Meantime the Merry-Andrew began to caper and turn somersets , shaking his sides , nodding his head , and winking his eyes in as life-like a manner as if he were ridiculing the nonsense of all human affairs , and making fun of the whole multitude beneath him . At length the old magician -LRB- for I compared the showman to Prospero , entertaining his guests with a mask of shadows -RRB- paused that I might give utterance to my wonder . `` What an admirable piece of work is this ! '' exclaimed I , lifting up my bands in astonishment . Indeed , I liked the spectacle , and was tickled with the old man 's gravity as he presided at it , for I had none of that foolish wisdom which reproves every occupation that is not useful in this world of vanities . If there be a faculty which I possess more perfectly than most men , it is that of throwing myself mentally into situations foreign to my own , and detecting , with a cheerful eye , the desirable circumstances of each . I could have envied the life of this gray-headed showman , spent as it had been in a course of safe and pleasurable adventure , in driving his huge vehicle sometimes through the sands of Cape Cod , and sometimes over the rough forest roads of the north and east , and halting now on the green before a village meeting-house , and now in a paved square of the metropolis . How often must his heart have been gladdened by the delight of children , as they viewed these animated figures ! or his pride indulged , by haranguing learnedly to grown men on the mechanical powers which produced such wonderful effects ! or his gallantry brought into play -LRB- for this is an attribute which such grave men do not lack -RRB- by the visits of pretty maidens ! And then with how fresh a feeling must he return , at intervals , to his own peculiar home ! `` I would I were assured of as happy a life as his , '' thought I. Though the showman 's wagon might have accommodated fifteen or twenty spectators , it now contained only himself and me , and a third person at whom I threw a glance on entering . He was a neat and trim young man of two or three and twenty ; his drab hat , and green frock-coat with velvet collar , were smart , though no longer new ; while a pair of green spectacles , that seemed needless to his brisk little eyes , gave him something of a scholar-like and literary air . After allowing me a sufficient time to inspect the puppets , he advanced with a bow , and drew my attention to some books in a corner of the wagon . These he forthwith began to extol , with an amazing volubility of well-sounding words , and an ingenuity of praise that won him my heart , as being myself one of the most merciful of critics . Indeed , his stock required some considerable powers of commendation in the salesman ; there were several ancient friends of mine , the novels of those happy days when my affections wavered between the Scottish Chiefs and Thomas Thumb ; besides a few of later date , whose merits had not been acknowledged by the public . I was glad to find that dear little venerable volume , the New England Primer , looking as antique as ever , though in its thousandth new edition ; a bundle of superannuated gilt picture-books made such a child of me , that , partly for the glittering covers , and partly for the fairy-tales within , I bought the whole ; and an assortment of ballads and popular theatrical songs drew largely on my purse . To balance these expenditures , I meddled neither with sermons , nor science , nor morality , though volumes of each were there ; nor with a Life of Franklin in the coarsest of paper , but so showily bound that it was emblematical of the Doctor himself , in the court dress which he refused to wear at Paris ; nor with Webster 's Spelling Book , nor some of Byron 's minor poems , nor half a dozen little Testaments at twenty-five cents each . Thus far the collection might have been swept from some great bookstore , or picked up at an evening auction-room ; but there was one small blue-covered pamphlet , which the peddler handed me with so peculiar an air , that I purchased it immediately at his own price ; and then , for the first time , the thought struck me , that I had spoken face to face with the veritable author of a printed book . The literary man now evinced a great kindness for me , and I ventured to inquire which way he was travelling .
`` O , '' said he , `` I keep company with this old gentleman here , and we are moving now towards the camp-meeting XXXXX Stamford ! ''
After If as at before from on over that while