At Length I Told Him That He Was A Fortunate Man, And I Trusted
That He Was Grateful For So
Much light; and, rising, said I would
take a lamp, and that I would pay him then for my lodging,
For I
expected to recommence my journey even as early as the sun rose
in his country; but he answered in haste, and this time civilly,
that I should not fail to find some of his household stirring,
however early, for they were no sluggards, and I could take my
breakfast with them before I started, if I chose; and as he
lighted the lamp I detected a gleam of true hospitality and
ancient civility, a beam of pure and even gentle humanity, from
his bleared and moist eyes. It was a look more intimate with me,
and more explanatory, than any words of his could have been if he
had tried to his dying day. It was more significant than any
Rice of those parts could even comprehend, and long anticipated
this man's culture, - a glance of his pure genius, which did not
much enlighten him, but did impress and rule him for the moment,
and faintly constrain his voice and manner. He cheerfully led
the way to my apartment, stepping over the limbs of his men, who
were asleep on the floor in an intervening chamber, and showed me
a clean and comfortable bed. For many pleasant hours after the
household was asleep I sat at the open window, for it was a
sultry night, and heard the little river
"Amongst the pumy stones, which seemed to plain,
With gentle murmur, that his course they did restrain."
But I arose as usual by starlight the next morning, before my
host, or his men, or even his dogs, were awake; and, having left
a ninepence on the counter, was already half-way over the
mountain with the sun before they had broken their fast.
Before I had left the country of my host, while the first rays of
the sun slanted over the mountains, as I stopped by the wayside
to gather some raspberries, a very old man, not far from a
hundred, came along with a milking-pail in his hand, and turning
aside began to pluck the berries near me: -
"His reverend locks
In comelye curles did wave;
And on his aged temples grew
The blossoms of the grave."
But when I inquired the way, he answered in a low, rough voice,
without looking up or seeming to regard my presence, which I
imputed to his years; and presently, muttering to himself, he
proceeded to collect his cows in a neighboring pasture; and when
he had again returned near to the wayside, he suddenly stopped,
while his cows went on before, and, uncovering his head, prayed
aloud in the cool morning air, as if he had forgotten this
exercise before, for his daily bread, and also that He who
letteth his rain fall on the just and on the unjust, and without
whom not a sparrow falleth to the ground, would not neglect the
stranger (meaning me), and with even more direct and personal
applications, though mainly according to the long-established
formula common to lowlanders and the inhabitants of mountains.
When he had done praying, I made bold to ask him if he had any
cheese in his hut which he would sell me, but he answered without
looking up, and in the same low and repulsive voice as before,
that they did not make any, and went to milking. It is written,
"The stranger who turneth away from a house with disappointed
hopes, leaveth there his own offences, and departeth, taking with
him all the good actions of the owner."
Being now fairly in the stream of this week's commerce, we began
to meet with boats more frequently, and hailed them from time to
time with the freedom of sailors. The boatmen appeared to lead
an easy and contented life, and we thought that we should prefer
their employment ourselves to many professions which are much
more sought after. They suggested how few circumstances are
necessary to the well-being and serenity of man, how indifferent
all employments are, and that any may seem noble and poetic to
the eyes of men, if pursued with sufficient buoyancy and freedom.
With liberty and pleasant weather, the simplest occupation, any
unquestioned country mode of life which detains us in the open
air, is alluring. The man who picks peas steadily for a living
is more than respectable, he is even envied by his shop-worn
neighbors. We are as happy as the birds when our Good Genius
permits us to pursue any out-door work, without a sense of
dissipation. Our penknife glitters in the sun; our voice is
echoed by yonder wood; if an oar drops, we are fain to let it
drop again.
The canal-boat is of very simple construction, requiring but
little ship-timber, and, as we were told, costs about two hundred
dollars. They are managed by two men. In ascending the stream
they use poles fourteen or fifteen feet long, pointed with iron,
walking about one third the length of the boat from the forward
end. Going down, they commonly keep in the middle of the stream,
using an oar at each end; or if the wind is favorable they raise
their broad sail, and have only to steer. They commonly carry
down wood or bricks, - fifteen or sixteen cords of wood, and as
many thousand bricks, at a time, - and bring back stores for the
country, consuming two or three days each way between Concord and
Charlestown. They sometimes pile the wood so as to leave a
shelter in one part where they may retire from the rain. One can
hardly imagine a more healthful employment, or one more favorable
to contemplation and the observation of nature. Unlike the
mariner, they have the constantly varying panorama of the shore
to relieve the monotony of their labor, and it seemed to us that
as they thus glided noiselessly from town to town, with all their
furniture about them, for their very homestead is a movable, they
could comment on the character of the inhabitants with greater
advantage and security to themselves than the traveller in a
coach, who would be unable to indulge in such broadsides of wit
and humor in so small a vessel for fear of the recoil.
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