MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 429 



that I procured a fresh supply of coffee and eggs. This was 

 Saturday evening, and the young ladies, after having cleared 

 the table and again covered it with the necessary articles, sat 

 down to their meal with me, on a footing of the most perfect 

 equality. I found them very inquisitive, far more so than 

 any of the New Englanders I ever met with, but I afterwards 

 learned that these people had lately come from a remote part 

 of the country, where probably there were no schools. Such 

 silly conduct, in respect to their own interest, as they were 

 guilty of during the forty-eight hours I remained with them, 

 is generally the offspring of ignorance. I found the hotel- 

 keeper a masterpiece of rudeness, and very soon got a candle 

 and retired to my bedroom. I was told the breakfast hour 

 was half past seven, but I started from my pillow on the follow 

 ing morning at six, when I heard other people stirring so early, 

 and the breakfast had commenced before I was able to get to 

 the parlour. I asked how this happened ; but I found from 

 the answer that it was quite unnecessary to have any farther 

 discussion with such a barbarian as Squire Bentley. He did 

 not care for the customs of the British. His forefathers had 

 left England to avoid tyranny, and they did not care for 

 seeing foreigners here. 



&quot; The tea and supper at the hotel in the evening was even 

 a more ridiculously managed meal, than any of those which 

 preceded it. The female waiter, it being Sunday evening, 

 was particularly smartly dressed, and sat at the end of the 

 table and at some distance from it, much more intent on 

 placing one leg above the other in a proper position for show 

 ing her foot and ankle than in giving the necessary attend 

 ance at the tea-table but she was such a good-humoured 

 1 romp-loving looking Miss, that though she did any thing 

 rather than attend to her duty, I believe she was the most 

 popular of all the hotel family with the strangers. Every 

 thing was bad, and the hotel people completely lost temper 

 when they noticed that we did not even find fault with them, 

 but laughed at the absurdity of being so treated. Even the 

 bread was execrable a most uncommon occurrence in the 

 United States. I soon left the supper-table, and when sitting 

 in my thinly boarded room, heard the landlord tell a traveller 



