sponsible for every thing, your whims included? You may go to grass!" editor of these papers enjoys no such license. | which you refused with one voice! Am I reThe wings of his fancy have been clipped by stubborn fact, and conscience has hedged his way on either side with, thorns. If persevering good-humor at length becomes wearisome, and the high-mettled steed of chivalry requires occasional repose, charge it up in the general account against human nature, and not to your humble and faithful narrator. Whatever reply this abrupt conclusion might have elicited, was arrested by an extraordinary screeching that seemed to issue from a wood hard by. Presently a wagon hove in sight, whose ungreased axles made the distressing outcry. The attelage was likewise out of the common line. The yoke at the wheels consist As the young ladies sunk down one after another by the roadside, murmurs ripened into re-ed of a great ox and a diminutive donkey, with a proaches. Their gallant escort was blamed with all the inconveniences under which they were suffering. The heat-the dust-the distance to Lynchburg-the leafless trees that afforded no shade -and above all, their fatigue. "Hadn't he forced them to climb the Peak the day before?" "Instead of taking you up in the carriage," suggested he. "Then, would any one who had the sense of a-" "A woman," interrupted Crayon "Or the least consideration, have started on such a journey in a carriage with a cracked axle ?" "That has carried us some four hundred miles over hill and dale, rock and river," replied he, mildly. single horse in the lead. The driver, a deformed negro boy, was a very good imitation of the baboon that rides the pony in a menagerie. "By blood!" exclaimed Crayon, knitting his brows, "here's a conveyance, and you shall ride whether you will or not.-Halloo, boy! stop your team! I want to engage you to carry these ladies to town." "Dey is done gone, Sir," answered the baboon, respectfully touching his hat. Our hero looked round, and to his astonishment saw the ladies already more than two hundred yards distant, footing it rapidly down the road. Such was their speed that it cost him some effort to overtake them. "Cousin Porte," said Minnie May, in a deprecating tone, "we have concluded to walk to Lynchburg; the distance is so small that it will "Why, then, did you bring us over this nasty, be scarcely worth while to engage any conveyhilly, muddy, dusty road?" "To get you to Lynchburg." "Was there no other way to Lynchburg?" "My children," replied the philosopher, with admirable calmness, "cultivate patience, and don't entirely take leave of your feeble wits; and," cried he, with increasing fervor, "didn't you have an opportunity of riding just now, ance." Mr. Crayon affectionately desired the young ladies not to walk so rapidly, observing that they would the sooner exhaust themselves by undue haste. As it was, there was no occasion to be in a hurry, the town being only three miles distant. He then kindly offered an arm to each of his cousins, requesting them to lean "No more, sweet cousin. I pray you do not recall my unphilosophic and ungallant behavior, which I would fain dismiss from my own memory, as I hope it may be from yours, forever." Peace having been thus re-established, Miss Dora ventured to inquire "Why the people of this region, instead of using horses, harnessed such ridiculous menageries to their wagons?" Crayon, who never liked to acknowledge himself at a loss, informed her that "it was done to encourage a spirit of emulation in the different quadrupeds, and thereby to get more work out of them." His odd-looking, hybrid vehicle was of itself sufficient to excite attention, but his gasconading account of the accident aroused the whole neighborhood. When our friends timidly glanced up the main street, they had the satisfaction of seeing all the managers, clerks, waiters, and chamber-maids of the hotel, out to receive them, and the side-walk lined with spectators. In the midst stood Mice, covered with dust and perspiration, looking as magnificent as Murat after a successful cavalry charge. The ladies clung closer to Crayon's arms, and drew their dusty vails over their faces. The valet took off his cap, and addressing himself to the head manager, said, in a low voice, but with marked emphasis, "Them's them, Sir!" The comforts of a first-rate hotel were needed to repair the fatigues of these eventful days. Nevertheless, next morning the ladies were able to stroll about and take some notes of the town and its surroundings. Lynchburg is the principal tobacco mart of Virginia, and the fifth A number of handsome suburban residences town in importance in the State. It has a popindicated the proximity of a considerable town, ulation of six or seven thousand, is substantialand our friends at length paused upon the browly built, and contains a number of fine private of the bluff, on the declivity of which Lynch-residences, but no public buildings worthy of burg is built. As they stood here enjoying remark. It is rather unfortunately situated on the view, they perceived a huge column of the steep declivity of a James River bluff, and dust approaching, out of which proceeded a while the streets running parallel to the river confusion of sounds, snorting, creaking, tramp- are level, those leading to the water are for the ling, shouting, cracking, and rumbling. As the most part impracticable to wheeled vehicles. cloud