put off with chaff when they want buckwheat; and that's jest what your
Eu-ropeans think to do. I will take a trip to the Falls first; I 'd like
to show you that water-power. We start away on Monday next."

Layton was not sorry to leave New York. The sight of that ever busy
multitude, that buzzing hive of restless bees, was only addling to one
who never regarded wealth save as a stage to something farther off. He
was well aware how rash it would be to pronounce upon a people from the
mere accidents of chance intercourse, and he longed to see what might
give him some real insight into the character of the nation. Besides
this, he felt, with all the poignant susceptibility of his nature, that
he was not himself the man to win success amongst them. There was a bold
rough energy, a daring go-ahead spirit, that overbore him wherever he
went. They who had not travelled spoke more confidently of foreign lands
than he who had seen them. Of the very subjects he had made his own by
study, he heard men speak with a confidence he would not have dared
to assume; and lastly, the reserve which serves as a sanctuary to the
bashful man was invaded without scruple by any one who pleased it.

If each day's experience confirmed him in the impression that he was not
one to gain their suffrages, he was especially careful to conceal this
discouraging conviction from Quack-inboss, leaving to time, that great
physician, to provide for the future. Nor was the Colonel himself, be
it owned, without his own misgivings. He saw, to his amazement, that the
qualities which he had so much admired in Layton won no approval from
his countrymen; the gifts, which by reading and reflection he had
cultivated, seemed not to be marketable commodities; there were no
buyers,--none wanted them. Now Quackinboss began to think seriously over
their project, deeply pained as he remembered that it was by his own
enthusiastic description of his countrymen the plan had first met
acceptance. Whether it was that the American mind had undergone
some great change since he had known it, or that foreign travel had
exaggerated, in his estimation, the memory of many things he had left
behind him; but so it was, the Colonel was amazed to discover that with
all the traits of sharp intelligence and activity he recognized in
his countrymen, there were yet some features in the society of the old
continent that he regretted and yearned after. Again and again did he
refer to Italy and