Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/201

Rh character. On the verdant, open meadows, which were undivided by fences, grazed peaceful flocks and herds. The descending sun shone brilliantly over that cheerful scene. How good was the thought, or how fortunate was the accident, which introduced pleasure in the midst of labour, and furnished for both this glorious open space. Maria Lowell and I walked by the river side for an hour alone, she as much affected as I was by the peculiar beauty and significant life of the place, and I listening with delight to her intelligent remarks on the honour of labour, and the happiness which is attendant upon it. Farther down we came to yet wilder falls, too wild and too beautiful to turn mills. They were neither very large nor powerful, but of great picturesque beauty, and leafy trees and shrubs grow around them. Thus we proceeded till we came to a flour mill, which I saw from top to bottom, and shook hands with the men of the mill, and became very dusty with flour.

The streets of Rochester were animated with buyers and sellers; with those who were driving, and those who were walking, and amid the crowd of the European race Indians might be seen in their white blankets, and with their uncovered long, black, shaggy hair, passing in and out of the shops.

The following day I made acquaintance with the so-called “Rochester knockings,” or that species of witchcraft which has so long revealed itself here and there in the West, the goblin of the West, as I call it, and which has now for some time been heard in Rochester, or wherever the young women of the name of Fish may chance to be. It is given out that these knockings are the operation of spirits who attend these sisters and who are in communication with them. A number of persons in the city had visited the sisters, heard the knockings seen tables walk off by themselves over the floor, and many other wonderful things performed by these spirits.