Page:Peterson's Magazine 1842, Volume I.pdf/331

86

would take apartments at "the Lion." In concluding her harangue (the substance of which, we beg her pardon for giving in our own words, as being more concise) as to what Mr. Smithe said, and what Mrs. Smithe wore -as to how the Misses Smithe were quite handsome as to how young Mr. Smithe was no better looking, nor quite so good as her Joe -as to the little girl being ten years old, or thereabouts-as to their bringing nine trunks and chests, but mostly chests- and as to their eating breakfast now in the " Paul and Virginia room," (a designation it took from the paper on its walls) Mrs. Thomas started from her seat, but stopping half way between it and the door, with one arm a-kimbo, she exclaimed,

"There's that bell again. Jane must have forgotten them dough-nuts, or else the mince-pie. I do say, folks little knows what an undergoment ' tis to keep tavern, says I, to Mr. Thomas last evening, says I, no it wasn't, says he to me, says he, I'm so tired that my bones ache to such a dgree, says I, so do mine- and this morning I had a master kind of an aspen trembling-I couldn't get no better of it till I ate my breakfast. Them buckwheats was nice, wasn't they, Miss Branch ? I made them with patent yeast- Mr. Thomas says to me, says he, " Lucy they be despite nice' -there's that bell again -now I must go and tell Miss Smithe to eat hearty !" Away she went " on hospitable thoughts intent." Their wishes were heard with attention, their wants cheerfully and abundantly supplied ; for it was not our good landlady's fault or virtue, to be economical in feeding herself or her boarders, and they parted mutually pleased ; they with her open-handed, free-hearted bountifulness ; and she with the inward feeling of " what a comfort ' tis to get up victuals for English folks, they relished them so amazing." While they were discussing their breakfast, Mrs. Thomas just slipped into the other lady-boarders rooms, and in less than an hour had no less than four able fellow laborers in her mission, their common object being to enlighten the little town of Laurelville, as to the arrival of the English family. Let me be employed in the same benevolent manner, and give all the information relative to the Smithes', which was current among the villagers at the time of their arrival.

Two weeks previous to that event, the stage had brought and left a man stout and portly-dressed in garments, not made exactly after the fashion of those worn in Laurelville, and wrapped in such a quantity of overcoats, cloaks, comforters and tippets, that who was he ? was an undecided query in the minds of the bystanders. Mr. Thomas, as he took his carpet bag into the house, gained all the information that a card attached to it could give, " I. Smithe, Birmingham, England." It was sufficient for himself and his friends, to whom it was immediately communicated for the present. The traveller entered, looked round, called for a glass of brandy,

with the usual English oath, so well known on the European continent, and the knowledge of which is so rapidly increasing in our own, drew nearer the fire, warmed his feet, and then remarked with the air and importance of one who speaks truth, that " it was a clever day." His being an Englishman, had so overpowered our worthy host that his only reply was, “ well, I guess it is"-and he then threw another arm full of wood on the already heaped fire. This, with a second glass of brandy, seemed to warm the gentleman, for he proceeded to take a sock, a leggin, an over-stocking, first from one moiety of his understanding, then the otherthen divesting his outer man of all superfluous clothing, he stood before them a stout, ruddy little Englishman, dressed in a blue coat and short clothes, a yellow vest, a red silk neckerchief, white long stockings, and shoes with shining buckles. The same benign influence which had exhibited itself externally, seemed to have touched the springs of intellectuality : Vermonters and Yankees, in their thirst for knowledge, and their skill in acquiring it--but these were lost upon our traveller, who was as ready to talk under the potent influence of brandy and warmth united, as those around him were to hear. He told them he was an Englishman- that they knew before that his name was Smithe- that they knew too, only the long i was a novelty-that he formerly lived in Birmingham- did they know that ? Ah! that tale-telling card, that he had for the last year been living in Canada, and had sent his daughters to the States to school ; they had become acquainted with a widow Holladay, who owned a farm about half a mile west of Laurelville, she wished to sell it, and he had come to give it a look. He did give it a look, an approving one, and in less than three days, the fact of the Englishman having bought the Holladay farm for three thousand five hundred dollars, house and all, was generally established. He then disappeared, and the excitement of his coming was dying away, when his re-appearance, with his family, kindled up a new flame from its smouldering ashes, and sent the incense of gossip into every family. Any new family coming into a small town is a circumstance, an event, an epoch, but an English family, real "living, live" English, with a rich old man for its head, (he must be rich, or he would have considered longer before he bought the farm ; your Vermonters never change three thousand five hundred dollars for any thing, without a six months considering. ) a nice elderly lady, for the elderly ladies to visit and drink tea with-with grown up daughters for the young men to fiirt with- with a grown up young man for the girls to fall in love with, and a little girl for all to pet and fondle, and be the stepping-stone to an acquaintance with the others-it would have been unnatural had not the people of Laurelville congratulated themselves and each other on this accession to their society. The