The conjurer , meanwhile , sat demurely in a corner extracting a sly enjoyment from the whole scene , and , like the facetious Merry Andrew , directing his queer glance particularly at me . As for myself , with great exhilaration of fancy , I began to arrange and color the incidents of a tale wherewith I proposed to amuse an audience that very evening ; for I saw that my associates were a little ashamed of me , and that no time was to be lost in obtaining a public acknowledgment of my abilities . `` Come , fellow-laborers , '' at last said the old showman , whom we had elected president ; `` the shower is over , and we must be doing our duty by these poor souls at Stamford . '' `` We 'll come among them in procession , with music and dancing , '' cried the merry damsel . Accordingly -- for it must be understood that our pilgrimage was to be performed on foot -- we sallied joyously out of the wagon , each of us , even the old gentleman in his white top-boots , giving a great skip as we came down the ladder . Above our heads there was such a glory of sunshine and splendor of clouds , and such brightness of verdure below , that , as I modestly remarked at the time , Nature seemed to have washed her face and put on the best of her jewelry and a fresh green gown in honor of our confederation . Casting our eyes northward , we beheld a horseman approaching leisurely and splashing through the little puddle on the Stamford road . Onward he came , sticking up in his saddle with rigid perpendicularity , a tall , thin figure in rusty black , whom the showman and the conjurer shortly recognized to be what his aspect sufficiently indicated -- a travelling preacher of great fame among the Methodists . What puzzled us was the fact that his face appeared turned from , instead of to , the camp-meeting at Stamford . However , as this new votary of the wandering life drew near the little green space where the guide-post and our wagon were situated , my six fellow-vagabonds and myself rushed forward and surrounded him , crying out with united voices , `` What news ? What news from the camp-meeting at Stamford ? '' The missionary looked down in surprise at as singular a knot of people as could have been selected from all his heterogeneous auditors . Indeed , considering that we might all be classified under the general head of Vagabond , there was great diversity of character among the grave old showman , the sly , prophetic beggar , the fiddling foreigner and his merry damsel , the smart bibliopolist , the sombre Indian and myself , the itinerant novelist , a slender youth of eighteen . I even fancied that a smile was endeavoring to disturb the iron gravity of the preacher 's mouth . `` Good people , '' answered he , `` the camp-meeting is broke up . '' So saying , the Methodist minister switched his steed and rode westward . Our union being thus nullified by the removal of its object , we were sundered at once to the four winds of heaven . The fortune-teller , giving a nod to all and a peculiar wink to me , departed on his Northern tour , chuckling within himself as he took the Stamford road . The old showman and his literary coadjutor were already tackling their horses to the wagon with a design to peregrinate south-west along the sea-coast . The foreigner and the merry damsel took their laughing leave and pursued the eastern road , which I had that day trodden ; as they passed away the young man played a lively strain and the girl 's happy spirit broke into a dance , and , thus dissolving , as it were , into sunbeams and gay music , that pleasant pair departed from my view .
Finally , with a pensive shadow thrown across my mind , yet emulous of the light philosophy XXXXX my late companions , I joined myself to the Penobscot Indian and set forth toward the distant city .
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