o be paved with gold), enjoyed
the easy motion of the boat so much, floating along, while pictures
moved before him, that he regretted when the time came for landing among
the soft, green meadows, that came sloping down to the dancing water's
brim. His fellow-passengers carried him to the park, and refused all
payment, although his mother had laid by sixpence on purpose, as a
recompense for this service.

"Oh, Libbie, how beautiful! Oh, mother, mother! is the whole world out
of Manchester as beautiful as this? I did not know trees were like this!
Such green homes for birds! Look, Peter! would not you like to be there,
up among those boughs? But I can't let you go, you know, because you're
my little bird brother, and I should be quite lost without you."

They spread a shawl upon the fine mossy turf, at the root of a
beech-tree, which made a sort of natural couch, and there they laid him,
and bade him rest, in spite of the delight which made him believe
himself capable of any exertion. Where he lay,--always holding Jupiter's
cage, and often talking to him as to a playfellow,--he was on the verge
of a green area, shut in by magnificent trees, in all the glory of their
early foliage, before the summer heats had deepened their verdure into
one rich, monotonous tint. And hither came party after party; old men
and maidens, young men and children,--whole families trooped along after
the guiding fathers, who bore the youngest in their arms, or astride
upon their backs, while they turned round occasionally to the wives,
with whom they shared some fond local remembrance. For years has Dunham
Park been the favourite resort of the Manchester work-people; for more
years than I can tell; probably ever since "the Duke," by his canals,
opened out the system of cheap travelling. Its scenery, too, which
presents such a complete contrast to the whirl and turmoil of Manchester;
so thoroughly woodland, with its ancestral trees (here and there
lightning blanched); its "verdurous walls;" its grassy walks, leading
far away into some glade, where you start at the rabbit rustling among
the last year's fern, and where the wood-pigeon's call seems the only
fitting and accordant sound. Depend upon it, this complete sylvan
repose, this accessible quiet, this lapping the soul in green images of
the country, forms the most complete contrast to a town's-person, and
consequently has over such the greatest power to charm.

Presently Libbie found out she