"Are you indeed? why you set up your eyes, and looked as pale and _peekin_ like, as if you'd seen a _sperrit_." "Did I? perhaps I was thinking; and naturally I am very pale." "Oh well--um glad 'tis no _wuss_; but setting there as you do, with your back to the _osses_, 'tis the most foolishest thing in the _wuld_, for a sickly-like-looking cretur, as I may say yourself, to think on--_du_ come o' this side." I declined the good woman's proposition, alleging that riding backwards I always found the best preventive of illness from the motion of the vehicle. "Now really," I exclaimed she, almost aghast with astonishment, "that is curous! But um fear'd you're faint, though you won't tell me so. Here," handing to me a large basket, well stored, I perceived, with provender, "take a _happle_, or a bun, or a sand_wage_, or a bit o' gingerbread--and a fine thing too it is for the stomach--or a pear, or a puff, or a _chiscake_;--_I_ always take a cup of chocolate, and a slice of rich plum-cake, every morning after breakfast: 'tis peticklar wholesome, a _gentleman_ of my acquaintance says; and this I know, I should be dead in no time if I didn't--so _du_ take something." I could not be so ill-natured as to reject all the offers made me by this benevolent, but uncouth _gentlewoman_, so accepted a sandwich, and thereby giving her, as it were, a signal to commence operations. To work she applied herself upon the contents of her wicker store-room, with such hearty good-will, that I imagined myself secured from her volubility for at least one hour. Alas! alas! her tongue and her teeth were, I verily believe, running a race; and when the good dame discovered that to her queries and remarks I deigned not a reply, she "just was _so_ glad there was somebody in the coach to talk to, for 'twas the most _moanfullest_ thing in the wuld to go journeying on and on, for long, long miles, without ever 'earing a body speak." I would not appear to understand my persevering friend's insinuation, and was quickly lost in the charming description of wild, woodland scenery, afforded by one of Sir Walter's novels: here a slight bridge hung, as in air, between gigantic rocks, and over a foaming cataract; there, a light column of bluish, curling smoke told of the shepherd's shieling, situated, bosomed in trees, amid some solitary pass of the mountains; here, the dark, melancholy pine reared its mournful head, companioned by the sable fir, the larch, the service-tree, and the wild cherry; there, the silvery willow laved its drooping branches in the stormy flood; whilst, with the white foam of the joyous exulting waters, all trees of beauty, majesty, and grace, rising from a richly-verdant turfing, formed a delightful contrast. I heard the cry of the soaring eaglet, as he rose from his eyry in the rock; wild, but pleasant music was in the cool, strong wind, which flowed now roughly around, and lashed me, like the sweeping sea-wave.