tention of passing an hour
there, in the full enjoyment of my own thoughts, or in listening to any
zephyr which might be sighing among the young leaves of the elm and
cherry. Between the trunks of the trees I saw the stooping figure of a
man creeping slowly, by the aid of a stick, under the thickly leaved
boughs. He was dressed much after the manner of some of our English
farmers, with knee breeches, white stockings, and shoes fastened over
the instep with a large silver buckle. A short drab coat, and a scarlet
felt hat, something like a cardinal's, with large flaps, completed his
costume. After a while the man crawled, rather than walked, towards one
of the benches, and sat down.

He was apparently seventy, or eighty years of age. His long, silvered
hair strayed down over the collar of his coat; and the soft languor of
his light blue eye imparted a sad impression to his countenance, which,
when he was young, must have been eminently handsome. He smiled as I
approached, and seemed desirous that I should take a seat by his side,
for he moved nearer to the end of the bench to make more room. The day
being hot, as I have said, I received the hint, hoping by doing so to
find entertainment, at least, and, perhaps, information. Soon as I had
taken my seat the old man touched his hat, and bowed low as his
infirmities would permit, and,

"Hur mar Herren?" he said. Knowing sufficient of the Swedish language to
understand that he asked me how I was, I answered in the same tongue,
and, in compliment to himself,

"Bra, Gud ske laf;" which four words I intended should intimate my
gratitude to Heaven that I was well. The old man appeared pleased, that
I should make reply to him in Swedish, and no doubt deemed me no
deficient linguist; for, observing my eyes were wandering over the
beautiful landscape, undulating with corn-fields, and terminating by
gentle hills clothed with the beech and elm, he ventured to say,

"Det aer ett vackert land."

I knew he alluded to the pretty appearance of the country; but I was
anxious to inform him that I did not understand the Swedish language
sufficiently well to carry on a conversation, and, at the same time, to
fall as decently as possible from the height on which I had placed
myself by the grammatical answer I had previously given, and which I had
accidentally learned by listening to the salutations and ordinary
replies of our pilots. I therefore curtly said,

"Ja."

A light seemed to st