ght 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--"

"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 b