He was a neat and trim young man of two or three and twenty ; his drab hat , and green frock-coat with velvet collar , were smart , though no longer new ; while a pair of green spectacles , that seemed needless to his brisk little eyes , gave him something of a scholar-like and literary air . After allowing me a sufficient time to inspect the puppets , he advanced with a bow , and drew my attention to some books in a corner of the wagon . These he forthwith began to extol , with an amazing volubility of well-sounding words , and an ingenuity of praise that won him my heart , as being myself one of the most merciful of critics . Indeed , his stock required some considerable powers of commendation in the salesman ; there were several ancient friends of mine , the novels of those happy days when my affections wavered between the Scottish Chiefs and Thomas Thumb ; besides a few of later date , whose merits had not been acknowledged by the public . I was glad to find that dear little venerable volume , the New England Primer , looking as antique as ever , though in its thousandth new edition ; a bundle of superannuated gilt picture-books made such a child of me , that , partly for the glittering covers , and partly for the fairy-tales within , I bought the whole ; and an assortment of ballads and popular theatrical songs drew largely on my purse . To balance these expenditures , I meddled neither with sermons , nor science , nor morality , though volumes of each were there ; nor with a Life of Franklin in the coarsest of paper , but so showily bound that it was emblematical of the Doctor himself , in the court dress which he refused to wear at Paris ; nor with Webster 's Spelling Book , nor some of Byron 's minor poems , nor half a dozen little Testaments at twenty-five cents each . Thus far the collection might have been swept from some great bookstore , or picked up at an evening auction-room ; but there was one small blue-covered pamphlet , which the peddler handed me with so peculiar an air , that I purchased it immediately at his own price ; and then , for the first time , the thought struck me , that I had spoken face to face with the veritable author of a printed book . The literary man now evinced a great kindness for me , and I ventured to inquire which way he was travelling . `` O , '' said he , `` I keep company with this old gentleman here , and we are moving now towards the camp-meeting at Stamford ! '' He then explained to me , that for the present season he had rented a corner of the wagon as a bookstore , which , as he wittily observed , was a true Circulating Library , since there were few parts of the country where it had not gone its rounds . I approved of the plan exceedingly , and began to sum up within my mind the many uncommon felicities in the life of a book-peddler , especially when his character resembled that of the individual before me . At a high rate was to be reckoned the daily and hourly enjoyment of such interviews as the present , in which he seized upon the admiration of a passing stranger , and made him aware that a man of literary taste , and even of literary achievement , was travelling the country in a showman 's wagon . A more valuable , yet not infrequent triumph , might be won in his conversation with some elderly clergyman , long vegetating in a rocky , woody , watery back settlement of New England , who , as he recruited his library from the peddler 's stock of sermons , would exhort him to seek a college education and become the first scholar in his class . Sweeter and prouder yet would be his sensations , when , talking poetry while he sold spelling-books , he should charm the mind , and haply touch the heart of a fair country schoolmistress , herself an unhonored poetess , a wearer of blue stockings which none but himself took pains to look at . But the scene of his completest glory would be when the wagon had halted for the night , and his stock of books was transferred to some crowded bar-room . Then would he recommend to the multifarious company , whether traveller from the city , or teamster from the hills , or neighboring squire , or the landlord himself , or his loutish hostler , works suited to each particular taste and capacity ; proving , all the while , by acute criticism and profound remark , that the lore in his books was even exceeded by that in his brain . Thus happily would he traverse the land ; sometimes a herald before the march of Mind ; sometimes walking arm in arm with awful Literature ; and reaping everywhere a harvest of real and sensible popularity , which the secluded bookworms , by whose toil he lived , could never hope for . `` If ever I meddle with literature , '' thought I , fixing myself in adamantine resolution , `` it shall be as a travelling bookseller . '' Though it was still mid-afternoon , the air had now grown dark about us , and a few drops of rain came down upon the roof of our vehicle , pattering like the feet of birds that had flown thither to rest . A sound of pleasant voices made us listen , and there soon appeared half-way up the ladder the pretty person of a young damsel , whose rosy face was so cheerful , that even amid the gloomy light it seemed as if the sunbeams were peeping under her bonnet .
We next saw the dark and handsome features of a young man , who , with easier gallantry than might have been expected in the heart XXXXX Yankee-land , was assisting her into the wagon .
After At If amid for like of that towards within