been there, and we knew that this paradise was haunted by killing

damps and foul malaria. The fences along the line bore but two

descriptions of advertisement; one to recommend tobaccos, and the

other to vaunt remedies against the ague. At the point of day, and

while we were all in the grasp of that first chill, a native of the

state, who had got in at some way station, pronounced it, with a

doctoral air, "a fever and ague morning."

The Dutch widow was a person of some character. She had conceived

at first sight a great aversion for the present writer, which she

was at no pains to conceal. But being a woman of a practical

spirit, she made no difficulty about accepting my attentions, and

encouraged me to buy her children fruits and candies, to carry all

her parcels, and even to sleep upon the floor that she might profit

by my empty seat. Nay, she was such a rattle by nature, and, so

powerfully moved to autobiographical talk, that she was forced, for

want of a better, to take me into confidence and tell me the story

of her life. I heard about her late husband, who seemed to have

made his chief impression by taking her out pleasuring on Sundays.

I could tell you her prospects, her hopes, the amount of her

fortune, the cost of her housekeeping by the week, and a variety of

particular matters that are not usually disclosed except to

friends. At one station, she shook up her children to look at a

man on the platform and say if he were not like Mr. Z.; while to me

she explained how she had been keeping company with this Mr. Z.,

<<BackPagesTo menuNext>>