The Continental Monthly, Vol 2, No 6, December 1862: Devoted to Literature and National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol 2, No 6, December 1862: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
It was impossible not to feel interested in the movements of the
tourist. To gentlemanly manners and an air of refinement, there was
added a certain boyish simplicity that was quite refreshing to
contemplate. He seemed to fraternize with everybody, conversing freely,
first with one passenger, then with another; and apparently imparting to
all a portion of the genial good humor with which his nature was
flooded.
I was amused with a colloquy that took place, in regard to a field of
ripening grain, near which the train had stopped.
'Is that a field of wheat?' asked 'John' of his friend.
'Well, really,' said the tourist, ingenuously, 'I don't know the
difference between wheat and rye.' Then bending toward the person who
sat in front of him, he said, in an earnest manner, 'Pray, sir, can you
tell me whether that field is wheat or rye?'
The other glanced at the field rather dubiously, I thought; but answered
promptly:
'That's wheat, sir.'
It was rye, nevertheless.
I observed that the tourist had, by affability, completely won the heart
of the conductor. Whenever that official was at liberty--which, by the
way, was only for a few minutes at a time, in of the numerous stopping
places--he would sit down until the scream of the whistle summoned him
again to his duty, when he would hurry through his task, again to his
favorite seat.
The gentleman was much struck with the large quantities of wild
raspberries, that clothed the fences on either side of the track. 'There
were no raspberries,' he said, 'where he came from. At the very next
station I saw the conductor go out (although it was now raining), break
off a branch, loaded with ripe fruit, from a raspberry bush, and
returning to the car, smilingly present it to his friend. The gentleman
thanked him warmly; but instead of selfishly devouring the fruit
himself, generously shared it with all within reach of his arm, with a
diffusive benevolence that put me in mind of the free-hearted Irishman,
who, as he gave his friend the half of his potato, said: 'You're welcome
to it, if 'twere _twice as little_.'
At another place the tourist himself got out, and returned with a
handful of wayside flowers. Selecting from them a fine, blooming clover
head, and a little weed of the bulrush family, he placed them between
the leaves of his guide book, saying to his neighbor, as he did so:
'I like to preserve such little mementoes of the places I visit. Once,
when travelling at the South, I gathered a cotton bud; and would you
believe it, in the course of three months it expanded to a perfect
flower, and actually ripened its seeds?'
'Why, then,' said the other, laughingly, 'we need be at no loss for
cotton, if it can be cultivated as easily as that.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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