Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/272

Rh very good, so far; but now, when he wished to unlock it to depart, it was just as immovable as before. He turned and turned, and could not move it the least in the world. The old gentleman and I were locked in the room, for there was no other means of egress but by this door. Very agreeable this!

At this discovery he made such a comical grimace that I could not help bursting out into a hearty peal of laughter; and when he, during a few minutes, had exerted all his art and all his strength to no purpose, and the door remained as firmly closed as ever, I tried what I could do. And first, I examined the lock very minutely, and was not long in discovering a little spring, upon which I pressed my finger, and immediately the bolt sprang back, and opening the large door I allowed the old gentleman to escape, who did not look much less pleased than I did to have got so well out of this adventure.

Later.—I was here interrupted by a visit and the necessity to go out into “the ladies' parlour.” A handsome young lady was sitting there, and singing so false, that it tortured me to the very soul to hear her; nor did she seem as if she would ever come to an end. A young gentleman, who sate beside her and turned over the leaves of the music, must have been altogether without an ear or altogether over head and ears in love.

I heard an interesting account from a married couple whom I received in my room, and who are just now come from the Wilderness beyond the Mississippi, of the so-called Squatters, a kind of white people who constitute a portion of the first colonists of the Western country. They settle themselves down here and there in the Wilderness, cultivate the earth, and cultivate freedom, but will not become acquainted with any other kind of cultivation. They pay no taxes, and will not acknowledge either law or church. They live in families, have