SHEPHEKDSTOTTN, ON THE POTOMAC. 40 



cognition from the outer world ever reached them, not so much as 

 an advertisement, and yet day after day, there they were, with un- 

 impaired cheerfulness, and apparently always expecting - , that to-day, 

 at last, the long expected letter would arrive. When it did not, they 

 expressed rather surprise than distress, hung about the Post Office 

 until the very last, so as to lose no possible chance, and finally dis- 

 appeared with the last of the crowd, ready to come again to-morrow 

 and again go the round of hope, suspense and disappointment, if 

 disappointment it can be called, that affected them so little. 



Any other excitement, indeed, it would have been hard to find. 

 Theatres were an abomination in the eyes of both clergy and laity, 

 besides being almost out of reach; balls, of course, would be almost 

 as obnoxious to the serious as theatres; and dinner parties [at two 

 p. M.] could scarcely be said to reach the point of excitement any 

 more than could what were called tea parties, or, perhaps a shade 

 more dissipated, evening parties ; of the very mildest type these latter 

 were, no dancing, and few gentlemen under middle age. There was 

 not even the excitement of getting rich ; the means to that end, if not 

 the end itself, being generally too vulgar to suit this aristocratic com- 

 munity. For trade they had the absolute contempt of an agricultural 

 people. 



There were, and I believe, still are, for changes here are almost as 

 slow as Evolution, certain ruined factories, which haunt like ghosts 

 the lower part of the town, hying along the River side, a warning 

 against ill-gotten, or rather ill-sought, wealth — that the wealth was 

 not gotten the ruins were supposed to prove. Beyond this, as the 

 ghosts have not spoken, I never found anyone who knew anything, even 

 so much as the names of the founders, or the purpose for which the fac- 

 tories were built. If it had been to find the exact name of a far-back 

 ancestor the largest force that this truly aristocratic and well-bred 

 community could bring together would have assisted at it, but being 

 merely a search for a certainly plebeian, (almost), certain stranger of 

 plebeian tastes and pursuits, they were contented to remain in com- 

 fortable ignorance. 



And, after all, this somewhat old-fashioned pride did not do so 

 badly, for it generally carried with it certain — perhaps old-fashioned 

 too— ideas of honor and responsibility. Names that had come down 

 from so far must not have reproach brought upon them now ; and 



