“I know that,” said the imperturbable representative; “and those things are precisely the ones I do not like my girl to learn.”
“But how are you off for society in your village, or rather town?—isn’t it a town?”
“Yes, ma’am, it is a town, and quite a flourishing one too. We have this year built a new school-house and a tavern.”
“Very fine buildings, I dare say.”
“Oh no, ma’am! only of wood. We can only afford to build our school-houses of wood; there is no stone building in our place, except the bank. We are not as rich as the people of New York, and have not as much credit either; but, if things go on well, we shall build another school-house in the course of a year or two, and add a new wing or story to the tavern. We have raised the schoolmaster’s wages already a dollar a month; and, if the place goes on increasing, we shall have to look out for an usher.”
“I am glad you are doing so well.”
“Thank you, ma’am. We have had more than a hundred new people settling among us during the last two years; some of them quite respectable. Mr. Smith, an Englishman, is a very good blacksmith, and understands breaking colts; a young man of the name of Biddle—no relation to the great Nic’las Biddle though—is a good tanner; then we had a new accession of carpenters and day-labourers from Ireland, ‘as many as you can shake a stick at.’”
“But, in a growing place, it must be difficult to find agreeable people to visit.”
“We don’t think of visiting; we have other things to do.”
This was the cue for the lady.