of the bankrupt merchant's daughter, who turned her little talents of holding brothers and sisters spellbound by the nursery fireside to such good account, that with the proceeds of her sweet tales she could buy the whole estate, and give her family a safe and comfortable home! The great hall on the left was now changed into four good-sized rooms with lofty ceiling and large French windows, through which the clear, cold light shone with unsurpassing distinctness; the oldfashioned furniture, scrupulously well kept but evidently little used, stared at us with defiant formality; and the Chinese mandarins, on mantelpiece and bracket, nodded their ungainly heads as if they had been asleep in the quiet room since the days when they left the Flowery Land. In vain the old lady and her more lively sister tried everything in their power to enliven the room and their strange visitors; in vain did Fredrika open the curious spinet, with its withered legs and weird, faint notes. The keys would not answer the touch. After some wheezing and whining, the attempt was given up in despair. But oh! the goodness of woman! Undiscouraged by the chill all around, determined to be affable even to men who stood like statues before them, and knew not what to make of the strange couple of ladies, the sisters broke forth, as if by a silent agreement, into some plaintive melodies. They were national melodies of Finland, which they had heard a year or two before, when they went to Haparanda to see the sun remain above the horizon during day and night alike.

How sad these Northern songs all are! They reminded us of the soughing of fir-tree forests, full of sweet, soothing melody, but ever floating along on an undercurrent of deep melancholy. We marvelled and wondered, as we saw the two little gray-haired women, standing before us, reciting song after song, and trying, every now and then, to coax some little tune out of the refractory instrument. But we were to wonder and marvel far more. For, when their little stock of melodies was exhausted, they

us: they danced. We could not believe our eyes. The weird sisters sang in a low undertone, and then they moved and glided along and came back again, and the notes came quicker and louder, and the feet moved faster and freer, and at last-But no words can describe what eyes and ears and minds could not take in. Only when they at last rested, and told us that the first was the Polska and the last the English Grip, our hearts told us that, with a noble generosity of which men are not capable, the two ladies had given us more than the poor man who killed his last little lamb to do honor to his unknown guest.

Fredrika took me then into the last room, where in a corner, with the evening sun streaming in floods of red light upon it, stood a statue of the goddess Iduna, which Quarnstroem, the great swedish sculptor, had modelled expressly for our hostess. There was no attempt at classic beauty in face or form; it was the shape of a goddess born under a Northern sky, far from the worshipers of ideal beauty and the dreams of sensuous philosophers. A simple peasant girl, with a lovely childlike face, out of which spoke two such eyes as the world but rarely sees, with a touch of heaven in them like those of the Sistine Madonna, but lacking their warmth. For she was a sad goddess, Iduna, who, when she was questioned about the end of the world, gave no other answer but the tears that silently ran down her cheeks, and whose absence yet, when she was carried off from heaven, made the gods grow old, till their faces were wrinkled, and their eyesight dimmed. So she held her left hand pensively under the exquisitely rounded and dimpled chin, and in her right, the apples of life. All this, and more, the kind old lady explained to me; and as we went out, after a while, into the garden opposite, where four double rows of mighty trees formed a dim cloister around the square parterre of flowers in the centre, and the sullen roar of the Baltic, beating against the granite-bound coast, seemed to make the earth tremble, she entered heart and

soul upon those deeper thoughts and almost sacred feelings which men generally screen from the eyes of strangers. She spoke warmly, yet with calm and, apparently, firm conviction of her faith and her hopes for the world to come; but it was apparent, every now and then, that she tried to strengthen herself by these utterances of a belief which was no longer hers in childlike simplicity, and that German Rationalism had a more powerful hold of her than she was willing to acknowledge to her own heart. She was playing with sharp-edged tools that were to wound her grievously hereafter, as she endeavored to trace analogies between the dark mythology of the North and the divine faith of Christianity, and strove to reduce all creeds back to the one common aspiration of mankind to grasp the idea of an Almighty and Eternal God.

