the intended bridegroom being, as I should judge, six, or
thereabout, and the fair bride barely five,--but at least we might
have a betrothment after the royal fashion,--there could be no harm
in that. Miss Lizzy, I have no doubt, would be as demure and
coquettish as if ten winters more had gone over her head, and poor
Willy would open his innocent black eyes, and wonder what was going
forward. They would be the very Oberon and Titania of the village,
the fairy king and queen.

*An almost equally interesting account of that very peculiar and
interesting scenery, may be found in The Maid of La Vendee, an
English novel, remarkable for its simplicity and truth of painting,
written by Mrs. Le Noir, the daughter of Christopher Smart, an
inheritrix of much of his talent. Her works deserve to be better
known.

**'Deedily,'--I am not quite sure that this word is good English;
but it is genuine Hampshire, and is used by the most correct of
female writers, Miss Austen. It means (and it is no small merit
that it has no exact synonym) anything done with a profound and
plodding attention, an action which engrosses all the powers of mind
and body.

Ah! here is the hedge along which the periwinkle wreathes and twines
so profusely, with its evergreen leaves shining like the myrtle, and
its starry blue flowers. It is seldom found wild in this part of
England; but, when we do meet with it, it is so abundant and so
welcome,--the very robin-redbreast of flowers, a winter friend.
Unless in those unfrequent frosts which destroy all vegetation, it
blossoms from September to June, surviving the last lingering