and perhaps the persons, for that pretty interlude, "The Seven
Vagabonds." The story is placed not far from Stamford, and the conjurer
in it says, "I am taking a trip northward, this warm weather, across the
Connecticut first, and then up through Vermont, and may be into Canada
before the fall." The narrator himself queries by what right he came
among these wanderers, and furnishes himself an answer which suggests
that side of his nature most apt to appear in these journeys: "The free
mind that preferred its own folly to another's wisdom; the open spirit
that found companions everywhere; above all, the restless impulse that
had so often made me wretched in the midst of enjoyments: these were my
claims to be of their society." "If there be a faculty," he also writes,
"which I possess more perfectly than most men, it is that of throwing
myself mentally into situations foreign to my own, and detecting with a
cheerful eye the desirableness of each." There is also one letter of
1831, sent back during an expedition in New Hampshire, which supplies
the genesis of another Twice-Told Tale, "The Canterbury Pilgrims."

"I walked to the Shaker village yesterday [he says], and was shown over
the establishment, and dined there with a squire and a doctor, also of
the world's people. On my arrival, the first thing I saw was a jolly old
Shaker carrying an immense decanter of their superb cider; and as soon
as I told him my business, he turned out a tumblerful and gave me. It
was as much as a common head could clearly carry. Our dining-room was
well furnished, the dinner excellent, and the table attended by a
middle-aged Shaker lady, good looking and cheerful.... This
establishment is immensely rich. Their land extends two or three miles
along the road, and there are streets of great houses painted yellow and
tipt with red.... On the whole, they lead a good and comfortable life,
and, if it were not for their ridiculous ceremonies, a man could not do
a wiser thing than to join them. Those whom I conversed with were