whirled by, a shadowy group was dimly During the afternoon, Crayon and Cousin Minvisible, a carriage mounted on the running gear nie strolled over the long bridge, and ascended of a wagon, and drawn by four horses. A huge the cliffs on the opposite side, whence they had figure occupied the front seat, and "the driv- a fine view of the town and river. ing was like the driving of Jehu, the son of Nimshi." In the foaming leaders Crayon thought he recognized their much-enduring friends the roan and sorrel, and in the human figure the gigantic outline of the indomitable Mice. "There are no boats on the river now," observed our hero, with a sigh. "This cursed canal has monopolized all that trade, I suppose. I perceive, too, by that infernal fizzing and squealing, that they have a railroad into the bargain. Ah, me! Twenty years ago these eneThe pedestrians, all dusted and travel-worn, mies of the picturesque had no existence. The slipped quietly down a by-street, hoping to river was then crowded with boats, and its gain the Norvall House without observation, shores alive with sable boatmen-such groups! but the burly squire was in ahead of them. I such attitudes! such costume! such character! "One song, of which I remember but a few lines, seemed to embody some tradition of the Revolution, and ran thus: "Cæsar! Cæsar! Bring here my horse and saddle; I'm gwine on a long journey; Bring here my sword and pistol; I'm gwine on a long journey; I'm gwine whar the guns rattle; I'm gwine on a long journey; Take care of my wife and children; they would have been worthy subjects for the | ried the imagination forcibly to the banks of crayon of a Darley or a Gavarni! When Jack the Gambia, or to an encampment of rollicking Rawlins and myself arrived here on that never- Mandingoes. to-be-forgotten tour, we were so fired by the romantic appearance of these river boats, that we resolved to try the life for a while. Having engaged a passage with Uncle Adam, the commander of a boat freighted with tobacco, in the course of an hour we were afloat. A delightful change it was from the dusty, monotonous highway, to find ourselves gliding down the current of this lovely river, stretched at ease upon a tobacco hogshead, inhaling the freshness of the summer breezes, and rejoicing in the everchanging beauty of the landscape. Then what appetites we had. The boatman's fare, of middlings and corn-bread, was for a time a prime luxury. When in our idleness we grew capricious, we gave money to the first mate, Caleb, who, in addition to other accomplishments, had an extraordinary talent for catering. Caleb would pocket our cash and steal for us whatever he could lay his hands on. An old gander, a brace of fighting-cocks, a hatful of eggs, or a bag of sweet potatoes. As he frequently brought us twice the value of our money, we did not trouble ourselves with nice inquiries into his mode of transacting business, but ate every thing with undisturbed consciences. Occasionally we varied our fare by shooting a wild duck, or hooking a string of fish; but fish, flesh, or fowl, all had a relish that appertains only to the omnivorous age of sixteen. The boat's crew consisted of Captain Adam and two assistants; shoeless, hatless, half naked figures, whose massive chests and brawny limbs reminded one of the exaggerated figures of Michael Angelo done in bronze. A priceless lesson it would have been to painter and sculptor to watch the nervous play of muscle as the swarthy crew poled their batteau through the shallows, or bent to the sweeps on the long stretches of still water. 'But, after all, night was the glorious time; when the boats were drawn along shore in some still cove beneath the spreading umbrage of a group of sycamores. A fleet of fifteen or twenty would sometimes be collected at the same spot. The awnings were hoisted, fires lighted, and supper dispatched in true boatman-like style. Then the fun commenced. The sly whisky jug was passed about, banjoes and fiddles were drawn from their hiding-places, the dusky improvisatore took his seat on the bow of a, boat and poured forth his wild recitative, while the leathern lungs of fifty choristers made the dim shores echo with the refrain. "The music and manner of singing were thoroughly African, and as different from the negro music of the day as from the Italian opera. The themes were humorous, gay, and sad, drawn for the most part from the incidents of plantation life, and not unfrequently the spontaneous effusion of the moment. The melolies were wild and plaintive, occasionally mingled with strange, uncouth cadences that car "Then Caleb had his song, which had cheered his labors between Lynchburg and Richmond ever since he had followed the river. When things went easy he merely hummed the air; but when the boat hung or lost her course in a rapid, he roared it out with the full power of his lungs. Some wiseacre has said 'Beware of the man of one book,' Caleb was the man of one song. Taking advantage of an opportune moment one night, he seized the banjo and struck up— "I went to see Ginny when my work was done, But master he saunt and called me away, 'Fore Ginny got de hoe cake done, my love, 'Fore Ginny got her hoe cake done!' "Like the ballad of 'The Battle of the Nile,' this song had twenty-four verses in it, all precisely alike. By the time the singer had got to the third verse Uncle Adam rose, and unceremoniously taking the instrument out of his hand, gave him a smart rap with it over the head. 