Any body that s got so many dresses, might afford to 
 give away half on em ; or I should think you d got so 
 much land, you might give a poor man a lot, and never 
 miss it. A store of any thing, however simple or neces 
 sary, is, as I have elsewhere observed, a subject of re 
 proach, if you decline supplying whomsoever may be 
 deficient. 
 
 This simplification of life, this bringing down the transac 
 tions of daily intercourse to the original principles of society, 
 is neither very eagerly adopted, nor very keenly relished, 
 by those who have been accustomed to the politer atmos 
 pheres. They rebel most determinedly, at first. They 
 perceive that the operation of the golden rule, in circum 
 stances where it is all give on one side, and all take on the 
 other, must necessarily be rather severe ; and they declare 
 manfully against all impertinent intrusiveness. But, sooth 
 to say, there are in the country so many ways of being 
 made uncomfortable by one s most insignificant enemy, that 
 it is soon discovered that warfare is even more costly than 
 submission. 
 
 And all this forms part of the schooling which I propose 
 for my spoiled child of refined civilization. And although 
 many of these remarks and requisitions of our unpolished 
 neighbors are unreasonable an absurd enough, yet some of 
 them commend themselves to our better feelings in such a 
 sort, that we find ourselves ashamed to refuse what it 
 seemed at first impertinent to ask ; and after the barriers of 
 pride and prejudice are once broken, we discover a certain 
 
292 A NEW HOME, 
 
 satisfaction in this homely fellowship with our kind, which 
 goes far towards repaying whatever sacrifices or concessions 
 we may have been induced to make. This has its limits of 
 course ; and one cannot help observing that levelling up 
 wards is much more congenial to human natur, than 
 levelling downwards. The man who thinks you ought to 
 spare him a piece of ground for a garden, because you have 
 more than he thinks you need, would be far from sharing 
 with his poorer neighbor the superior advantages of his lot. 
 He would tell him to work for them as he had done. 
 
 But then there are, in the one case, some absolute and 
 evident superfluities, according to the primitive estimate of 
 these regions ; in the other, none. The doll of Fortune, who 
 may cast a languid eye on this homely page, from the 
 luxurious depths of a velvet-cushioned library-chair, can 
 scarce be expected to conceive how natural it may be, for 
 those who possess nothing beyond the absolute requisites of 
 existence, to look with a certain degree of envy on the extra 
 comforts which seem to cluster round the path of another ; 
 and to feel as if a little might well be spared, where so 
 much would still be left. To the tenant of a log-cabin 
 whose family, whatever be its numbers, must burrow in a 
 single room, while a bed or two, a chest, a table, and a 
 wretched handful of cooking utensils, form the chief mate- 
 terials of comfort, an ordinary house, small and plain it may 
 be, yet amply supplied, looks like the very home of luxury. 
 The woman who owns but a suit a-piece for herself and her 
 children, considers the possession of an abundant though 
 simple and inexpensive wardrobe, as needless extravagance ; 
 and we must scarcely blame her too severely, if she should 
 be disposed to condemn as penurious, any reluctance to 
 supply her pressing need, though she may have no shadow 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 293 
 
 of claim on us beyond that which arises from her being a 
 daughter of Eve. We look at the matter from opposite 
 points of view. Her light shows her very plainly, as she 
 thinks, what is our Christian duty ; we must take care that 
 ours does not exhibit too exclusively her envy and her im 
 pertinence. 
 
 The inequalities in the distribution of the gifts of fortune 
 are not greater in the country than in town, but the con 
 trary ; yet circumstances render them more offensive to the 
 less favored class. The denizens of the crowded alleys and 
 swarming lofts of our great cities see, it is true, the lofty 
 mansions, the splendid equipages of the wealthy but they 
 are seldom or never brought into contact or collision with 
 the owners of these glittering advantages. And the ex 
 treme width of the great gulf between, is almost a barrier, 
 even to all-reaching envy. But in the ruder stages of 
 society, where no one has yet begun to expend any thing 
 for show, the difference lies chiefly in the ordinary requisites 
 of comfort ; and this comes home at once to men s business 
 and bosoms. The keenness of their appreciation, and the 
 strength of their envy, bear a direct proportion to the real 
 value of the objects of their desire ; and when they are in 
 habits of entire equality and daily familiarity with those 
 who own ten or twenty times as much of the materiel of 
 earthly enjoyment as themselves, it is surely natural, how 
 ever provoking, that they should not be studious to veil 
 their longings after a share of the good which has been so 
 bounteously showered upon their neighbors. 
 
