further off on that other stone with the spring between us what would the sisters say if thee were to sit so close to me but we are of the world s people now answered thb the girl persisted in her nor did the youth in fact seem altogether free from a similar sort of shyness so they sat apart from each other gazing up the hill where the moonlight discovered the tops of a group of buildings while their attention was thus occupied a party of travellers who had come wearily up the long ascent made a halt to refresh themselves at the spring there were three men a woman and a little girl and boy their attire was mean covered with the dust of the summer s day and damp with the night dew they all looked woe as if the cares and sorrows of the world had made their steps heavier as they climbed the hill even the two little children appeared older in evil days than the young man and maiden who had first approached the spring good evening to you young folks was the salutation of the travellers and good evening friends replied the youth and is that white building the meeting house asked one of the strangers and are those the red roofs of the village friend it is the village answered after some hesitation the travellers who from the first had looked suspiciously at the garb of these young people now them with an intention which all the circumstances indeed rendered too obvious to be mistaken it is true friends replied the young man up his courage and i have a gift to love each other and we are going among the world s people to live after their fashion and ye know that we do not thb the law of the land and neither ye nor the elders themselves have a right to hinder us yet you think it expedient to depart without remarked one of the travellers yea ye a said reluctantly because job is a very awful man to speak with and being aged himself he has but little charity for what he calls the of the flesh well said the stranger we will neither use force to bring you back to the village nor will we betray you to the elders but sit you here a while and when you have heard v at we shall tell you of the world which we have left and into which you are going perhaps you will turn back with us of your own accord what say you added he turning to his companions we have travelled thus far without becoming known to each other shall we tell our stories here by this pleasant spring for our own and the benefit of these young lovers in accordance with this proposal the whole party stationed themselves round the stone the two children being very weary fell asleep upon the damp earth and the pretty girl whose feelings were those of a or a lady crept as close as possible to the female traveller and as far as she well could from the unknown men the same person who had hitherto been the chief now stood up waving his hat in his hand and suffered the moonlight to fall full upon his front in me said he with a certain majesty of utterance in me you behold a poet though a print of this gentleman is the it may be well to notice that he was now nearly forty a thin and stooping figure in a black coat out at elbows notwithstanding the ill condition of his attire there were about him several tokens of a peculiar sort of unworthy of a mature man particularly in the arrangement of his ir which was so disposed as to give all possible and breadth to his forehead however he had an intelligent eye and on the whole a marked countenance a poet repeated the young a little puzzled how to such a seldom heard in the community where he had spent his life o ay he means a maker thee must know this remark upon the susceptible nerves of the poet nor could he help wondering what strange had put into this young man s mouth an epithet which ill natured people had affirmed to be more proper to his merit than the one assumed by himself true i am a verse maker he resumed but my verse is no more than the material body into which i breathe the celestial soul of thought alas how many a pang has it cost me this same to the ethereal essence of poetry with which you have here tortured me again at the moment when i am to my profession forever o fate why hast thou with nature turning all her higher and more perfect gifts to the ruin of me their possessor what is the voice of song when the world the ear of taste how can i rejoice in my strength and delicacy of feeling when they have but made great sorrows out of little ones have i dreaded scorn like death thb and for fame as others for vital air only to find myself in a middle state between obscurity and but i have my revenge i could have given to a thousand bright i crush them into my heart and there let them i shake off the dust of my feet against my countrymen but posterity tracing my footsteps up this weary hill will cry shame upon the unworthy age that drove one of the fathers of american song to end his days in a village during this the speaker with great energy and as poetry is the natural language of passion there appeared reason to apprehend his final explosion into an the reader must understand that for all these bitter words he was a kind gentle harmless poor fellow enough whom nature tossing 