had long been climbing up the western
sky, and now hung so blackly over my onward path that it was a point
of wisdom to seek shelter here.

"Halloo! Who stands guard here? Is the doorkeeper asleep?" cried I,
approaching a ladder of two or three steps which was let down from the
wagon.

The music ceased at my summons, and there appeared at the door, not
the sort of figure that I had mentally assigned to the wandering
showman, but a most respectable old personage whom I was sorry to have
addressed in so free a style. He wore a snuff-colored coat and
small-clothes, with white top-boots, and exhibited the mild dignity of
aspect and manner which may often be noticed in aged schoolmasters,
and sometimes in deacons, selectmen or other potentates of that kind.
A small piece of silver was my passport within his premises, where I
found only one other person, hereafter to be described.

"This is a dull day for business," said the old gentleman as he
ushered me in; "but I merely tarry here to refresh the cattle, being
bound for the camp-meeting at Stamford."

Perhaps the movable scene of this narrative is still peregrinating New
England, and may enable the reader to test the accuracy of my
description. The spectacle--for I will not use the unworthy term of
"puppet-show"--consisted of a multitude of little people assembled on
a miniature stage. Among them were artisans of every kind in the
attitudes of their toil, and a group of fair ladies and gay gentlemen
standing ready for the dance; a company of foot-soldiers formed a line
across the stage, looking stern, grim and terrible enough to make it a
pleasant consideration that they were but three inches high; and
conspicuous above the whole was seen a Merry Andrew in the pointed cap
and motley coat of his profession. All the inhabitants of this mimic
world were motionless, like the figures in a picture, or like that
people who one moment were alive in the midst of their business and
delights and the next were transformed to statues, preserving an
eternal semblance of labor that was ended and pleasure that could be
felt no more. Anon, however, the old gentleman turned the handle of a
barrel-organ, the first note of which produced a most enlivening
effect upon the figures and awoke them all to their proper occupations
and amusements. By the selfsame impulse the tailor plied his needle,
the blacksmith's hammer descended upon the anvil and the dancers
whirled away on feathery tiptoe