^\)t Javmcr's ittontl)lij JHsitor. 



over, bail iiilieritocl the Pitllil faiiii, which luljoiii- 

 ed tliat of the Bracelys, aiul, inoreuvei-, had hecn 

 told lo "kiss hei- hl'tle liiishaiid, and love liiiii 

 ahvavs" by tlie dyiiiir l)realb of her mother, and 

 (moreover third) "had l)eeii "let be" liis sweet- 

 heart by the imaiiimous couseiitof the nei^libor- 

 liood, why, it seemed one of those matches luade 

 ill heaven, and not intended to be travestied on 

 eartli. It was niulerstood that tl'ey were to be 

 married as soon as the yonni; man's savings 

 should enable him to pull down llie old Pifflit 

 house and build a cottage, and, with a fair season, 

 that inisht be done in another year. Meantime, 

 Eph. was a loyal keeper of his troth, though 

 never having had the trouble to win the yonn^ 

 lady, he was not fully awaru of the necessity of 

 coiirtship, whether or no ; and was, besides, 

 somewhat unsusceptible of the charms of moon- 

 light, after a hard <lay's work at baying or har- 

 vestin;:. The neighbors thought it proof enough 

 of bis love that he never "went sparking" else- 

 where, and as he would rather talk of his gun or 

 his lisliing-rod, his horse or his crop, pigs, poli- 

 tics, or any thing else, than of love and matrimo- 

 ny, bis companions took bis engagement \yith his 

 cousin to be a subject upon which he felt too 

 deeply to banter, and they neither invaded his 

 domain by attentions to his sweetheart, not- sug- 

 "esteii thought by allusions to her. It was in the 

 progress of this even tenor of engagement, that 

 sonTe law business had called old farmer Bracely 

 to New York, and the young couple had managed 

 to accompany him. And of course, nothing 

 would do for IMiss Pifflit but " the Astor." 



And now, perhaps, the reader is ready to be 

 told whose carriage is at the Vesey street door, 

 and who sends up a dripping servant to imiuire 

 for Miss PitHit. 



It is allotted to the destiny of every country 

 girl to have one fashionable female I'riend in the 

 city — somebody to correspond with, somebody to 

 quote, somebody to write Ir^r the particulars of 

 tbe last elopement, somebody to send her pat- 

 terns of collars, and the rise and fall of louniuns, 

 and such other things as are not entered into by 

 the monthly magazines. How these apparently 

 unlikely acquaintances are formed, is as much a 

 mystery as the eternal youth of post-boys, and 

 the eternal dm-ation of donkeys. Far be it from 

 me to pry irreverently into these pokerish corners 

 of the machinery of the world. I go no tartlier 

 than tbe fact, that Miss Julia llampson was an 

 acquaintance of Miss Pifllit's. 



Every body knows "Hampson & Co." 

 Miss Hampson was a good deal what the Fates 

 had tried to make her. li' she bad not been ad- 

 mirably well dressed, it would have been by vio- 

 lent opposition to the imited zeal and talent of 

 dressmakers and milliners. These important 

 vicegerents of the Hand that reserves to itself 

 the dressing of the butterfly anil lily, make dis- 

 tinctions in the exercise of their vocation. Wo 

 be to an unloveable woman, if slie be not en- 

 dowed with taste supreme. She may buy all the 

 Btufts of France, and all the colors of the rain- 

 bow, but she will never get from those keen 

 judges of fitness the loving hint, the admiring 

 and selective (lersuasion, with which they delight 

 to influence the embellishment of sweetness and 

 loveliness. They who talk of "any thing's look- 

 ing well on a pretty woman," have not reflected 

 oifthe lesser providence of dressmakers and mil- 

 liners. Woman is never mercenary bnt in mon- 

 strous exceptio'is, and no tradeswoman of the 

 fashions will sell taste or counsel; and, in the 

 superior style of all charming women, ) on see, 

 not tbe iniiuence of manners upon dress, but the 

 affectionate tribute of these dispensers of ele- 

 gance to the qualities they admire. Let him who 

 doubts, go shopping with bis dressy old aunt to- 

 day, and to-morrow with his dear little cousin. 



Miss llampson, to whom the supplies of ele- 

 gance came as naturally as bread and butter, and 

 occasioned as little speculation as to the whence 

 or how, was as unconsciously elegant, of course, 

 as a well dressed lily. She was as abstractly a 

 very beautiful girl, though iu a very delicate and 

 unconspicuous style ; and by dint of absolute 

 fitness in dressing", the merit of her beautv. Iiy 

 common observers at least, would be half given 

 to her fashionable air and unexceptionable toi- 

 lette. The damsel and her choici; array, indeed, 

 seemed the harmonious work of the same maker. 

