JUNE AND DECEMBER. 
JUNE IN FRANCONIA. 
‘‘ Herbs, fruits, and flowers, 
Walks, and the melody of birds.” 
Mitton. 
THERE were six of us, and we had the 
entire hotel, I may almost say the entire 
valley, to ourselves. If the verdict of the 
villagers could have been taken, we should, 
perhaps, have been voted a queer set, fami- 
liar as dwellers in Franconia are with the 
sight of idle tourists, — 
“ Rapid and gay, as if the earth were air, 
And they were butterflies to wheel about 
Long as the summer lasted.”’ 
We were neither “rapid.” nor “gay,” and 
it was still only the first week of June; if 
we were summer boarders, therefore, we 
must be of some unusual early - blooming 
variety. 
