Part 18 (1/2)

when they were fresh from the fountains of her own heart; and so as if no tales of do have been written since Perhaps it is partly because the hohtfully unique

We read George Borrow's ”Bible in Spain,” and wandered with hi I have never forgotten a verse that this strange traveler picked up so the Zincali:--

”I'll joyfully labor, both night and day, To aid my unfortunate brothers; As a laundress tans her own face in the ray To cleanse the garested a somewhat similar verse to my own mind Why should not our washerwoht flashed by like a ray of light That brightenedhbor

And how delighted ith Mrs Kirkland's ”A New Home: Who'll Follow?” the first real Western book I ever read Its genuine pioneer-flavor was delicious And, moreover, it was a prophecy to Sarah, Eh to find an ”Aunty Parshall's dish-kettle” in a cabin on an Illinois prairie

So the pleasantly occupied years slipped on, I still nursing h I saw no near possibility of its fulfill worth having does co to meet my opportunity nearly or quite a thousand miles away, on the banks of the Mississippi And yet, with that strange, delightful consciousness of growth into a co persons uely felt heavens opening for s about ood and enjoyable, but I could not quite rest in them; there was more for me to be, to know, and to do I felt almost surer of the future than of the present

If the dreahtened the somewhat sombre close of the first ten years of hnesses of the intervening road light had been kindled which loith enthusiastic hope I had early been saved froin life with the expectation that it is going to be easy, or with the wish to have it so What a world it would be, if there were no hills to cliht conquer obstacles, and clear obstructions fro, led onward always by an Invisible Guide

Life to ht blank of mystery, like the broad Western tracts of our continent, which in the atlases of those days bore the title of ”Unexplored Regions” It was to be penetrated, struggled through; and its difficulties were not greatly dreaded, for I had not lost

”The drea”

I knew that there was no joy like the joy of pressing forward

XII

FROM THE MERRIMACK TO THE MISSISSIPPI

THE years between 1835 and 1845, which nearly cover the tiularly interesting years People were guessing and experis,--about alet accustomed to steamboats and railroads To travel by either was scarcely less an adventure to us younger ones than going up in a balloon

Phrenology was much talked about; and nu heads, andcharts of cranial ”bumps” This was profitable business to them for a while, as alood one; while many very commonplace people were flattered into the belief that they were geniuses, or ht be if they chose

Mesy; and this too had its lecturers, who entertained the stronger portion of their audiences by showing theht under an uncanny influence

The reat many persons--and yet not so many that I knew even one of the in the year 1842; though the date was postponed from year to year, as the prophesy failed of fulfillment

The idea in itself was almost too serious to be jested about; and yet its advocates made it so literal a matter that it did look very ridiculous to unbelievers

An irreverent little work couplets about it, like this:--

”Oh dear! oh dear! what shall we do In eighteen hundred and forty-two?

”Oh dear! oh dear! where shall we be In eighteen hundred and forty-three?

”Oh dear! oh dear! we shall be no hteen hundred and forty-four,

”Oh dear! oh dear! we sha'n't be alive In eighteen hundred and forty-five”

I thought it audacious in her, since surely she and all of us were aware that the world would come to an end some time, in some way, for every one of us I said to myself that I could not have ”ether

A comet appeared at about the time of the Miller excitement, and also a very unusual illumination of sky and earth by the Aurora Borealis This latter occurred in midwinter The whole heavens were of a deep rose-color--al as it radiated towards the horizon The snoas fresh on the ground, and that, too, was of a brilliant red Cold as it s were thrown up all around us for people to look out at the wonderful sight I was gazing with the rest, and listening to excla unseen beholders, when sos, with startling effect,--