A BACKWOODS FAMILY. 169 



to get dark when I reached the house of a Mrs. Lane, 

 who seeing me look so wretched and worn, kindly 

 invited me to rest there. Mrs. Lane might be held up 

 as a good specimen of American women. She was 

 very simply dressed, but in good taste, and every thing 

 in the house, where she lived with her two daughters, 

 remarkably pretty girls, was scrupulously neat and 

 clean. 



They listened with pleasure to my accounts of dis- 

 tant Europe, the sort of life people led there, the luxury 

 of the rich and the misery of the poor, particularly in 

 large towns, the general fondness for society, and the 

 good qualities of many of all stations, high and low ; 

 they shook their heads and said, " The other side of the 

 great ocean must be a curious place ! " It was late 

 when I rolled myself in a blanket before the fire, to 

 sleep sweetly and calmly during the night. In the 

 morning my headache returned, and shivering limbs 

 announced the enemy. There was no time for delay ; I 

 buckled the girths with trembhng hands, and went in 

 to take leave : the kind folks had some hot coffee ready 

 for me, which might delay but could not prevent the 

 attack. I went on about three miles to the smithy, 

 and explained my wishes, and then turned the horse's 

 head toward the house of Mr. Dunn : how I got there 

 is more than I can say, — I have a faint remembrance 

 of a piercing headache, and dreadful weakness — that I 

 often lay upon the horse's neck, when the gentle animal 

 stood still, and did not move till I could sit upright 

 again. Dunn's house was about three miles from the 

 smith's ; on arriving, I slipped off rather than dis- 

 mounted. The old man soon saw what was the matter 

 15 



