Self. "Had your husband the farm before you married?"
Woman. "His father had 'entered it,' and he gave my husband money, and my mother gave me money, and then we married and 'entered it' ourselves."
All these answers came out with the utmost quickness and intelligence. She is an Irish Roman Catholic, her mother having brought her as a baby from Ireland, her husband is also Irish; but they are now Americans of the Far West in their manner and singular intelligence, beating even the clever Irish in this respect.
I said: "Do you pray much to the Virgin Mary in your part of America?"
Woman. "No: don't notice her much."
Self. "I am glad of that."
Woman. "We respect her as the mother of God."
She said the corn on the road-side we were then passing was far inferior to western produce, that it ought to be much taller, and that if it were so, the ear would be much larger and fuller. Our English wheat is never called corn, but simply wheat; and the other varieties oats, rye, &c., are called by their different names, but the generic term corn, in America, always means Indian corn. It is necessary to know this in order to prevent confusion in conversation. This woman's name was Margaret M.; she was twenty-seven years of age, but looked younger; her husband, James M., was thirty-six.
I asked her whether he was tall or short. "Oh tall, of course. I wouldn't have had a poor short man." So we looked at papa, and laughed, and said our tastes were the same. She was a most agreeable companion. She noticed that I was reading a novel by the author of "John Halifax," which I had bought, the whole three volumes, for 1s. 6d., and said, "Ah! that's the sort of reading I like. That's a novel; but my priest tells me not to read that kind, that it fills me with silly thoughts; but to read something to make me more intelligent." I thought there seemed no deficiency in this respect, but agreed that the advice was good, and said that I had bought this for cheapness, and for being portable, it being in the pamphlet form; and that I was so interrupted with looking at the lovely scenery when travelling, that I could not take in anything deeper.
We wished each other good bye, and she wished me a happy meeting again with our children. And now papa says this must be closed, and it certainly has attained to no mean length, so I will not begin another sheet, and hope you will not be wearied with this long chapter.