 How much was nature's gift, and how much was 

 bought in Broadway, was [irobably never duly 



understood by even her most discriminating ad- 

 min.'r. 



But we have kept Mi.ss Hampson too long upon 

 the stairs. 



The two young lallies met with a kiss, in w bich 

 (to the surprise of those who had previously ob- 

 served Miss PilHit) there was no smack of the 

 latest fashion. 

 "My dear Julia!" 



"Mv dear iMargeriue!" (This was a romantic 

 variation of flieg's, which she had forced upon 

 her intimate friends at the point of the bayonet.) 



Eph. twitched, remindingly, the jupon of his 

 cousin, and she introduced him with the Ibrmula 

 which she had fbiiiid in one of iMiss Aiistin's 

 novels. 



" Oh, but there was a mock respectfulness m 

 that deep curtsy," thought Eph.; (and so there 

 was— for Miss Hampson took an irresistible cue 

 from the inflated ceremoniousness of the intro- 

 duction.) 



Eph. made a bow as cold and stiff as a frozen 

 horse-blanket. And if he could have commanded 

 the blood in his face, it would have been as dig- 

 nified and resentful as the eloquence of Red 

 Jacket— but that rustic blush, up to his hair, was 

 like a mask droppeil over his fijatnres. 



"A bashful country-boy," thought Miss Hamp- 

 son, as she looked compassionately upon his red- 

 hot forehead, and forthwith dismissed him entire- 

 ly from her llioughts. 



With a consciousness that he had better leave 

 the room, and wallv oft' bis mortification under 

 an nmbrella, Eph. took his seat, and silently 

 listened to the conversation of the young ladies. 

 Miss Hampson had come to jiass the morning 

 with her friend, and she took off her bonnet, and 

 showered down upon her dazzling neck a (iro- 

 fusion of the most adorable brown ringlets. 

 Spite of his ancry humiliation, the young farmer 

 felt a thrill rmi" through his veins as the heavy 

 cnrls fell indolently about her shoulders. He 

 had never before looked upon a woman witli 

 emotion. He hated her- oh, yes! for she had 

 given him a look that could never he forgiven— 

 but, for somchodij, she must be the angel of tbe 

 worhl. Eph. would have given all his shee]) and 

 horses, cows, crops and hay-stacks, to have seen 

 the mail she would fancy to be her equal. _ He 

 could not give even a guess at the height of that 

 conscious superiority from which she individu- 

 ally looked down upon him ; but it wonid have 

 satisfied a thirst which almost made him scream, 

 to measure himself by a man with whom she 

 could he familiar. Where was his inferiority ? 

 What was it' AVhy bad be been blind to it till 

 now? Was there no surgeon's knife, no caustic, 

 that could carve out, or cut away, burn or.=carify, 

 thevnlirarities she looked upon so contemptuous- 

 ly? But the devil take her superciliousness, 



nevertheless ! ^ , n i i , 



It was a bitter morning to Eph. Bracely, nut 

 still it went like a dream. The hotel i)arlor was 

 no longer a stupid place. His Cousin Meg had 

 gained a consequence in his eyes, for she was 

 The object of caress from this superior creature— 

 she was the link which kept her within his ob- 

 servation. He was too fill I of other feelings just 

 now to do more than acknowledge the superiori- 

 ty of this girl to his cousin. He /f/( it iu his 

 a'fter thoughts, and his destiny then, lor the first 

 time, seemed crossed and inadequate to his 

 wishes. 



wretches they would seem to her. What insup- 

 portable horror she would feel at the dreadful 

 inelegance of the farm. Meg was pale with 

 terror and dismay as she went into the details of 

 anticipation. 



Something must be done, however. A sleep- 

 less night of retiectiou and contrivance sufficed 

 to give some shape to the cajiabilitics of the case, 

 and by daylight the next morning the whole 

 house 'was iu commotiun. Meg had fortmiately 

 a large bump of coustrnctiveness, very much 

 enlarired by her habitual dileiiimas of toilette. A 

 boudoir must be constructed. Farmer Bracely 

 slept in the dried-apple room, on the lower floor, 

 and he was no sooner out of his bed than his 

 ban' and bagijage were tumbled np stairs, his gun 

 and Siiuday "whip taken down from ilieir nails, 

 and the floor scoured, and the ceiling white- 

 washed. Eph. was by this time returned from 

 village with all the chintz that could be bought, 

 and a paper of tacks, and some new straw car- 



(\Vo hereby draw upon your imagination for 

 six months, courteous reader. Please allow the 

 teller to show you into the midille of tlie follow- 

 ing July.) 



