m. There were four horses to this land-ark, of course; but
we did not perform the journey until after half-past six o'clock that
night. . . . The first half of the journey was tame enough, but the second
lay through the valley of the Susquehanah (I think I spell it right, but
I haven't that American Geography at hand), which is very beautiful. . . .

"I think I formerly made a casual remark to you touching the precocity
of the youth of this country. When we changed horses on this journey I
got down to stretch my legs, refresh myself with a glass of
whiskey-and-water, and shake the wet off my great-coat,--for it was
raining very heavily, and continued to do so, all night. Mounting to my
seat again, I observed something lying on the roof of the coach, which I
took to be a rather large fiddle in a brown bag. In the course of ten
miles or so, however, I discovered that it had a pair of dirty shoes at
one end, and a glazed cap at the other; and further observation
demonstrated it to be a small boy, in a snuff-colored coat, with his
arms quite pinioned to his sides by deep forcing into his pockets. He
was, I presume, a relative or friend of the coachman's, as he lay atop
of the luggage, with his face towards the rain; and, except when a
change of position brought his shoes in contact with my hat, he appeared
to be asleep. Sir, when we stopped to water the horses, about two miles
from Harrisburg, this thing slowly upreared itself to the height of
three foot eight, and, fixing its eyes on me with a mingled expression
of complacency, patronage, national independence, and sympathy for all
outer barbarians and foreigners, said, in shrill piping accents, 'Well
now, stranger, I guess you find this a'most like an English
a'ternoon,--hey?' It is unnecessary to add that I thirsted for his
blood. . . .

"We had all next morning in Harrisburg, as the canal-boat was not to
start until three o'clock in the afternoon. The officials called upon
me before I had finished breakfast; and, as the town is the seat of the
Pennsylvanian legislature, I went up to the Capitol. I was very much
interested in looking over a number of treaties made with the poor
Indians, their signatures being rough drawings of the creatures or
weapons they are called after; and the extraordinary drawing of these
emblems, showing the queer, unused, shaky manner in which each man has
held the pen, struck me very much.

"You know my small respect for our House of Commons.