adamantine resolution, "it shall be as a travelling bookseller."

Though it was still mid-afternoon, the air had now grown dark about
us, and a few drops of rain came down upon the roof of our vehicle,
pattering like the feet of birds that had flown thither to rest. A
sound of pleasant voices made us listen, and there soon appeared half-
way up the ladder the pretty person of a young damsel, whose rosy face
was so cheerful, that even amid the gloomy light it seemed as if the
sunbeams were peeping under her bonnet. We next saw the dark and
handsome features of a young man, who, with easier gallantry than
might have been expected in the heart of Yankee-land, was assisting
her into the wagon. It became immediately evident to us, when the two
strangers stood within the door, that they were of a profession
kindred to those of my companions; and I was delighted with the more
than hospitable, the even paternal kindness, of the old showman's
manner, as he welcomed them; while the man of literature hastened to
lead the merry-eyed girl to a seat on the long bench.

"You are housed but just in time, my young friends," said the master
of the wagon. "The sky would have been down upon you within five
minutes."

The young man's reply marked him as a foreigner, not by any variation
from the idiom and accent of good English, but because he spoke with
more caution and accuracy, than if perfectly familiar with the
language.

"We knew that a shower was hanging over us," said he, "and consulted
whether it were best to enter the house on the top of yonder hill, but
seeing your wagon in the road--"