tic to
clear their countenances.

Perchance the worthy man who inhabits the farm we have just reached, may
be congratulating himself upon it, as he jogs home from market this
Saturday evening. If he could look upon his homestead with our eyes, I
feel sure he would cease to despond. How cheerily the wide, slated roof
gleams forth from amongst the trees, and returns the warm glance of the
sun with one almost as warm, albeit proceeding from a very moist eyelid!
How gladly the white smoke arises once more, spirally, from the large
chimneys, after having been so long depressed by the heavy atmosphere!
and how the massive ivy that covers the gable end, responds to the songs
of the birds that warble their evening gladness amongst its gleaming
leaves! The face of the dwelling is as cheerful as are the sun, river,
mountains and meads, that it looks down upon from its slight elevation.
Every leaf of the vine and pyrus-japonica that covers its front, is
bedecked with a diamond; and the roses, laburnums, nasturtiums, and
other gay flowers in the garden, drop jewels more freely than the maiden
in the fairy tale, as they glisten beneath the rainbow.

This is what we see from the hawthorn lane below the house; but walking
up into the highroad at the back, the scene changes, and just as our
sympathies with beautiful nature were called forth below, so are they
instantaneously assailed by our fellow-creatures above.

We come to the substantial gate that is the entrance to the pretty farm,
and a curious and a motley group is there. We see such groups almost
daily, here in Carmarthenshire; but as all the counties of England and
Wales are not thoroughfares for the Irish from their country to England,
we will describe these poor people as graphically as we can. There is
evidently a consultation going on amongst them, and the general
attention is directed to one individual of their party.

This is a young girl of some seventeen or eighteen years of age. She is
seated on the ground, and leans her back against the stone wall that
flanks the substantial gate afore mentioned. To judge from her general
appearance she can scarcely belong to the ragged set that surround her,
for there is an attempt at neatness and cleanliness in her attire,
though it is poor enough, that the rest cannot boast of. She wears a
cotton gown, shawl, straw bonnet, and shoes and stockings, which were
once respectable and seem to have been originally intended for her.
T