lows in scarlet vests were filling their
portable tubs for the evening's supply; a few children came to the doors
to stare at me, but there was no sign that any other stranger had
arrived.

"I'll take you to the Crown," said the guide; "all the Landamaenner will
be there in the morning, and the music; and you'll see what our
Appenzell government is." The landlady gave me a welcome, and the
promise of a lodging, whereupon I sat down in peace, received the
greetings of all the members of the family, as they came and went, and
made myself familiar with their habits. There was only one other guest
in the house,--a man of dignified face and intellectual head, who
carried a sword tied up with an umbrella, and must be, I supposed, one
of the chief officials. He had so much the air of a reformer or a
philosopher, that the members of a certain small faction at home might
have taken him for their beloved W. P.; others might have detected in
him a resemblance to that true philanthropist and gentleman, W. L. G.;
and the believers in the divinity of slavery would have accepted him as
Bishop ----. As no introductions are required in Appenzell, I addressed
myself to him, hoping to open a profitable acquaintance; but it was
worse than Coleridge's experience with the lover of dumplings. His
sentiments may have been elevated and refined, for aught I knew, but
what were they? My trumpeter Jakob was more intelligible than he; his
upper teeth were gone, and the mutilated words were mashed out of all
remaining shape against his gums. Then he had the singular habit of
ejaculating the word _Ja!_ (Yes!) in three different ways, after
answering each of my questions. First, a decided, confirmatory _Ja!_
then a pause, followed by a slow, interrogative _Ja?_ as if it were the
echo of some mental doubt; and finally, after a much longer pause, a
profoundly melancholy, desponding, conclusive _Ja-a-a!_ sighed forth
from the very bottom of his lungs. Even when I only said, "Good
morning!" the next day, these ejaculations followed, in the same order
of succession.

One may find a counterpart to this habit in the _Wa'al_ of the Yankee,
except that the latter never is, nor could it well be, so depressing to
hear as the _Ja_ of Appenzell.

In the evening a dozen persons gathered around one of the long tables,
and drank a pale, weak cider, made of apples and pears, and called
"Most." I gave to one, with whom I found I could converse most easily, a
glass