We will not venture to assert that the young traveller had formed
any very deliberate designs of conquest, but, it may be said, as well
here as elsewhere, that his self-esteem was great; and accustomed
to easy conquests among the sex, in the region where he dwelt, it
was only necessary to inflame his vanity, to stimulate him to the
exercise of all his arts.
It was about noon, on one of those bright, balmy days, early in
October, when "the bridal of the earth and sky," in the language of
the good old Herbert, is going on--when, the summer heats subdued,
there is yet nothing either cold, or repulsive in the atmosphere;
and the soft breathing from the southwest has just power enough to
stir the flowers and disperse their scents; that our young traveller
was joined in his progress towards Charlemont, by a person mounted
like himself and pursuing a similar direction.
At the first glance the youth distinguished him as one of the
homely forest preachers of the methodist persuasion, who are the
chief agents and pioneers of religion in most of the western woods.
His plain, unstudied garments all of black, rigid and unfashionable;
his pale, demure features, and the general humility of his air and
gesture, left our young skeptic little reason to doubt of this;
and when the other expressed his satisfaction at meeting with
a companion at last, after a long and weary ride without one, the
tone of his expressions, the use of biblical phraseology, and the
monotonous solemnity of his tones, reduced the doubts of the youth
to absolute certainty.
Pages:
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74