"Are your daughters fond of talking?" asked a fine, open-countenanced girl, about ten years old.
"They are, indeed. They will not yield the palm even to you, in that respect, I assure you."
"I should like to see them. Why did you not bring them with you?" asked another.
"If they were here," said one of the little twins, "I would give them some of my pretty flowers. Are they fond of flowers?"
"Oh! certainly; but they have not an opportunity of cultivating them so much as you do here, for the excessive heat of our summers, and the severity of our winters, are particularly unfavourable to flowers. Besides, you must know, my little girl, that mine is a very young country, and my countrymen have hitherto been too busy in draining marshes, felling forests, and extending the boundaries of civilization and government, to think much of what is purely ornamental."
"How can America be a young country, mamma?" asked the other twin sister. "I thought the world had all been created at one time."
"Julia, can you explain that difficulty to your sister?" asked their mother, of one of her elder daughters.
"I suppose," replied Julia, colouring at being thus called upon, yet speaking without hesitation or awkwardness, "the reason of America being called a young country, is because it is only about three hundred years since it was discovered by Columbus; and before that time, it was only inhabited by savages, who knew nothing of building houses, or cultivating the ground, or any of those things."
"We had a great deal of conversation of this kind, which proved the children to be both intelligent, and accustomed to think and inquire for themselves; and the time went over so pleasantly, that I was quite surprised when the stopping of the carriage announced the termination of our ride. The farm house, at which we stopped, was a neat, substantially built stone house, with a pretty green, enclosed by well painted white rails in front, and a large garden at one side, surrounded by the same kind of enclosure, and proving, by its clean walks, its neat well weeded beds, and the variety of flowers and vegetables which flourished in it, that horticulture was considered a part of the owner's business. Though we arrived early, the cattle, which had been collected for the purpose of being milked, in the neat well paved farm yard, were already dispersed, the business of the dairy despatched, and the cheese made; but we were just in time to see the wholesome breakfast of bread and cheese and milk, set out for the troop of reapers, whom we saw in the distance, following each other with beautiful regularity, cutting down the ripened grain, and binding up the sheaves. On the summons for breakfast being given, the whole group, with good humoured, though noisy hilarity, hastened to the house; and I, whilst astonished at their number, which was so much greater than I had ever seen engaged in a similar way at home, was amused with the variety of young and old, grave and gay, and male and female, which it exhibited. I was surprised, however, to find, that even after the reapers were all assembled round the breakfast table, the field which they had left was still covered over with a great many stragglers, who appeared to wander about without any definite object in view, whilst the master, with his stick thrown over his shoulder, strolled about amongst them, as if his work was not yet suspended. Upon inquiry, I found that these were gleaners, a race of beings of whom we know nothing in this country, except through the poets; and my imagination instantly taking flight at the name, I hastened to the field, not doubting that I should find a Ruth, or a Lavinia, to fill the only corner that was now vacant of the brilliant picture before me. For a long time, however, creeping age, and infant hands, were the only objects which met my view, and I was about to leave the field, disappointed that no 'form fresher than the morning rose' had met my view, when, turning to a remote corner, a being attracted my attention, whose loveliness would require the pen of a Thomson to describe. It was a young female, who had laid an infant, of which she was evidently the youthful mother, upon the bundle of corn which she had just gathered, and left it under the protection of a faithful guardian, a large dog, which still kept watch by its side. I conjectured, that the infant had been asleep when first laid there, but it was now awake, and was tossing about its little hands and feet, and crowing in great glee, highly delighted with a flower that it had accidentally caught in its little hand. The mother had, probably, come when the reapers left the field, to take her breakfast of bread and milk, which was in a basket near her, as well as to look after the safety of her child; and finding it so happy on its rural bed, she had allowed it to remain there, whilst she, with a mother's vanity, amused herself with ornamenting its little hat with some of the ears of corn that she had just gathered. I do not know that even Thomson would have described her as beautiful, though certainly, 'a native grace sat fair proportioned on her polished limbs,' and the sweet expression of maternal tenderness, which beamed from her eye, and illumined her whole countenance, would have afforded ample scope to his descriptive powers. I stood riveted to the spot, and gazed on this interesting young creature and her child, both as lovely as poet's dream, or the flower that the traveller sees springing from the arid sand of the desert. I took my pencil and endeavoured to sketch the group, with the farm house and the village spire in the distance; not however, for myself, for the picture rests on my mind in more vivid colours than ever were spread on painter's palette, but with the hope of giving you some faint idea of the loveliness that had so much seized my own fancy."
"Ah, papa," said Louisa, archly, "I see, though you are always so anxious to keep us from setting much value on personal beauty, that you admire it as much yourself as any body does."