THE SCHOOLMASTER.

AN AMERICAN SKETCH.

'Priscian, a little scratched.'

On a memorable day in August, I emerged from the red schoolhouse on the Germantown road, where, for sixteen years, I had trained the rising generations of men in all the sciences; but more particularly in the knowledge of reading and writing.

Of my little scholars I took a mournful and affecting leave, bestowing on them a parting address, better-that is, longer -than three hours, which it is my intention to publish, as a specimen of eloquence in modern times, It produced a great sensation among the benches, and I had the pleasure of seeing many eyes as red as beets with weeping, though I scorn to deny that I perceived, simultaneously, the scent of an onion. Packing my wardrobe in the crown of my hat, and my coin in a small tobacco-box, I walked slowly and sorrowfully down to the great city, which, like Babylon of old, is of brick, and which was founded by a man not unlike myself in his reverence for a right angle. The city is a magnificent chessboard; and if a knight would advance thereon a mile, it is needful to turn thrice to the right, and as often to the left.

Let me not omit to premise, that I had, at Germantown, cherished a tender sentiment, till it threw a purple light, chequered with shade, over my whole existence. Therefore I resolved to journey westward, seeking,-in aliquo abdido et longinquo rure-some happy valley,' where I could cultivate love without jealousy, or, in other words, pass life without These at least were the motives that I held out to the world; that is, to half a dozen friends who inquired coldly whither I would go; yet, doubtless, I was somewhat incited by that restless national spirit, that leads so many to seek fortune beyond the mountains, at the very moment when the goddess-though I am no heathen—begins to smile on them at home.

care.

Though no sectarian in philosophy, I travelled as a peripatetic. My only comrade was one, who, though ranked among curs, is more faithful to his master than some other dogs of higher lineage, and that wear richer collars. His, however, was a braw brass collar,' bearing his master's name, and

his own, which was Jowler, and a motto, Cave Canem, sug. gested by a great traveller, who had read it on a Roman threshold at Pompeii.

In my hand I ported a crabstick that I had cut in the woods of Camden, and I carried in my pocket a ferule, that had descended from my grandfather, and which, therefore, I have tasted as well as administered. This I took as a diploma, to be a passport to the confidence and tables of the great-of esquires, judges, and generals, titles, that, in a plain republic, where none seek or refuse an office, often pertain to one for

tunate man.

Indulge me with a last word concerning the ferule, or as Maro hath it-for I like a new quotation

Extremum hunc mihi concede laborem.

6

Generally I prefer it to the birch. In Latin I hold a divided opinion; but in rhetoric, and its kindred studies, it seems fitting and emblematical, to deal with the open palm.' Moreover, in correcting' an offender it is proper to look him in the face. If I see there a sullen obstinacy, I am too much his friend to spare him; but if I mark a manful resolution to bear the pain, and a shrinking only from the disgrace, that is a boy after my own heart, and he has little to suffer from the severity of his master

Thus attended and equipped, I went forth rejoicing, for I had much to delight, and nothing to afflict me, till I came to the Susquehannah, where, at Harrisburgh, I lamented anew over the grave of a friend, Simon Snyder, who had been governor of the commonwealth. But that friendly man was dead, and probably decayed, though there is authority no less than Shakspeare's—and the grave-digger gives the reasonthat a 'tanner will last you some nine year.'

me.

The Susquehannah is broad but not deep, and you may, if you would perpetrate injustice, apply the same character to It has a sonorous name, and is a beautiful stream, bending, with a noble sweep, around wild or cultivated hills, reflecting their pride, and carrying upon its waters the rich products of their soil.

Not far from York I ascended the South Mountain, an outpost, or advanced guard, of the Alleghanies, and time and travelling soon brought me to the main body.

I passed an hour at a rude village, to which Indian massacre has given the name of Bloody Run, and here I studied diligently the features of a countenance entirely seraphic: it was like the most celestial of Raffaelle's Madonnas, or the purest of Carlo Dolce's Saints. I had not thought when I left Germantown behind, to find such beings among the mountains. Yet this admiration of what was beautiful and pure, had no connexion with infidelity, and could not have offended the lady, whose ring the schoolmaster aspires to wear. It was but his perception of the same qualities in another that are so attractive in her, though in no other can they be, to him, so amiable. I left the dark haired cherub with regret, for I may never see another, or her, again.

At Bedford, I entered the schoolhouse, making known to the master my name and calling, and as much of my life and opinions as might attract his regard, when the kind soul seated me at his desk, pressing me to examine his school; and the examination I closed with a short address.

He walked with me several miles, to the foot of the Alleghany Ridge; but when I asked him to ascend it, that good and grave man shook his head,-for he was of few words when signs could express his meaning.

