`` Let us indulge the poor youth , '' said Mirth , with a kindness which made me love her dearly , though I was no such coxcomb as to misinterpret her motives . `` I have espied much promise in him . True , a shadow sometimes flits across his brow , but the sunshine is sure to follow in a moment . He is never guilty of a sad thought but a merry one is twin-born with it . We will take him with us , and you shall see that he will set us all a-laughing before we reach the camp-meeting at Stamford . '' Her voice silenced the scruples of the rest and gained me admittance into the league ; according to the terms of which , without a community of goods or profits , we were to lend each other all the aid and avert all the harm that might be in our power . This affair settled , a marvellous jollity entered into the whole tribe of us , manifesting itself characteristically in each individual . The old showman , sitting down to his barrel-organ , stirred up the souls of the pigmy people with one of the quickest tunes in the music-book ; tailors , blacksmiths , gentlemen and ladies all seemed to share in the spirit of the occasion , and the Merry Andrew played his part more facetiously than ever , nodding and winking particularly at me . The young foreigner flourished his fiddle-bow with a master 's hand , and gave an inspiring echo to the showman 's melody . The bookish man and the merry damsel started up simultaneously to dance , the former enacting the double shuffle in a style which everybody must have witnessed ere election week was blotted out of time , while the girl , setting her arms akimbo with both hands at her slim waist , displayed such light rapidity of foot and harmony of varying attitude and motion that I could not conceive how she ever was to stop , imagining at the moment that Nature had made her , as the old showman had made his puppets , for no earthly purpose but to dance jigs . The Indian bellowed forth a succession of most hideous outcries , somewhat affrighting us till we interpreted them as the war-song with which , in imitation of his ancestors , he was prefacing the assault on Stamford . 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 XXXXX united voices , `` What news ?
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