stage-coach. Presently there entered a
bustling, sprightly-looking little personage, who, after frisking
about the room, apparently upon a tom of inspection, finally settled
herself very comfortably in the large cushioned rocking-chair--the
only one in the room--and was soon, as I had no reason to doubt, sound
asleep. It was not long, however, before a noise of some one entering
aroused her, and a tall, gaunt, old Yankee woman, hung around with
countless bags, bonnet-boxes, and nondescript appendages of various
sizes and kinds, presented herself to our vision. After slowly
relieving herself of the numberless incumbrances that impeded her
progress in life, she turned to a young man who accompanied her, and
said, in a tone so peculiarly shrill that it might have been mistaken,
at this day, for a railroad whistle--

"'Now, Jonathan, don't let no grass grow under your feet while you go
for them toothache drops; I am a'most crazy with pain!' laying a hand
upon the affected spot as she spoke; 'and here,' she called out, as
the door was closing upon her messenger, 'just get my box filled at
the same time,' diving with her disengaged hand into the unknown
depths of, seemingly, the most capacious of pockets, and bringing to
light a shining black box of sufficient size to hold all the jewels of
a modern belle. 'I thought I brought along my snuff-bladder, but I
don't know where I put it, my head is so stirred up.'

"By this time the little woman in the rocking-chair was fairly
aroused, and rising, she courteously offered her seat to the stranger,
her accent at once betraying her claim to be ranked with the politest
of nations (a bow, on my part, to the fair foreigner in the group).
With a prolonged stare, the old woman coolly ensconced herself in the
vacated seat, making not the slightest acknowledgment of the civility
she had received. Presently she began to groan, rocking herself
furiously at the same time. The former occupant of the stuffed chair,
who had retired to a window and perched herself in one of a long row
of wooden seats, hurried to the sufferer. 'I fear, madame,' said she,
'that you suffare ver' much--vat can I do for you?' The representative
of Yankeedom might have been a wooden clock-case for all the response
she made to this amiable inquiry, unless her rocking more furiously
than ever might be construed into a reply.

"The little Frenchwoman, apparently wholly unable to class so
anomalous a specimen of humanity