ary, whose adventures roused within me a gleam of religious
enthusiasm; some sermons of the leading Methodist clergy, which, to her
horror, I pronounced stupid; and a torn copy of the "Imitation of
Christ," a book which she threatened to take from me, because she
believed it had something to do with the Papists, but to which, for that
very reason, I clung with a tenacity and read with an earnestness which
brought at last its own beautiful fruits. Then, there was the "Scottish
Chiefs," a treasure-house of delight to me,--two or three trashy novels,
given me by Tom Salyers, of which my mother knew nothing,--and (the only
poetry I had ever seen) a song-book, which had, scattered among its
vulgarisms and puerilities, some gems of Burns and Moore. These my
natural, unvitiated taste had singled out, and I would croon them over
to myself, set them to a tune of my own composing, and half sing, half
chant them, when at work out-of-doors, till my mother declared I was
going crazy.

This morning I did not read. I sat looking down into the water from my
perch, carrying on the inward discussion of the night before, and
wishing that breakfast-time were come, that I might try my strength and
show that I was not to be put down by any assumption of superiority,
when suddenly a voice near me made me start so that I almost lost my
balance. Mr. Hammond was standing beneath. He laughed, and held out his
hand to help me down; but I sprang past him and was on my way to the
house, when suddenly my brave resolutions came back to my mind, and I
stood still with a feeling of defiance. I wondered what he would dare to
say. Would he tell me how stupid he thought us all, how like the very
pigs we lived? or would he describe his own grand house and the great
places he had seen? I scowled up sullenly.

"Will you tell me where to find a towel, that I may wash my face here by
the river-side?"

I laughed aloud, and with that laugh fled my sullenness. He looked a
little puzzled, but went on,--

"I went to bed so early that I cannot sleep any longer; and if I could
only find some way of getting across the river, I could get things under
way a little before my men come up."

There were ways, then, in which I could help him,--he was not so
immeasurably above me,--and down went my defiant spirit. The towel, a
crash roller, luckily clean, was brought at once, and, gathering courage
as I stood by and saw him finish his washing, I said,--

"I can scull yo