man's, Jonah Johnson's, and so on, past houses, and clearings,
and woodlands, looking almost wistfully, as if he expected pleasant
greetings; but the few he saw merely nodded to him, or called out:
"Are you back again?" He paused on the hill by the saw-mill, which
overlooked the pond, and gazed long over its beautiful surface,
sleeping in utter solitude amid the green hills, under the slanting
summer sun, and seemed to recognize in it what he had observed, on the
evening of his return, about the old homestead--the change that had
taken place in himself--a change which often accounts for the strange
appearance of the most familiar and cherished places. We find it
reflected in the face of inanimate nature, and wonder at her altered
guise, unconscious of the cause. He sauntered musingly on to the
State road, and over by the old grist-mill, past several houses, up to
Parker's. Here, by a beautiful spring under the shade of old apple
and cherry-trees, near the carriage-way, was an indolent group of
afternoon idlers. Conspicuous among them was the dark and striking
face of Dr. Lyman, the rich mahogany of Uncle Josh, and the homely,
shrewd, and fresh-colored countenance of Jonah Johnson. Bart could not
avoid them if he would; and regretted that he had not gone across the
woods to the post-office, and so escaped them.

"Well, young Scholasticus," said the Doctor, after the slight
greetings had been given to the new-comer, "you seem to have graduated
with great rapidity. You went through college like--"

"One of your emetics, Doctor. I came out at the same door I went in
at. Now, doctus, doctior, doctissimus, I am fair game on this point,
so blaze away with everything but your saddle-bags, and I will laugh
with the rest of you."

A good-natured laugh welcomed this coming down.

"Well," replied the doctor, "there can't be much more said."

"I should like to know, young man," remarked Uncle Josh, "whether you
raly got into the college, I should."

"Well, Mr. Burnett, I _raly_ did not, I didn't," mimicking Uncle Josh.

"What did you do, badinage apart?"

"I took a good outside look at the buildings, which was improving;
called on your friends Dr. Nutting and Rev. Beriah Green, who asked me
what church I belonged to, and who was my instructor in Latin."

"What reply did you make?"

"What could I say? I didn't hear the first; and as to the second, I
couldn't bring reproach upon you, and so I said I had never had
one. You