Page:Scenes in my Native Land.pdf/222

218 Among some of the most prominent peculiarities of the German population which here prevails, are immense stone-barns, several stories in height, and costly beyond what would seem appropriate for an agricultural establishment. This species of architecture was rendered the more remarkable, by contrasting it with some of the small, incommodious farm-houses, where the young children basking neglected in the sun, around the doors, or enclosures, and the large horses with their sleek, shining coats, proudly moving in ponderous wagons, proved that purely animal nature absorbed its full quota of attention from the master and father.

Travelling for part of a day in one of the public conveyances, it was striking and even affecting to see the diversity of character and fortune, which the circumference of a few feet comprehended. In the group nearest our own, were a newly-married pair, who being all the world to each other, sought to elude the observation of that world, as well as any claim it might chance to institute upon their time or attention. Then there was a poor, young creature of seventeen, unattended by protector or friend, with her son, scarcely a month old, going from the humble home of her parents, to her husband, a collier, in the mining districts, and thankful for the least advice or assistance in quieting her wailing babe. Then there was a lady, in a fixed consumption, its fatal flush upon her cheek, and unearthly brightness in her eye, moved by the