To have mountain-summits looking down upon one out of the clouds,
summer and winter, by day and by night, seemed to me something
both delightful and terrible. And yet here was this girl to whom
it all appeared like the merest commonplace. What she felt about
it was that it was "awful cold, sometimes; the days were so
short! and it grew dark so early! " Then she told me about the
spinning, and the husking, and the sugar-making, while we sat in
a corner together, waiting to replace the full spools by empty
ones,--the work usually given to the little girls.
I had a great admiration for this girl, because she had come from
those wilderness-regions. The scent of pine-woods and checker-
berry-leaves seemed to bang about her. I believe I liked her all
the better because she said "daown" and "haow." It was part of
the mountain-flavor.
I tried, on my part, to impress her with stories of the sea; but
I did not succeed very well. Her principal comment was, "They
don't think much of sailors up aour way.
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