Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/136

 well-built and well-situated. The public buildings are the largest and the most ornamented of any in the town. But everything, both within and without, testifies of affluence and prosperity. About noon I took leave of my friends at Hartford, and promised to come back.

It was rather late when we reached Worcester, where we had an invitation from the Mayor, and who this evening kept open house in our honour. As soon, therefore, as we had arrived, we were obliged to dress ourselves and go to a grand party. As there was a great gathering in the town of the schools and the teachers of the district, the house was so crowded that we could scarcely move in the rooms, and my host himself did not know the names of many persons whom he presented to me. But it was all the same to me, because it is very seldom that those foreign names fix themselves in my memory; and kind people are all alike welcome to a friendly hand-shaking with me. We were received also with beautiful and cordial songs of welcome, and with gifts of flowers from handsome girls and young men. I played the Neck's polska to them, and Rebecca S. related to them, in my stead, the legend of the Neck and the Priest, the profound sentiment of which never fails to impress the mind of the hearer, and which is an excellent specimen of the popular poetry of Scandinavia.

Among the guests in company was the celebrated blacksmith and linguist, Elihu Burrit, a very tall and strong-limbed man, with an unusually lofty forehead, large beautiful eyes, and, above all, handsome and strong features;—a man who would excite attention in any company whatever, as well for his appearance as for the expression of singular mildness and human love which marks his countenance. He had lately arrived here from the Peace Congress, I believe in Paris, and talked about peace principles, of which much is said and taught in these the oldest lands of the pilgrim fathers. I