t on
the occasion is Mrs. Alice Goodfellow, and as their Lord's reputed aunt
for so many years, she is a person of no small importance:--still
single, but beginning to think of settling now, as her glass gives
awkward reflections,--but still balancing the claims of her admirers,
though she does give color to the report of shewing a preference for the
sturdy blacksmith;--by her side, smartly dressed, are gamboling about
the young Johnsons, while their father, in a respectable suit of black,
marshals the somewhat unruly procession of maidens and youths chosen to
receive the young Earl. He is now the steward, (agent is a name he
wisely discards,) and a great man, but young girls and boys from sixteen
to twenty have a trick of paying no attention to the wisdom of their
elders, and he is sorely put to it to maintain order. Spring has planted
her fair feet upon the daisied green, and a huge May-Pole has been
erected, as in the olden time, an ox is roasted whole upon the lawn,
tables are spread out under the shade of the great elms and sturdy oaks,
foaming barrels of mighty ale, such as Guy of Warwick drank, ere he
encountered the dun cow, are seen with taps ready in them,--the children
are dancing round the May-Pole in wild glee,--and now a scout posted on
a rising ground comes tearing towards them as though life and death
defended on his speed,--the carriage is coming,--a cheer arises,--it has
passed the gates, and is coming up the avenue. Johnson is full of
nervous excitement, the maidens cease giggling and pinching and all
those endearing little amusements, the young men try to look solemn and
only succeed in causing a burst of laughter from the sly girls, some of
whom draw down their faces in imitation. They are nervous, too--what if
the great man should see their dresses in disorder, and he a young man,
too; the elder matrons and the farmers stand nearest the house, all is
expectation, he has come, the carriage has stopped at the very extremity
of the line, a cheer, thrice repeated, peals through the air, as he
descends from the carriage, and it is a heartfelt one, for this they
know has been among themselves, and shared their hopes and fears. He is
followed by Captain Williams, in the full uniform of an American Naval
Officer; he is whiter headed than when we saw him last, but he looks
able to wrestle any man upon the ground, a cheer bursts forth for him
also, though none recognize in him aught but the brave sailor who ha