`` Oh , '' said he , `` I keep company with this old gentlemen here , and we are moving now toward 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 book-store , 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-pedler , 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 conversations with some elderly clergyman long vegetating in a rocky , woody , watery back-settlement of New England , who as he recruited his library from the pedler '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 halfway 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 of Yankee-land , was assisting her into the wagon . It became immediately evident to us , when the two strangers stood within the door , that they were of a profession kindred to those of my companions , and I was delighted with the more than hospitable -- the even paternal -- kindness of the old showman 's manner as he welcomed them , while the man of literature hastened to lead the merry-eyed girl to a seat on the long bench . `` You are housed but just in time , my young friends , '' said the master of the wagon ; `` the sky would have been down upon you within five minutes . '' The young man 's reply marked him as a foreigner -- not by any variation from the idiom and accent of good English , but because he spoke with more caution and accuracy than if perfectly familiar with the language . `` We knew that a shower was hanging over us , '' said he , `` and consulted whether it were best to enter the house on the top of yonder hill , but , seeing your wagon in the road -- '' `` We agreed to come hither , '' interrupted the girl , with a smile , `` because we should be more at home in a wandering house like this . '' I , meanwhile , with many a wild and undetermined fantasy was narrowly inspecting these two doves that had flown into our ark . The young man , tall , agile and athletic , wore a mass of black shining curls clustering round a dark and vivacious countenance which , if it had not greater expression , was at least more active and attracted readier notice , than the quiet faces of our countrymen . At his first appearance he had been laden with a neat mahogany box of about two feet square , but very light in proportion to its size , which he had immediately unstrapped from his shoulders and deposited on the floor of the wagon .
The girl had nearly as fair a complexion as our own beauties , and a brighter one than most of them ; the lightness of her figure , which seemed calculated to traverse the whole world without weariness , suited well with the glowing cheerfulness of her face , and her gay attire , combining the rainbow hues XXXXX crimson , green and a deep orange , was as proper to her lightsome aspect as if she had been born in it .
At amid because before by in of over upon whether