and hope, luxuriate in harvests as rank and rich,
as the woods and fields around; and through their clear eyes, we can
see the honest thoughts of their free and guileless souls, as we see
the shells and pebbles through the waters of the lake.

We find it a goodly settlement, and you can picture in your mind the
happiness Fabens enjoys, as he brings each new acre to the harrow, and
reaps the rewards of his manly toils. You remain a whole month in his
hospitable home.

You miss many comforts and luxuries, found in country and town, at the
present day. You remark the absence of all outward polish and
ornament, which get names for refinement in established society. There
are no capacious parlors, or splendid lamps to attract you; no sofas
but moss-cushioned logs in the woods; no ottomans unless a green bank
of wood-grass will serve you, and neither harp nor piano but the
distaff and wheel. All is simple; all is arranged for convenience and
comfort, as new homes in the backwoods ever are found; and to you it
may seem odd enough to live so.

You may fancy how simple a lad from this region would appear as he
might pass your city streets, with his long arms and loping gait;
reading signs and staring at all the city wonders. You may fancy the
backwoods maiden would look verdant and soft in her rustic frock and
clumsy calf-skin shoes, leaning well to her way as she walked, and
seeming to devour all city sights and sounds. But think you, they have
not drank great spirit and beautiful sense from the breasts of Nature?
Is it nothing that the backwoods boy lies down in clover meadows, and
rambles in maple woods, and hears the bobolink and swamp robin sing;
starts at the sound of Logan's cuckoo, and imitates her lay?

And is it less that the backwoods maiden spins flax and wool; makes the
fields and woods her flower garden; washes the freckles from her face
in Aurora's rosiest dew; romps like a wild doe in the valleys; brings
apples from the orchard, and berries from the hills; and like Lavinia,
gleans Palemon's fields?

But your heart imbibes the lovely simplicity; your voice falls into
tune with voices around you; and more and more do you love that rural
little home, and all its verdant views.

Happier and purer are you made by the wise words of Major Fabens and
his wife. Kindly and more free-hearted you grow in the sphere of Julia
Fabens, whose innocent, womanly nature breathes in unison with all that
is joyful and p