200 WINTER SKETCHES. 



" And now I dose my epic verse ; 

 I tremble as I show it, 

 Lest this same warrior-drover, Wayne, 

 Should ever catch the poet. " 



Musing on all these things, for though I had 

 not travelled many miles in the last two days, 

 I had travelled back many years, I gave 

 Fanny a loose rein and became careless of my 

 road. She did not pay proper attention to the 

 sign-boards, but wandered off to the right 

 through some by-road of the undiscovered 

 country. I think it was with instinct that she 

 might find a stopping-place for our midday 

 meal, for soon a little out-of-the-way Dutch 

 tavern hove in sight. Why it was there I can- 

 not tell. There was no neighborhood of 

 houses whose tenants might frequent its bar- 

 room at evening, and all the custom that could 

 come to its doors must be that of the prudent 

 farmers going in and coming out from market, 

 men who are chary of the proceeds of their 

 cabbages and potatoes. 



It must have been, as I have been, living on 

 the memories of the past. Before it was a 

 wide stoop, and as I pulled up alongside, I 

 could see the portly landlord sitting in his 

 own company by the bar-room stove, quietly 



