beside the
sweetly sad, the lovely, but still deeply suffering girl, to whom he
owed so much in the preservation of his life. She was silent when he
spoke, but she looked her replies, and he felt that they were
sufficiently expressive. The aunt had been easily persuaded to go with
her niece, and we find her seated accordingly along with Colonel
Colleton in the same carriage with the young ladies. Ralph rode, as his
humor prompted, sometimes on horseback, and sometimes in a light gig--a
practice adopted with little difficulty, where a sufficient number of
servants enabled him to transfer the trust of one or the other
conveyance to the liveried outriders. Then came the compact, boxy,
buggy, buttoned-up vehicle of our friend the pedler--a thing for which
the unfertile character of our language, as yet, has failed to provide a
fitting name--but which the backwoodsman of the west calls a go-cart; a
title which the proprietor does not always esteem significant of its
manifold virtues and accommodations. With a capacious stomach, it is
wisely estimated for all possible purposes; and when opened with a
mysterious but highly becoming solemnity, before the gaping and
wondering woodsman, how "awful fine" do the contents appear to Miss
Nancy and the little whiteheads about her. How grand are its treasures,
of tape and toys, cottons and calicoes, yarn and buttons, spotted silks
and hose--knives and thimbles--scissors and needles--wooden clocks, and
coffee-mills, &c.--not to specify a closely-packed and various
assortment of tin-ware and japan, from the tea-kettle and coffee-pot to
the drinking mug for the pet boy and the shotted rattle for the infant.
A judicious distribution of the two latter, in the way of presents to
the young, and the worthy pedler drives a fine bargain with the parents
in more costly commodities.

The party was now fairly ready, but, just at the moment of departure,
who should appear in sight but our simple friend, Chub Williams. He had
never been a frequent visiter to the abodes of men, and of course all
things occasioned wonder. He seemed fallen upon some strange planet, and
was only won to attention by the travellers, on hearing the voice of
Lucy Munro calling to him from the carriage window. He could not be made
to understand the meaning of her words when she told him where she was
going, but contented himself with saying he would come for her, as soon
as they built up his house, and she should be his mothe