individuals have been selected for observation. National
traits are fair subjects for satire or for praise, but
personal peculiarities claim the privilege of exemption
in right of that hospitality, through whose medium they
have been alone exhibited. Public topics are public
property; every body has a right to use them without
leave and without apology. It is only when we quit the
limits of this "common" and enter upon "private grounds,"
that we are guilty of "a trespass." This distinction is
alike obvious to good sense and right feeling. I have
endeavoured to keep it constantly in view; and if at any
time I shall be supposed to have erred (I say "supposed,"
for I am unconscious of having done so) I must claim the
indulgence always granted to involuntary offences.

Now the patience of my reader may fairly be considered
a "private right." I shall, therefore, respect its
boundaries and proceed at once with my narrative, having
been already quite long enough about "uncorking a bottle."




CHAPTER II.

A JUICY DAY IN THE COUNTRY.

All our preparations for the voyage having been completed,
we spent the last day at our disposal, in visiting
Brooklyn. The weather was uncommonly fine, the sky being