 I am only making a sort of apology for the foibles of my 
 rustic friends. I cannot say that I feel much respect for any 
 thing which looks like a willingness to live at others cost, 
 save as a matter of the last necessity. 
 
294 A NEW HOME, 
 
 I was adverting to a certain unreservedness of communi 
 cation on these points, as often bringing wholesome and 
 much needed instruction home to those whom prosperity 
 and indulgence may have rendered unsympathizing, or 
 neglectful of the kindly feelings which are among the best 
 ornaments of our nature. 
 
 But I am aware that I have already been adventurous, 
 far beyond the bounds of prudence. To hint that it may 
 be better not to cultivate too far that haughty spirit of ex- 
 clusiveness which is the glory of the fashionable world, is, I 
 know, hazardous in the extreme. I have not so far forgot 
 ten the rules of the sublime clique as not to realize, that in 
 acknowledging even a leaning toward the vulgar side, I 
 place myself forever beyond its pale. But I am now a 
 denizen of the wild woods in my view, no mean city to 
 own as one s home ; and I feel no ambition to aid in the 
 formation of a Montacute aristocracy, for which an ample 
 field is now open, and all the proper materials are at hand. 
 What lack we ? Several of us have as many as three cows ; 
 some few, carpets and shanty-kitchens ; and one or two, 
 pianofortes and silver tea-sets. I myself, as dame de la 
 seigneurie, have had secret thoughts of an astral lamp ; but 
 even if I should go so far, I am resolved not to be either 
 vain-glorious or over-bearing, although this kind of supe 
 riority forms the usual ground for exclusiveness. I shall 
 visit my neighbors just as usual, and take care not to say a 
 single word about dipped candles, if I can possibly help it. 
 
WHO LL FOLLOW? 20f 
 
 CHAPTER XLVII. 
 
 Why, then, a final note prolong, 
 Or lengthen out a closing song? 
 
 THE growth of our little secluded village has been so 
 gradual, its prosperity so moderate, and its attempts 
 so unambitious, that during the whole three years which 
 have flown since it knew the magic of a name, not a 
 single event has occurred which would have been deemed 
 worthy of record by any one but a midge-fancier like 
 myself. Our brief annals boast not yet one page, enlivened 
 by those attractive words, prodigious undertaking ! bril 
 liant success ! splendid fortune ! race of enterprise ! 
 march of improvement ! cultivation of taste ! triumph 
 of art ! design by Vitruvius ! unequalled dome ! pin 
 nacle of glory ! Alas ! the mere enumeration of these 
 magnificent expressions makes our insignificance seem 
 doubly insignificant ! like the joke of our school-days 
 Soared aloft on eagles wings then fell flat down, on 
 father s wood-pile. Irredeemably little are we ; unless, 
 which Heaven forefend ! a rail-road stray our way. We 
 must content ourselves with grinding the grists, trimming 
 the bonnets, mending the ploughs, and schooling the chil 
 dren, of a goodly expanse of wheat-fields, with such other 
 odd jobs as may come within the abilities of our various 
 Jacks-of-all-trades. We cannot be metropolitan, even in 
 our dreams ; for Turnipdale has secured the County honors. 
 
A NEW HOME, 
 
 We cannot hope to be literary ; for all the colleges which 
 are to be tolerated in Michigan, are already located. The 
 State-Prison favors Jacksonsburg ; the salt-works some 
 undistinguished place at the north-east; what is left for 
 Montacute ? 
 
