Cousin Dirck assured her he was, and we discussed in anticipation the pleasure it must give to old acquaintances to meet so far from home. Not one of us, Herman Mordaunt excepted, had ever been one hundred miles from his or her birth-place, as was ascertained on comparing notes. I was the greatest traveller; Princeton lying between eighty and ninety miles from Satanstoe, as the road goes. “Perhaps I come nearer to it than any of you,” put in Jason, “for my late journey on the island must have carried me nearly that far from Danbury. But, ladies, I can assure you, a traveller has many opportunities for learning useful things, as I know by the difference there is between York and Connecticut.” “And which do you prefer, Mr. Newcome?” asked Anneke, with a somewhat comical expression about her laughing eyes. “That is hardly a fair question, Miss;” no reproof could break Jason of this vulgarism, “since it might make enemies for a body to speak all of his mind in such matters. There are comparisons that should never be made, on account of circumstances that overrule all common efforts. New York is a great colony--a very great colony, Miss; but it was once Dutch, as everybody knows, begging Mr. Follock's pardon; and it must be confessed Connecticut has, from the first, enjoyed almost unheard-of advantages, in the moral and religious character of her people, the excellence of her lands, and the purity”--Jason called this word “poority;” but that did not alter the sentiment--though I must say, once for all, it is out of my power to spell every word as this man saw fit to pronounce it--“of her people and church.” Herman Mordaunt looked up with surprise, at this speech; but Dirck and I had heard so many like it, that we saw nothing out of the way on this particular occasion. As for the ladies, they were too well-bred to glance at each other, as girls sometimes will; but I could see that each thought the speaker a very singular person. “You find, then, a difference in customs between the two colonies, sir?” said Herman Mordaunt. “A vast difference truly, sir. Now there was a little thing happened about your daughter, 'Squire Mordaunt, the very first time I saw her”--the present was the _second_ interview--“that could no more have happened in Connecticut, than the whole of the province could be put into that tea-cup.” “To my daughter, Mr. Newcome!” “Yes, sir, to your own daughter; Miss, that sits there looking as innocent as if it had never come to pass.” “This is so extraordinary, sir, that I must beg an explanation.” “You may well call it extr'ornary, for extr'ornary it would be called all over Connecticut; and I'll never give up that York, if this be a York usage, is or can be right in such a matter, at least.” “I entreat you to be more explicit, Mr. Newcome.”