I beheld him leaning with his head against his crook, with piteous inclination looking down upon it!-Oh! had I come one moment sooner! -it bleeds to death-his gentle heart bleeds with it

Peace to thee, generous fwain!—I see thou walkeft off with anguifh-but thy joys fhall bafance it for happy is thy cottage-and happy is the fharer of it-and happy are the lambs which sport about you.

SENT. JOURNEY, P. 226.

1303

219920 bar HE SUPPE R.

A SHOE coming loofe from the fore-foot of mood the t thill-horfe, at the beginning of the 5afcent of mount Taurira, the poftillion difmounted, twifted the fhoe off, and put it in his pocket; as the afcent was of five or fix miles, and that horfe our main dependence, I made a point of having the fhoe faften'd on again, as well as we could; but the poftillion had thrown away the nails, and the hammer in the chaife

box, being of no great ufe without them, fub mitted to go on.

He had not mounted half a mile higher; when.....!, coming to a flinty piece of road, the poor devi loft a fecond shoe, and from off his other forefoot; I then got out of the chaife in good ear-T neft; and feeing a house about a quarter of augls mile to the left-hand, with a great deal to dɑ, 9. I prevailed upon the poftillion to turn up to it. The look of the houfe, and of every thing about.. it, as we drew nearer,, foon reconciled me to the difafter.It was a little farm-houfe furrounded with about twenty acres of vineyard, about 150 ás much corn—and close to the houfe, on one! fide, was a potagerie of an acre and a half full. ; of every thing which could make plenty in a French peafant's house-and on the other fide was a little wood which furnished wherewithal to dress it. It was about eight in the evening when I got to the house-so I left the poftillion to manage his point as he could-and for mine,. I walk'd directly into the houfe.

The fantily confifted of an old grey-headed man and his wife, with five or fix fons and fons-w in-law and their feveral wives, and a joyous genealogy out of them.

They

They were all fitting down together to their lentil-foup; a large wheaten loaf was in the middle of the table; and a flaggon of wine at each end of it promifed joy thro' the stages of the repaft 'twas a feast of love.

The cold man rofe up to meet me, and with a respectful cordiality would have me fit down at: the table my heart was fet down the moment I entered the room; fo I fat down at once like a fon of the family; and to invest myself in the character as fpeedily as I could, I instantly borrowed the old man's knife, and taking up the loaf, cut myself a hearty luncheon; and as I did. it, I faw a teftimony in every eye, not only of an honest welcome, but of a welcome mix'd with thanks that I had not feem'd to doubt it.

Was it this; or tell me, Nature, what else it was that made this morfel fo fweet and to. what magic I owe it, that the draught I took of their flaggon was fo delicious with it, that they remain upon. my palate to this hour?

If the fupper was to my tafte-the grace which followed it was much more fo.

THE

WHEN

a knock upon the table with the haft of his knife, to bid them prepare for the dance : the moment the fignal was given, the women and girls ran all together into the back apartment to tie up their hair and the young men to the door to wash their faces, and change their fabots; and in three minutes every foul was ready upon a little efplanade before the house to begin The old man and his wife came out laft, and placing me betwixt them, fat down upon a fopha of turf by the door.

The old man had fome fifty years ago been no mean performer upon the vielle—and, at the age he was then of, touched it well enough for the purpose. His wife fung now-and-then a little to the tune-then intermitted—and joined her old man again, as their children and grand-children danced before them.

It was not till the middle of the second dance, when for fome pauses in the movement where

in they all feem'd to look up, I fancied I could diftinguish an elevation of fpirit different from that which is the caufe or the effect of fimple jollity. In a word, I thought I beheld Religion mixing in the dance-but as I had never feen her fo engaged, I fhould have look'd upon it now as one of the illufions of an imagination which is eternally misleading me, had not the old man, as foon as the dance ended, faid, that this was their conftant way; and that all his. life long he made it a rule, after fupper was over, to call out his family to dance and rejoice;. believing, he said, that a cheerful and contented mind was the best fort of thanks to heaven that an illiterate peafant could pay

-Or a learned prelate either, faid I.

SENT. JOURNEY, P. 227.