er on this side or that; and spoke only to
rebuke the frolics of the monkey, with a "Tenez! Dominique! Prenez
garde! Diable noir!"

As to me, my thought was busy in a thousand ways. I sometimes gazed at
the faces of my _four_ companions, and endeavoured to discern the
differences and samenesses between them. I took an exact account of the
features, proportions, looks, and gestures of the monkey, the Congolese,
and the Creole Gaul. I compared them together, and examined them apart.
I looked at them in a thousand different points of view, and pursued,
untired and unsatiated, those trains of reflections which began at each
change of tone, feature, and attitude.

I marked the country as it successively arose before me, and found
endless employment in examining the shape and substance of the fence,
the barn, and the cottage, the aspect of earth and of heaven. How great
are the pleasures of health and of mental activity!

My chief occupation, however, related to the scenes into which I was
about to enter. My imaginations were, of course, crude and inadequate;
and I found an uncommon gratification in comparing realities, as they
successively occurred, with the pictures which my wayward fancy had
depicted.

I will not describe my dreams. My proper task is to relate the truth.
Neither shall I dwell upon the images suggested by the condition of the
country through which I passed. I will confine myself to mentioning the
transactions connected with the purpose of my journey.

I reached Baltimore at night. I was not so fatigued but that I could
ramble through the town. I intended, at present, merely the
gratification of a stranger's curiosity. My visit to Mrs. Watson and her
brother I designed should take place on the morrow. The evening of my
arrival I deemed an unseasonable time.

While roving about, however, it occurred to me, that it might not be
impolitic to find the way to their habitation even now. My purposes of
general curiosity would equally be served whichever way my steps were
bent; and to trace the path to their dwelling would save me the trouble
of inquiries and interrogations to-morrow.

When I looked forward to an interview with the wife of Watson, and to
the subject which would be necessarily discussed at that interview, I
felt a trembling and misgiving at my heart. "Surely," thought I, "it
will become me to exercise immeasurable circumspection and address; and
yet how little are these adapted to the impetuo