When we had travelled through the vast extent of the mahogany box , I looked into my guide 's face . `` Where are you going , my pretty maid ? '' inquired I , in the words of an old song . `` Ah , '' said the gay damsel , `` you might as well ask where the summer wind is going . We are wanderers here , and there , and everywhere . Wherever there is mirth , our merry hearts are drawn to it . To-day , indeed , the people have told us of a great frolic and festival in these parts ; so perhaps we may be needed at what you call the camp-meeting at Stamford . '' Then in my happy youth , and while her pleasant voice yet sounded in my ears , I sighed ; for none but myself , I thought , should have been her companion in a life which seemed to realize my own wild fancies , cherished all through visionary boyhood to that hour . To these two strangers the world was in its golden age , not that indeed it was less dark and sad than ever , but because its weariness and sorrow had no community with their ethereal nature . Wherever they might appear in their pilgrimage of bliss , Youth would echo back their gladness , care-stricken Maturity would rest a moment from its toil , and Age , tottering among the graves , would smile in withered joy for their sakes . The lonely cot , the narrow and gloomy street , the sombre shade , would catch a passing gleam like that now shining on ourselves , as these bright spirits wandered by . Blessed pair , whose happy home was throughout all the earth ! I looked at my shoulders , and thought them broad enough to sustain those pictured towns and mountains ; mine , too , was an elastic foot , as tireless as the wing of the bird of paradise ; mine was then an untroubled heart , that would have gone singing on its delightful way . `` O maiden ! '' said I aloud , `` why did you not come hither alone ? '' While the merry girl and myself were busy with the show-box , the unceasing rain had driven another wayfarer into the wagon . He seemed pretty nearly of the old showman 's age , but much smaller , leaner , and more withered than he , and less respectably clad in a patched suit of gray ; withal , he had a thin , shrewd countenance , and a pair of diminutive gray eyes , which peeped rather too keenly out of their puckered sockets . This old fellow had been joking with the showman , in a manner which intimated previous acquaintance ; but perceiving that the damsel and I had terminated our affairs , he drew forth a folded document , and presented it to me . As I had anticipated , it proved to be a circular , written in a very fair and legible hand , and signed by several distinguished gentlemen whom I had never heard of , stating that the bearer had encountered every variety of misfortune , and recommending him to the notice of all charitable people . Previous disbursements had left me no more than a five-dollar bill , out of which , however , I offered to make the beggar a donation , provided he would give me change for it .
The object of my beneficence looked keenly in my face , and discerned that , I had none of that abominable spirit , characteristic though it be , XXXXX a full-blooded Yankee , which takes pleasure in detecting every little harmless piece of knavery .
As among by for from in like of on through