a
beautiful curve, like the rim of a silver salver, towards the south, the
blue perspective of the surrounding woods fading into the azure bluffs
on the farther shore, where, as he now identified it, the hamlet of
Sharptown assumed the mystery and similitude of a city by the
enchantment of distance. A large brig was riding up the river under the
afternoon breeze, carrying the English flag at her spanker. The
wild-fowl, flying in V-formed lines, like Hyads astray, flickered on the
salver of the river like house-flies. Some fishermen distantly appeared,
human, yet nearly stationary, as if to enliven a dream, and the bees in
a row of hives kept murmuring near by, increasing the restful sense in
the heart and the ears.

"Why cannot human natur be happy yer, pertickler with its gal--some one
like Ellenory?" Phoebus thought; "why must it git cruel an' desperate
for money, lookin' out on this dancin' water, an' want to turn this
trance into a Pangymonum?"

He crossed the lane to a squatty old structure of brick by the
water-side, and peeped in.

"A still, by smoke!" he said. "If it ain't apple brandy may I forgit my
compass! No, it's peach brandy. Well, anyway, it's hot enough; an' this,
I 'spect, is what started the Pangymonum."

He took a stout drink, and it revived his weakened system, and he bathed
his head in its strong alcohol. He then returned to the lawn and walked
around the house, peeping into the lower rooms--of which there were two
in the main building, the kitchen being an appendage--but saw nobody.
The porch in the rear extended the full width of the house, unlike the
smaller shed in front, which only covered two doors, standing curiously
side by side.

Completely sheltered by the longer porch, Phoebus, looking into a
window, there saw a table already set with a clean cloth, and bread and
cold chicken, and a pitcher of creamy milk, with a piece of ice floating
in it. On either side of a large fireplace at the table-side was a door,
one open, and leading by a small winding stair to the floor above. A bed
was also in the room, which looked out by one window upon the lawn and
the river, and by the other at the farm, the corn-cribs, and the small
barns and pound-yard.

With a sailor's quiet, sliding feet, Jimmy walked into the low hall, and
a cat-bird, in a cage there, immediately started such a shrill series of
cries that his steps were unheard by himself.

"Nobody bein' yer," thought Jimmy, "an' the flies