 Alas for Tinkerville ! less happy under the cruel blight 
 of her towering hopes, than we in our humble notelessness. 
 She rose like a rocket, only to fall like its stick; and 
 baleful were the stars that signalized her explosion. Mourn 
 ful indeed are the closed windows of her porticoed edifices. 
 The only pleasurable thought which arises in my mind 
 at the mention of her name, is that connected with her 
 whilome president. Mrs. Rivers is coming to spend the 
 summer with Mrs. Daker, while Mr. Rivers departs for 
 Texas with two or three semblables, to attempt the carving 
 out of a new home, where he need not work. I shall 
 have my gentle friend again; and her life will not lack 
 interest, for she brings with her a drooping, delicate baby, 
 to borrow health from the sunny skies and soft breezes 
 of Michigan. 
 
 The Female Beneficent Society grows, by dire experience, 
 chary of news. The only novel idea broached at our last 
 meeting, was that of a nascent tendresse between Mrs. 
 Nippers and Mr. Phlatt, a young lawyer, whose resplen 
 dent tin, graces, within the last month, the side-post 
 of Squire Jenkins s door. I have my doubts. This is one 
 of the cases wherein much may be said on both sides. Mr. 
 Phlatt is certainly a constant visitor at Mrs. Nippers s, but 
 the knowing widow does not live alone. He praises with 
 great fervor Mrs. Nippers s tea and biscuits, but then who 
 could do less? they are so unequivocally perfect and 
 besides, Mr. Phlatt has not access to many such com- 
 
W HO LL FOLLOW? 297 
 
 fortable tea-tables and moreover, when he praises he 
 gazes, but not invariably on Mrs. Nippers. I am not 
 convinced yet. Miss Clinch has a new French calico, 
 couleur de rose, and a pink lining to her Tuscan. And 
 she is young and rather pretty. But then, she has no 
 money ! and Mrs. Nippers has quite a pretty little income 
 the half-pay of her deceased Mr. Nippers, who died of 
 a fever at Sacket s Harbor and Mrs. Nippers has been 
 getting a new dress, just the color of blue-pill, Dr. Teeny 
 says. I waver, but time will bring all things to light. 
 
 Mr. Hastings goes to the Legislature next winter ; and 
 he is beginning to collect materials for a house, which will 
 be as nearly as may be, like his father s summer-palace on 
 the Hudson. But he is in another county, so we do not 
 feel envious. Cora will never be less lovely, nor more ele 
 gant, nor (whispered be it !) more happy than she is in her 
 pretty log-house. And the new house will be within the 
 same belt of maples and walnuts which now encircles the 
 picturesque cottage ; so that the roses and honey-suckles 
 will tell well ; like their fair mistress, graceful and exquisite 
 any where. 
 
 Many new buildings are springing up in Montacute. Mr. 
 Doubleday has ensconced himself and his wife and baby, in 
 a white and green tenement, neat enough even for that 
 queen of housewives; and Betsey, having grown stout, 
 scours the new white-wood floors, a merveille. Loggeries 
 are becoming scarce within our limits, and many of our 
 ladies wear silk dresses on Sunday. We have two physi 
 cians, and two lawyers, or rather one and a half, Squire 
 Jenkins being only an adopted son of Themis. He thought 
 it a pity his gift in the talking line should not be duly use 
 ful to the public, so he acts as advocate, whenever he is 
 
298 ANBWHOMB, &c. 
 
 not on duty as judge, and thereby ekes out his bread and 
 butter, as well as adds to his reputation. And in addition 
 to all the improvements which I have recorded, I may 
 mention that we are building a new meeting-house, and are 
 soon to have a settled minister. 
 
 And now, why do I linger? As some rustic damsel 
 who has, in her simplicity, accepted the hurried Do call 
 when you come to town, of a fine city guest, finds that she 
 has already outstaid the fashionable limit, yet hesitates in 
 her awkwardness when and how to take leave; so I 
 conscious that I have said forth my little say, yet scarce 
 knowing in what style best to make my parting reverence, 
 have prolonged this closing chapter a conclusion wherein 
 nothing is concluded. But such simple and sauntering 
 stories are like Scotch reels, which have no natural ending, 
 save the fatigue of those engaged. So I may as well cut 
 short my mazy dance and resume at once my proper 
 position as a wall flower, with an unceremonious adieu to 
 the kind and courteous reader. 
 
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