FROM LONDON TO NEW YORK. 219 



ing for me." The harper presently struck up a livelier 

 strain, when two Welsh girls, who were chatting before 

 the grate, one of them as dumpy as a bag of meal, and 

 the other slender and tall, stepped into the middle of 

 the floor and began to dance to the delicious music, a 

 Welsh mechanic and myself drinking our ale and look- 

 ing on approvingly. After a while the pleasant, mod- 

 est-looking bar-maid, whom I had seen behind the beer 

 levers as I entered, came in, and, after looking on for 

 a momept, was persuaded to lay down her sewing and 

 join in the dance. Then there came in a sandy-haired 

 Welshman, who could speak and understand only his 

 native dialect, and finding his neighbors affiliating with 

 an Englishman, as he supposed, and trying to speak 

 the hateful tongue, proceeded to berate them sharply 

 (for it appears the Welsh are still jealous of the Eng- 

 lish) ; but when they explained to him that I was not 

 an Englishman, but an American, and had already 

 twice stood the beer all around (at an outlay of six- 

 pence), he subsided into a sulky silence and regarded 

 me intently. 



About eleven o'clock a policeman paused at the 

 door and intimated that it was time the house was shut 

 up and the music stopped, and to outward appearances 

 his friendly warning was complied with ; but the harp 

 still discoursed in a minor key, and a light tripping 

 and shuffling of responsive feet might occasionally have 

 been heard for an hour later. When I arose to go it 

 was with a feeling of regret that I could not see more 



