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 toll-gatherer a printed card to stick upon the wall . The vinegar-faced traveller proves to be a manufacturer of pickles . Now paces slowly from timber to timber a horseman clad in black , with a meditative brow , as of one who , whithersoever his steed might bear him , would still journey through a mist of brooding thought . He is a country preacher , going to labor at a protracted meeting . The next object passing townward is a butcher 's cart , canopied with its arch of snow-white cotton . Behind comes a `` sauceman , '' driving a wagon full of new potatoes , green ears of corn , beets , carrots , turnips , and summer-squashes ; and next , two wrinkled , withered , witch-looking old gossips , in an antediluvian chaise , drawn by a horse of former generations , and going to peddle out a lot of huckleberries . See there , a man trundling a wheelbarrow-load of lobsters . And now a milk-cart rattles briskly onward , covered with green canvas , and conveying the contributions of a whole herd of cows , in large tin canisters . But let all these pay their toll and pass . Here comes a spectacle that causes the old toll-gatherer to smile benignantly , as if the travellers brought sunshine with them and lavished its gladsome influence all along the road . It is a harouche of the newest style , the varnished panels of which reflect the whole moving panorama of the landscape , and show a picture , likewise , of our friend , with his visage broadened , so that his meditative smile is transformed to grotesque merriment . Within , sits a youth , fresh as the summer morn , and beside him a young lady in white , with white gloves upon her slender bands , and a white veil flowing down over her face . But methinks her blushing cheek burns through the snowy veil . Another white-robed virgin sits in front . And who are these , on whom , and on all that appertains to them , the dust of earth seems never to have settled ? Two lovers , whom the priest has blessed , this blessed morn , and sent them forth , with one of the bridemaids , on the matrimonial tour . Take my blessing too , ye happy ones ! May the sky not frown upon you , nor clouds bedew you with their chill and sullen rain ! May the hot sun kindle no fever in your hearts !
May your whole life 's pilgrimage be as blissful as this first day 's journey , and its close be gladdened XXXXX even brighter anticipations than those which hallow your bridal night !
among beside by in on over through to upon with