I can't flame up at every sunbeam, and grow enthusiastic in the
contemplation of Bill Johnson's cottage, and Richard Higgins's
hedgerow. A turnip-patch never yet could waken my enthusiasm,
and I do believe, sir--I confess it with some shame and a slight
misgiving, lest my admissions should give you pain--that my fancy
has never been half so greatly enkindled by Carthula, of the bending
spear, or Morven of the winds, as by the sedate and homely aspect
of an ordinary dish of eggs and bacon, hot from the flaming frying-pan
of some worthy housewife."

The uncle simply looked upon the speaker, but without answering.
He was probably quite too much accustomed to his modes of thought
and speech to be so much surprised as annoyed by what he said.
Perhaps, too, his own benevolence of spirit interfered to save the
nephew from that harsher rebuke which his judgment might yet have
very well disposed him to bestow.

Following the course of the latter in silence, he descended into
the valley, and soon made his way among the sweet little cottages
at its foot. An interchange of courtsies between the travellers and
the villagers whose presence had given occasion to some portion of
the previous dialogue, in which the manner of the younger traveller
was civil, and that of the elder kind; and the two continued on
their journey, though not without being compelled to refuse sundry
invitations, given with true patriarchal hospitality, to remain
among the quiet abodes through which they passed.

As cottage after cottage unfolded itself to their eyes, along the
winding avenue, the proprietors appeared at door and window, and,
with the simple freedoms of rural life, welcomed the strangers with