with the hostile skies, and, in an atmosphere as chill and damp as that of
a cellar, shot forth the buds and blossoms upon the pear-trees, called out
the sour Puritan courage of the currant-bushes, taught a reckless native
grape-vine to wander and wanton over the southern side of the fence, and
decked the banks with violets as fearless and as fragile as New England
girls; so that about the end of June, when the heavens relented and the
sun blazed out at last, there was little for him to do but to redden and
darken the daring fruits that had attained almost their full growth
without his countenance.

Then, indeed, Charlesbridge appeared to us a kind of Paradise. The wind
blew all day from the southwest, and all day in the grove across the way
the orioles sang to their nestlings. The butcher's wagon rattled merrily
up to our gate every morning; and if we had kept no other reckoning, we
should have known it was Thursday by the grocer. We were living in the
country with the conveniences and luxuries of the city about us. The house
was almost new and in perfect repair; and, better than all, the kitchen
had as yet given no signs of unrest in those volcanic agencies which are
constantly at work there, and which, with sudden explosion, make
Herculaneums and Pompeiis of so many smiling households. Breakfast,
dinner, and tea came up with illusive regularity, and were all the most
perfect of their kind; and we laughed and feasted in our vain security. We
had out from the city to banquet with us the friends we loved, and we were
inexpressibly proud before them of the Help, who first wrought miracles of
cookery in our honor, and then appeared in a clean white apron, and the
glossiest black hair, to wait upon the table. She was young, and certainly
very pretty; she was as gay as a lark, and was courted by a young man
whose clothes would have been a credit, if they had not been a reproach,
to our lowly basement. She joyfully assented to the idea of staying with
us till she married.