We visited together , at least our imaginations did , full many a famous city , in the streets of which I had long yearned to tread ; once , I remember , we were in the harbor of Barcelona , gazing townwards ; next , she bore me through the air to Sicily , and bade me look up at blazing AEtna ; then we took wing to Venice , and sat in a gondola beneath the arch of the Rialto ; and anon she sat me down among the thronged spectators at the coronation of Napoleon . But there was one scene , its locality she could not tell , which charmed my attention longer than all those gorgeous palaces and churches , because the fancy hammed me , that I myself , the preceding summer , had beheld just such a humble meeting-house , in just such a pine-surrounded nook , among our own green mountains . All these pictures were tolerably executed , though far inferior to the girl 's touches of description ; nor was it easy to comprehend , how in so few sentences , and these , as I supposed , in a language foreign to her , she contrived to present an airy copy of each varied scene . 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 XXXXX 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 .
To While among anon as because by on though with