I left him standing like a statue of Silence, while I walked briskly on, animated with renewed benevolence to the whole human race; for the kindness of that worthy gentleman seemed to be transferred to my own soul.

This ridge gives its name to the mountains, and, to geographers, the bold figure, 'the backbone of the United States;' but Uncle Sam has grown so much from his original shape, that at present the spine is somewhere in the side of that strong

man.

Having reached the summit, I looked down upon an interminable valley, or glade,' where cultivation had so much encroached upon the wilderness, that the rivers reflected alternate forest and farm. Other ridges, blue in the distance, lay before me, and the laurel and chesnut gave names to the

next.

On the bleak side of the Chesnut Ridge, I entered a long cabin that had been the abode of misfortune, where an old soldier retired to his miserable dole, and shared it with the needy traveller; though seldom was the most needy as poor

as General St. Clair. Fellow citizens! it is neither generous nor just, when a man has served us faithfully and long, to turn him out to graze on the hill side, like an old war horse that can no longer charge; or to let him starve, like an aged hound, that has lost his teeth for an ungrateful master.

The Alleghanies have little of the sublime, but much of the beautiful. In wildness and abruptness they cannot be compared with the White Mountains. Yet, when villages with red schoolhouses shall be sprinkled over them, he must go far who would find a more attractive country.

To me these mountains were charming and new, and I loitered among them with a schoolboy lightness of heart, careless of the future, and oblivous of the past, Often did 1 quit the road, attracted by the sound of a waterfall, or the coolness of a fountain, of which thousands are gushing from the rocks.

I could never, when alone, resist a ducklike propensity to play in running water, though I have frowned upon the same pastime among the urchins of the school, principally from a care of their health, but partly from that unamiable principle that makes us so intolerant to our own faults when we see them reflected in others. It may sink me as a moral philosopher in your esteem, as much as it would raise me as a good soul among my scholars, to confess that I toiled half a day among the mountains to make a dam across a little torrent, and that, when I had completed this beaver-like monument, I left it with the regret that all men feel when dismounted from their hobby. Your own I believe to be Pegasus, but seldom, as I think, have you reason for a similar regret.

As I was sitting on a log, listening to the sounds of my little waterfall,

"mellow murmur, and fairy shout,"

they seemed at intervals to be mingled with the tolling of a distant bell, and it had great solemnity of effect, to hear, in these solitudes of creation, the sound that man has consecrated to the worship of the Creator.

Yet I knew that I was distant fifty miles from even the rudest church, and this sound, to state the truth, was too puzzling for satisfaction. I was forced to give it up as a bad conundrum, lamenting that the senses, with a little aid from

fancy, lead us to error as well as to truth, for, deciding by the ear, I could have almost sworn that I had heard a 'churchgoing bell.' Yet in turning the angle of a rock I fell upon a little colony of emigrants, and what I had listened to was but the bell that tinkled from one of their herd; though, while it lasted, my delusion was complete. So it is in other, and in all things; therefore let us have more charity for the opinions of others, and less confidence in the infallibility of our own.

These people were hospitable as Bedouins, and pressed a hungry traveller, who never stood upon ceremony, to a supper of venison collops that would have satisfied Daniel Boon.

As I swam with the current, I saw less of the stream of emigration than I should have seen if going eastward; yet I found emigrants of almost every European nation, though, mostly, they were from the British Islands. Among these were many Irish, though there were not wanting the men of Kent,' or of pleasant Tivi'dale.' Some of them had flocks and herds, and others were no richer than a pedagogue, and this is saying little for their wealth but it is a most unfortunate road for charity. The fountains of benevolence are frozen, where every man is a publican.

I once met at a Dutch tavern a humble old man, who seemed to owe little gratitude to fortune. The German boor repulsed his timid efforts at conversation, for a Dutchman, though not always civil to a traveller who has money, is invariably rude to him who has it not. The poor man next solicited the acquaintance of my dog, who very frankly wagged his tail in reply,-for he is as good-natured almost as his master. As the veteran seemed to have survived the last of his friends, and was as venerable in front as Cincinnatus himself, I invited him to share my supper- it was not of turnips --and had the pleasure of seeing him assail it as if he had seldom fared so well.

There is, in the morning, a singular appearance about the mountains. The body of mist, rising from the glades, settles at a certain altitude, and, from above, it looks like an ocean with islands; for the green summits of the lesser hills rise above the vapor, and present to the eye and the imagination an insular paradise; yet, when the mist had arisen, like a veil from a pretty face, it was not always to increase my admiration ; for the fancy discovered beauties in the obscurity that the eye could not find in the light of the sun.