As yet nature is but half awake , and familiar objects appear visionary . But yonder , dashing from the shore with a rattling thunder of the wheels and a confused clatter of hoofs , comes the never-tiring mail , which has hurried onward at the same headlong , restless rate all through the quiet night . The bridge resounds in one continued peal as the coach rolls on without a pause , merely affording the toll-gatherer a glimpse at the sleepy passengers , who now bestir their torpid limbs and snuff a cordial in the briny air . The morn breathes upon them and blushes , and they forget how wearily the darkness toiled away . And behold now the fervid day in his bright chariot , glittering aslant over the waves , nor scorning to throw a tribute of his golden beams on the toll-gatherer 's little hermitage . The old man looks eastward , and -LRB- for he is a moralizer -RRB- frames a simile of the stage-coach and the sun . While the world is rousing itself we may glance slightly at the scene of our sketch . It sits above the bosom of the broad flood -- a spot not of earth , but in the midst of waters which rush with a murmuring sound among the massive beams beneath . Over the door is a weatherbeaten board inscribed with the rates of toll in letters so nearly effaced that the gilding of the sunshine can hardly make them legible . Beneath the window is a wooden bench on which a long succession of weary wayfarers have reposed themselves . Peeping within-doors , we perceive the whitewashed walls bedecked with sundry lithographic prints and advertisements of various import and the immense show-bill of a wandering caravan . And there sits our good old toll-gatherer , glorified by the early sunbeams . He is a man , as his aspect may announce , of quiet soul and thoughtful , shrewd , yet simple mind , who of the wisdom which the passing world scatters along the wayside has gathered a reasonable store . Now the sun smiles upon the landscape and earth smiles back again upon the sky . Frequent now are the travellers . The toll-gatherer 's practised ear can distinguish the weight of every vehicle , the number of its wheels and how many horses beat the resounding timbers with their iron tramp . Here , in a substantial family chaise , setting forth betimes to take advantage of the dewy road , come a gentleman and his wife with their rosy-cheeked little girl sitting gladsomely between them . The bottom of the chaise is heaped with multifarious bandboxes and carpet-bags , and beneath the axle swings a leathern trunk dusty with yesterday 's journey . Next appears a four-wheeled carryall peopled with a round half dozen of pretty girls , all drawn by a single horse and driven by a single gentleman . Luckless wight doomed through a whole summer day to be the butt of mirth and mischief among the frolicsome maidens !
Bolt upright in a sulky rides a thin , sour-visaged man who as he pays his toll hands the XXXXX a printed card to stick upon the wall .
flood hermitage leathern morn night sunbeams toll-gatherer wayfarers wight within-doors