cerning it,
and that chiefly derived from others.

It appeared that there was on the other side of the river, and a little
lower down, a small settlement. It had stood there from time immemorial;
at least, the memory of the tidy little wife did not run to the contrary,
and she had received her birth and education there, and ought to know. She
remembered, one of the first things that she could remember, a middle-aged
gentleman, in a black hat and coat, who used to row over the river from
the other shore in a small skiff, and walk into her father's store to make
his purchases, with a grave, but not cold or forbidding face, and used to
pat her on the head, with such a fatherly smile, and say a few words in
such a kind tone, as to fill her little breast quite full with delight.
She remembered more distinctly, a few years later, how this same gentleman
used to come into the settlement as often as once-a-week, and how glad
every one appeared to meet him and shake hands with him. The villagers
seemed to repose unlimited confidence in him. The moment he landed,
half-a-dozen were ready to ask his advice, or to show him papers, to see
if all were correctly done. He was the umpire in all differences and
quarrels, and seldom failed to send away the disputants at peace with each
other. If there was a wedding, he of course must be present. On May-day,
when the boys and girls went out into the woods to romp, and afterward to
sit down to a rustic pic-nic, he was sure to walk into their midst, just
at the right moment, bearing in his hand a wreath of flowers, so
beautiful, and so tastefully made, that all the girls cried when at length
it fell to pieces; and he would place it on the head of the Queen of May
with such a gentle, sweet little speech, that she would blush up to the
tips of her ears, and all her subjects would clap their hands and laugh
out with pleasure.

At Christmas parties his place was never empty; and while he was there,
mirth never flagged. Perhaps their sports were not so boisterous as they
would have been if he had not been a spectator; but they were quite as
pleasant at the time, and a great deal pleasanter when looked back upon
from the next day. He used to sit in one corner, by the huge, roaring
fire, and look on, apparently as much interested as they themselves were.
Nothing went amiss; and there was never wanting some slight, good-natured
remark or act, to rectify mistakes and set them all going again.

But m