make so long a stay. But, perhaps, the reason that I fear it, makes
you like it. There is certainly something amorous in its very air. Nor
is this a case any way extraordinary or beyond belief. I have read
(and it was in point, too) that a flock of birds, being on the wing,
and bending their flight towards a certain town in Connecticut,
dropped down dead just as they were over it. The people were at first
fairly at a loss to account for this phenomenon in any natural way.
However, it was at length agreed on all hands that it was owing to the
noisomeness of the atmosphere, the smallpox at that time being very
rife in the place. I should never have given credit to the report, had
it not come from so good a quarter as that of New-England. For my
part, I always drive through Elizabethtown as quickly as possible,
lest the soft infection should steal upon me, or I should take it in
with the very air I breathe.

"Yesterday I went to hear Mr. Halsey, and there, too, I saw his young
and blooming wife. The old gentleman seems very fond of his rib, and,
in good sooth, leers very wistfully at her as she trips along by his
side. Some allowance, however, must be made; he is in the vale of
life; love is a new thing to him, and the honey-moon is not yet over.
'They are amorous, and fond, and billing,
Like Philip and Mary on a shilling.'
I have promised to pay him a visit; Stewart, or some of the tutors, I
believe, will accompany me, and I hope you will too.

"Since commencement I have been at a Dutch wedding, and expect to be
at one or two more very shortly. There was drinking, and singing, and
fiddling, and dancing. I was pleased extremely. Every one seemed to be
in good-humour with himself, and this naturally led them all to be in
good-humour with one another.