nto an unknown region, pleasant
companionship, and fine weather, inspire. When we issued from the woods
which clothe the sides of Melibocus, we sate down on the heathy turf,
and gazed with a feeling of ever-youthful delight on the scene around
us. Above us, and over its woods, rose the square white tower of
Melibocus; below, lay green valleys, from among whose orchards issued
the smoke of peaceful cottages; and beyond, rose hills covered with
other woods, with shrouded spots, the legends of which had reached us in
England, and had excited the wonder of our early days--the castle of the
Wild Huntsman--the traditions of the followers of Odin--and the
strongholds of many an iron-clad knight, as free to seize the goods of
his neighbors as he was strong to take and keep them. Now all was
peaceful and Arcadian. We met, as we descended into the valley, young
women coming up with their cows, and a shepherd with a mixed flock of
sheep and swine. He had a belt around him, to which hung a chain,
probably to fasten a cow to, as we afterward saw cows so secured.

We found the cottages, in the depths of the valleys, among their
orchards, just those heavy, old-fashioned sort of things that we see in
German engravings; buildings of wood-framing, the plaster panels of
which were painted in various ways, and the windows of those circular
and octagon panes which, from old association, always seem to belong to
German cottages, just such as that in which the old witch lived in
_Grimm's Kinder und Haus Maerchen_; and in the _Folk Sagor_ of Sweden and
Norway. There were, too, the large ovens built out of doors and roofed
over, such as the old giantess, _Kaeringen som vardt stekt i ugnen_, was
put into, according to German and Scandinavian legends. The people were
of the simplest character and appearance. We seemed at once to have
stepped out of modern times into the far-past ages. We saw several
children sitting on a bench in the open air, near a school-house,
learning their lessons, and writing on their slates; and we wept into
the school.

The schoolmaster was a man befitting the place; simple, rustic, and
devout. He told us that the boys and girls, of which his school was
full, came, some of them, from a considerable distance. They came in at
six o'clock in the morning and staid till eight, had an hour's rest, and
then came in till eleven, when they went home, and did not return again
till the next morning, being employed the rest of the