y. Seth harnessed Peggy, and drove off in the buggy
in all possible haste, to see if the mail had brought a letter from Amzi
who was in New York, or from Nimrod who had gone to work in "Bosting,"
or if the train had brought Sally and her children from the city, who
were expected home on a visit. Here, under pretext of waiting for the
cars, congregated the drones and supernumeraries of the different
neighborhoods, lounging on the steps, hacking the benches with their
jack-knives for hours together, while they discussed politics, and
talked over their own and their neighbors' affairs.

A walk to the station on a summer evening, was more to the boys and
girls of this rural region, than a Broadway promenade to a metropolitan
belle. Their day's task done, here they met in pairs, comparing finery
and indulging in flirtations, with an impunity which would not have been
tolerated by their elders at the Sunday recess in the meeting-house.
Then, besides, it was such an exciting sight to see the cars come in,
to see the long rows of strange faces, and to catch glimpses of the new
fashions at their open windows. Besides, at rare intervals, a real city
lady would actually alight at the rustic station of Hilltop, followed
by an avalanche of trunks, "larger than hen-houses," the girls would
afterwards affirm to their astonished mothers, when it was discovered
that the city-lady, in her languishing necessity for country-air, had
really condescended to come in search of a remote country-cousin.
Besides the fine lady, sometimes small companies of dashing young
gentlemen, with fishing-rods and retinues of long-eared dogs, or a
long-haired artist with a portfolio under his arm, all lured by the
mountains and woods and streams, to seek pleasure in far different ways,
would alight at the station, and ask of some staring rustic where they
could find the hotel.

[Footnote 74: An active writer, chiefly known as a newspaper
correspondent from Washington; a native of Vermont, has published a
novel of much descriptive vigor.]

CHAPTER IV

POETS.

=_Francis Hopkinson,[75] 1737-1791._=

From "The Battle of the Kegs.[76]"

=_316._=

Gallants, attend, and hear a friend
Trill forth harmonious ditty;
Strange things I'll tell, which late befell
In Philadelphia city.

'Twas early day, as poets say,
Just when the sun was rising,
A soldier stood on a log of wood,
And saw a thing surprising.

As in amaze