xvi DOMESTIC SCENERY OF NEW ENGLAND. 



The road may soon carry you into the deep woods ; and as 

 the woods in New England, except those in bogs, stand chiefly 

 upon the broken, hilly, and intractable parts of the surface, 

 your course will be for a while through grounds as rugged as 

 among the mountains and as picturesque as any mountain 

 scenery in the world. It is delightful to emerge out of the 

 darkness of these woods into an open valley containing a vil- 

 lage of a few score houses, a church with a spire, a tavern, 

 and a smithy, all enclosed by green and rugged hills. On a 

 little grassy plain near the meeting of several roads leading 

 from different points in the outskirts of the town stands the 

 village school-house. It is a square building of one story, with 

 a hurricane roof, painted red, and shaded by an elm. If it be 

 summer, when the sons of the farmers are employed upon the 

 land, and girls and small children only attend school, the 

 teacher is a female, a slender young woman, who has chosen 

 the occupation of teaching, while her more buxom sisters are 

 employed in active tasks at home. 



The roads you have traversed are narrow and irregular, 

 but all seem to terminate in this charming New England vil- 

 lage, in which the simplicity of an earlier period is joined with 

 the culture, refinement, and intelligence of the present day. 

 Many enchanting scenes are assembled in it and hallow it; the 

 plains are daisied with wild flowers, the surrounding hills are 

 dressed in verdure and crowned with tall trees that seem like 

 the guardians of its tranquillity. But the pride of the valley 

 is this young teacher. The groves are but the arbor of which 

 she is the sylph. Every circle in which she is imparadised is 

 enlivened by her wit and beautified by her presence. Here 

 you will remain and be happy, until ambition tempts you to 

 join the tumult of commerce, and causes you to forget those 

 sweet domestic scenes hi which is enshrined all the happiness 

 to be found in this world. 