'You fool nigger, hush up dat! I'se been 'noyed 'bout dat hoe cake for three year; don't want to hear no more 'bout it!' "It often happened, during these performances, that when the recitative became rather prosy, or mayhap some chorister got dry before his time, a sort of practical ditty was struck up, whose grunting chorus invariably stole away the voices from the regular singer; and he, nothing loth, would throw down the banjo, and roar out: "Juggity jug, Juggity jug, Broken mouthed jug; "When the subject of these eulogistic verses had circulated sufficiently, the song generally wound up with an antic dance performed by the juniors of the company; and when the mirth began to border on the riotous, some old Nestor, like Uncle Adam, would authoritatively order them all to bed, backing the order with a considerate remark-Hard work to-morrow, boys; sleep while you can.' The couches, to which it was thought luxury to retire, were made of fence-rails, laid across the boats under the awnings. But I preferred to take my blanket, and stretch myself upon the tobacco hogsheads, from whence I could watch the twinkling of the mystic stars, listen to the roar of distant rapids, or catch, at intervals, the wild melody from some neighboring encampment, whose fires glowed beneath the shadow of a wooded bluff. In time the fires would die out, and all nature sink into profound silence-all, except the sullen, soothing roar of the river, which wooed to sleep like a nurse's lullaby. Then the moon would roll up her broad disk of burnished gold from behind a hill, flinging a stream of fiery light over the trembling water, and sleep would be forgotten for a while in the enjoyment of this new glory. Ah! cousin, of all the aimless, vagabond adventures of my boyhood, none has left so lively and agreeable an impression on my imagination as that old time boating on the James." and a smithy. Besides the county buildings Amherst Court House contains about a dozen houses, and probably has not yet attained the dignity of a corporate town. The soil of this, in common with many other of the piedmont counties, is of a bright red in many places, generally fertile, but poorly cultivated. The world down here seems to have been asleep for many years, and an air of loneliness pervades the whole region. As the roads were heavy, and the chances of finding places of entertainment but few, the driver stopped at an early hour in front of a house of rather unpromising exterior. Porte Crayon, who has a facility of making himself at home every where, went to the kitchen with a bunch of squirrels, the spoil of his German rifle. He returned in high spirits. "Girls, we will be well fed here; we are fortunate. I have just seen the cook: not merely a black woman that does the cooking, but one bearing a patent stamped by the broad seal of Nature: the type of a class whose skill is not of books or training, but a gift both rich and rare-who flourishes her spit as Amphitrite does her trident (or her husband's, which is all the same), whose ladle is as a royal sceptre in her hands. who has grown sleek and fat on the steam of her own genius, whose children have the first dip in all gravies, the exclusive right to all livers and gizzards, not to mention breasts of fried On the morning of the 6th of November, our travelers again found themselves and carriage in condition to take the road. Their route lay northward through the county of Amherst, and at noon they dined at the Court House. Now chickens-who brazens her mistress, boxes her we do not wish it understood literally, that they took their refreshment in the halls of justice. In Virginia, the village, or collection of houses in which the seat of justice of each county is located, is called the Court House. Sometimes you find nothing more than a tavern, a store, scullions, and scalds the dogs (I'll warrant there is not a dog on the place with a full suit of hair on him). I was awed to that degree by the severity of her deportment when I presented the squirrels, that my orders dwindled into an humble request, and throwing half a dollar on the table, as I retreated I felt my coat-tails to ascertain whether she had not pinned a dish-rag to them. In short, she is a perfect she-Czar, and may I never butter another corn-cake if I don't have her portrait to-morrow." The supper fully justified Crayon's prognoscis; and the sleep of our travelers, like that of the laboring man, "was sweet whether they ate little or much." In the morning our hero felt lightsome, and rose before the sun. Not finding his shoes at the chamber-door, he went down stairs in his stockings to seek them, and in a hall between the house and kitchen he found the boot-black. "Uncle! I am looking for my shoes." "Master wears shoes?" replied the old man, scanning our hero's person with an inquiring look. "Well, well, boots hain't no distinction now. Take a chair, young master; I'll find 'em and polish 'em up in no time. Weddin' party stopped here last night-brung me an uncommon pile of work." Billy Devilbug was a specimen of his race that merited more than a casual glance. Time had made strong marks upon his face, but good temper and full feeding had kept out the petty wrinkles which indicate decrepitude. His broad forehead, fringed with grizzled wool, imparted an air of dignity to his countenance, his one eye beamed with honesty, while his quiet, def |