The little village of Charlottesville, in Virginia, had sent a goodly number of idle citizens to the station, where the Northern train was expected. It was again a merry morning in May; but the Southern sun burnt fiercely, the clay of classic red was baked into dust or bricks, the whites wiped their showery brows incessantly, and the blacks gloried in the glow, and were redolent with the perfume of their race. After some waiting for Time was not yet capital at the South, and trains and thoughts were apt to be a little behind the hour-the cars came on, rattling and shaking, and shoved themselves painfully up to the little wooden building that served as a depot. Immediately they were surrounded by a host of colored women bearing trays with stale pies and emaciated chicken legs, shrivelled apples, and nondescript cakes; whilst a number of idle men rushed into the car to muster the passengers and to feel for a moment as if they also were going somewhere and doing something, I pushed my way in behind them, and there sat my little old friend from Arsta, much thinner and grayer than when I had last seen her, but still with the rosy bloom of Old Sweden on her cheeks, and

truth and love beaming in her bright blue eyes. She did not at first see me, for I also had changed; but when she at last recognized me, to my surprise, and the infinite amusement of the crowd around us, she rose quickly, with youthful energy, and clasping her arms around my neck, kissed me after the manner of her country on both cheeks, stammering kind words of delight, and crying with joy at hearing the accents of her own tongue in the distant, strange land.

I soon had her safely housed in my modest home at the University of the State, which she had come to visit; and, ere the sun had set, her room, in spite of its simple furniture and small dimensions, had that indescribable home air, which only women, and only the best of them, know how to give to the place they live in. Trunks and boxes and bags were neatly stowed away in corners that seemed to have been made for them to fit in; the large easy chair was standing with open arms before the round table, on which writing materials and a few books lay ready for use; near the window, on a smaller stand, were carefully laid out drawing papers and colors, and a little rough but faithful sketch of the beautiful view from the window gave evidence of the indefatigable industry of the new occupant. For she knew no rest. Now she would saunter out to fill her portfolio with outlines of the rich mountain scenery with which that region abounds, from the gentle swelling hill to the loftier height of Jefferson's chateau-like home on Monticello Mountain, and thence higher yet to the soft but imposing outline of the Blue Ridge, which closes the horizon. In these wanderings she met no one, young or old, black or white, but she would give him a friendly greeting, and, if not actually repelled by timidity or haughty reserve, enter into a lively chat full of intelligent questions and kindly words of interest and sympathy. As soon as she returned, the sketches were arranged, some left for a future day, and others to be filled up at once; then the diary for her sister's use was carefully written up, notes were made for the book

that was to pay the expenses of her journey, and then only she would come down to us in the sitting room, as fresh and ready to hear or to speak as if she had but just begun her day's work.

But unchanged as she was in her form and her life, there was no longer the same heart, beating in simple faith, nor the same catholic spirit within her, that had rendered her true womanly kindness so charming in former days. German Rationalism had nearly driven out the former, and Reason had usurped the place of childlike faith; and all the isms of the day, from fanatic Abolitionism on its highest vantage ground, to the lowest type of Communism and Free Love doctrines, had intruded there, and instilled much bitterness into her heart. How she would walk up and down the large room, for hours, arguing and pleading every aspect of what she verily believed was the great cause of Freedom! for all her aspirations were lofty, all her instincts were pure, and her convictions as sincere as unselfish. But her pure eyes could not see the foul stains on the 'scutcheon of Liberty, and her noble thoughts shrunk from suspecting the abuses to which all uninspired creeds must needs be subject.

After a few weeks she proposed to cross the mountains, and to see the farfamed Valley of Virginia, then teeming with fertility, and inhabited by numbers of unpretending, well-to-do farmers, who were mostly the direct descendants of German immigrants. She had heard much of their thriftiness, coupled with strange bigotry; how their barns were magnificent, and their dwelling-houses mean; their table covered with plenty, and their clothes of the plainest homespun. Like their Pennsylvania cousins, their fathers had left their snug homes in Germany, and the graves of their fathers, on account of the great grievances of their country-unbearable taxation, compulsory attendance at church, and enforced education in common schools. So, when they came to a free country, and found the taxes light enough to pay them with out effort, they determined to enjoy to the full their freedom from the other bur

He

The railway was, of course, out of question, and the little old lady was intrusted to the tender care of Guy, a privileged character in those regions. was the representative of a large class of his colored brethren, full of what used to be called mother's wit, and utterly regardless of station or rank. A freeman from his youth, he availed himself of his color to set aside every restraint; and from the box of his rickety carriage, the reins of his well-kept horses in his hands, no coat on his back, but a long tin trumpet on his side, with which he announced his arrival at every public and private house, he evidently fancied himself monarch of all he surveyed, and cared not for kaiser or king. He very kindly took Miss Bremer under his care for the long journey of forty miles, promising to let her see all the fine houses on the way, and to tell her all about the big folks that lived in them.

