elves of admirably-chosen books,
gave the room almost an air of elegance. Why do I write almost? It
was an oasis. It was barely three weeks since I had left "the
communion of educated men," and the first tones of the voices of my
host and hostess made me feel as if I had been out of it for a year.
Mrs. C. stayed an hour and a half, and then went home to the cows, when
we launched upon a sea of congenial talk. They said they had not seen
an educated lady for two years, and pressed me to go and visit them. I
rode home on Dr. Hughes's horse after dark, to find neither fire nor
light in the cabin. Mrs. C. had gone back saying, "Those English
talked just like savages, I couldn't understand a word they said."

I made a fire, and extemporized a light with some fat and a wick of
rag, and Chalmers came in to discuss my visit and to ask me a question
concerning a matter which had roused the latent curiosity of the whole
family. I had told him, he said, that I knew no one hereabouts, but
"his woman" told him that Dr. H. and I spoke constantly of a Mrs.
Grundy, whom we both knew and disliked, and who was settled, as we
said, not far off! He had never heard of her, he said, and he was the
pioneer settler of the canyon, and there was a man up here from
Longmount who said he was sure there was not a Mrs. Grundy in the
district, unless it was a woman who went by two names! The wife and
family had then come in, and I felt completely nonplussed. I longed to
tell Chalmers that it was he and such as he, there or anywhere, with
narrow hearts, bitter tongues, and harsh judgments, who were the true
"Mrs. Grundys," dwarfing individuality, checking lawful freedom of
speech, and making men "offenders for a word," but I forebore. How I
extricated myself from the difficulty, deponent sayeth not. The rest
of the evening has been spent in preparing to cross the mountains.
Chalmers says he knows the way well, and that we shall sleep to-morrow
at the foot of Long's Peak. Mrs. Chalmers repents of having consented,
and conjures up doleful visions of what the family will come to when
left headless, and of disasters among the cows and hens. I could tell
her that the eldest son and the "hired man" have plotted to close the
saw-mill and go on a hunting and fishing expedition, that the cows will
stray, and that the individual spoken respectfully of as "Mr. Skunk"
will make havoc in the hen-house.

NAMELESS REGION, ROCKY MOUNTAINS, September.