"We agreed to come hither," interrupted the girl, with a smile,
"because we should be more at home in a wandering house like this."

I, meanwhile, with many a wild and undetermined fantasy, was narrowly
inspecting these two doves that had flown into our ark. The young man,
tall, agile, and athletic, wore a mass of black shining curls
clustering round a dark and vivacious countenance, which, if it had
not greater expression, was at least more active, and attracted
readier notice, than the quiet faces of our countrymen. At his first
appearance, he had been laden with a neat mahogany box, of about two
feet square, but very light in proportion to its size, which he had
immediately unstrapped from his shoulders and deposited on the floor
of the wagon.

The girl had nearly as fair a complexion as our own beauties, and a
brighter one than most of them; the lightness of her figure, which
seemed calculated to traverse the whole world without weariness,
suited well with the glowing cheerfulness of her face; and her gay
attire, combining the rainbow hues of crimson, green, and a deep
orange, was as proper to her lightsome aspect as if she had been born
in it. This gay stranger was appropriately burdened with that mirth-
inspiring instrument, the fiddle, which her companion took from her
hands, and shortly began the process of tuning. Neither of us--the
previous company of the wagon-needed to inquire their trade; for this
could be no mystery to frequenters of brigade-musters, ordinations,
cattle-shows, commencements, and other festal meetings in our sober
land; and there is a dear friend of mine, who will smile when this
page recalls to his memory a chivalrous deed performed by us, in
rescuing the show-box of such a couple from a mob of great double-