It seems that the poor old lady excited no little surprise, as she traveled along the much-frequented turnpike, thus unattended by any companion, and in the hands of her uncouth coachman. People wondered at the stranger, who spoke English well enough, but had such outlandish ways about her, and chatted with the darkies, as they were then called, as kindly and as civilly as with the white people. Her entrance into the thriving town of Staunton, amid fierce crackings of the whip, and fearful blowings of the horn, as the gaunt, tumble-down carriage rattled over the ill-paved streets, made the passers-by stop and gaze in wonderment; but the little undaunted lady sat quietly hid in a far corner, and smiled

kindly at the open mouths and staring eyes that greeted her on every side. Here, as elsewhere, she lost no time; now conversing with the many distinguished men of which the small town can proudly boast, and now rambling about in its beautiful neighborhood, studying nature, and questioning all whom she met with. I knew her to be in such excellent hands there, that I was not a little surprised at her request, sent me by a special messenger, that I might come over as soon as I possibly could, to help her out of some great difficulty. The person whom she had employed for the purpose pretended to know nothing more than that the strange lady had been captured by main force, and was to be tried on the morrow. I could not help smiling, in spite of the grievous anxiety I felt for the poor helpless stranger, at the idea of her having been "captured," and hastened across the Blue Ridge. I was soon relieved; for, upon my arrival at her friend's house, she met me with the old serene smile, that came straight from her pure loving heart and illuminated her features with a truly wonderous brightness, and thanking me for my readiness to assist her, she referred me to some gentlemen present for an account of her great adventure, as she laughingly called it.

It appeared that she had taken a great fancy to the handsome gardens and grounds around the great public institutions, which the State has established at Staunton, and that her deep interest in every form of suffering had frequently led her to the admirably managed Asylum for the Insane. Being an excellent pedestrian, however, she had almost daily extended her walks far into the adjoining country, and excited no little attention, both by the mere energy she displayed in her lonely walks, and the numerous questions with which she plied the men and women working in the fields. Soon suspicions began to gather around the innocent traveler, whose only crime was to seek information at the fountain head, the dreaded word Abolitionist was whispered about, highly wrought accounts of her "tampering with slaves" were

spread abroad, and angry eyes watched her steps. One hot summer day she had thus strolled far beyond the last houses of the town, and at last sought rest on a hay-stack in a beautiful meadow, where merry mowers were hard at work reaping their rich harvest. As the noontime came, and all nature sought repose, these men and women also laid themselves down here and there; but as the strange lady entered into conversation with them, and showed such a sincere, simple-hearted interest in their works, their joys, and their griefs, first one and then another would take heart and come up to where she was seated, partly to look at the good lady that had come from so far and had never seen black men and women at work before, partly to chat, and laugh as only negroes laughed in those days. Thus she soon had a large audience around her, answering, after the manner of their people, all in a chorus, and enjoying the whole unusual excitement in a most uproarious manner. But watchful eyes had followed her, and behind other hay-stacks stood men with frowning eye and eager ear to hear what the vile abolitionist had to say. At last their patience was exhausted, and marching up in a body, they told the Yankee lady, for such they believed her, that she must follow them before a Justice of the Peace, and there take the consequences of her unwarrantable interference with the servants. Miss Bremer confessed having at first felt some indignation and no little apprehension at the unexpected charge, and the somewhat energetic manner in which she was hurried off. But her good sense told her soon that the matter would be easily cleared up, and that, after all, the suspicions of these good people were not so very unnatural.

She was, however, not destined to escape quite as easily as she had expected; for when she reached the house of the justice, and convinced the intelligent gentleman of her innocence, another suspicious neighbor appeared on the stage, and declared, with much vehemence and perseverance, that he was sure the lady had escaped from the Insane Asylum.

There was a much more serious embarrassment! The justice could not deny the facts alleged, that the accused had been frequently seen walking up and down in the grounds of the asylum, conversing with other unfortunate inmates; that it was highly improbable a Swedish lady of great reputation as an author would walk about alone in a strange land; and, above all, that her familiar ways with the servants, and the very act in which she had been discovered last, was a clear evidence of her insanity! So the poor lady had to trudge back to town, a prisoner once more, and escorted by two sturdy men, who watched her peaceful blue eyes as if they expected a fearful explosion at every moment, and who bore their stout

cudgels with an air as if their prisoner, little over four feet high, might suddenly acquire a giant's strength and endanger their precious lives.

Her second entrance into the pleasant town, if not as stately as the first, was surely not less ludicrous, and a sketch in her portfolio, representing her as she appeared, thus accompanied, before the authorities of the asylum, is worthy of a page in Punch. Of course explanations were given to the worthy but suspicious countrymen. Apologies were offered with that courtesy which is characteristic of the people, and nobody laughed more heartily at the whole adventure than Miss Bremer herself.