CnAPTEP. II. 



Bracely farm, ten o'clock of a glorious snni- 

 mer moriiing— Miss PifHit extended upon a sofa 

 iu despair. "But let us i;o back a little. 



A week before, a letter had been receiveil from 

 Miss Hanqison, who, to the delight and surprise 

 of her friend Margerine, had taken the whim to 

 pass a moutli with lier. She was at Rockaway, 

 and was sick and tired of waltzing and the sea. 

 Had farmer Biacely a spare corner lor a poor 



'^ But Miss Pifllit's " sober second thought" was 

 utter consternation. How to lodge fitly the ele- 

 gant Julia Ilami>sou? No French bed in the 

 bouse, no boudoir, no ottomans, no pastilles, no 

 baths, no Psvche to dress by. What vulgar 



peting; and by ten o'clock that night the four 

 walls^of the apartment were covered with the 

 gaily flowered material, the carpet was nailed 

 down, and old farmer Bracely thought it a mighty 

 nice, cool-looking place. Eph. was a bit of a 

 carpenter, and he soon knocked together .some 

 boxes, which, when covered with chintz, and 

 stnftedwith wool, looked very Idic ottomans; and 

 with a handsome cloth on the round-table, ger- 

 aniums in the windows, and a chintz curtain to 

 subdue the lii-ht, it was not far from a very 

 charming boudoir, and Bleg began to breathe 

 more freely. 



But Eph. had heard this news with the blood 

 hot in his temples. Was that proud woman 

 coming to look ag.ain upon him with contempt, 

 and here, too, where the rusticity, w hicli he pre- 

 sumed to be the object of her scorn, would be a 

 thousand times more flagrant and visible? And 

 yet, with the entreaty on his lip that his cousin 

 would refuse to receive her, his heart bad check- 

 ed the utterance- for an irresistible desire sprung 

 suddenly within him to see her, even at the bitter 

 cost of tenfold his former mortification. 



Yet, as the preparations for receiving Miss 

 Hampson went on, other thoughts took jiossess- 

 ion of his mind. Eph. was not a man, indeed, 

 to come off second best in tbe long inill of wrest- 

 ling with a weakness. His pride began to show 

 its'colors. He remembered his independence as 

 aVarmer, depeniient on no man, and a little com- 

 parison between his pursuits and life, such as he 

 knew it to be, iu a city, soon put him, in his own 

 consciousness at least, on a par with Miss Ilamp- 

 son's connections. This point once attained, E))h. 

 cleared his brow, and went whistling about tbe 

 farm as usual— receiving without reply, however, 

 a suggestion of his Cousin Meg's, that he had 

 betterliurn his old straw bat, for, in a fit of ab- 

 sence, he misrht possibly put it on while Miss 

 Hampson was there. . 



Well, it was ten o'clock on the morning niter 

 Miss Hampson's arrival at Bracely farm, and, as 

 we said before. Miss Pifflit was in despair. Pre- 

 siimin" that her friend would be liitigued with 

 her iournev, she had determined not to wake 

 her, but t"o order breakfast in the boudoir at 

 eleven. Farmer 15racely and Eph. must have 

 their breakfast at seven, however, and what was 

 the dismay of Mes, who was pouring out their 

 coffee as usual, to see the elegant Julia rush into 

 the first kitchen, ciirtsv very sweetly to the old 

 man, null ui) a chair to the table, apologize lor 

 bein-^'late, and end this extraordinary scene by 

 IirodTicing two newlv batched chickens from her 

 bosom ! She had been up since sunn.se, and out 

 at the barn, and down by the river, and up in the 

 hav-mow, and was perfectly enchanted with 

 every thing, especi.dly the dear little pigs and 



chickens ! .,.,',,,/• 



"A very sweet young lady !" thought old far- 

 mer Bracelv. , . ,„ 

 "Verv well— but lians: your condescension! 

 thonght" Eph., distrustlhlly. , , . , ,„ 



"Mercy on me!— to like pigs and chickens! 

 inentallv"eiacnlated the disturbed and bewildered 



Miss Pi'fBit. . , , . 



But with her two chicks pressed to her iireast 

 with one hand, Miss Hampson managed her cof- 

 fee and bread and hotter with the other, and 

 chattered away like a child let out of school. 

 The !dr was so" delicious, and the liny smelt so 

 sweet, and the trees in the meadow were so 

 bciniiful, and there was no stiff siduwinks. and 



