CHAPTER VIII.
And uncouth manners, nurtured from my youth
To bide the buffet of the wintry blast,
And toil unshrinking when the sultry skies
Scorch'd the green verdure of the earth I till'd;
Yet not by health, or peace, or sweet content
Unvisited, nor yet by patient trust
In Him, the harvest's universal Lord,
Uncheer'd.
The agricultural part of Madam L———'s possessions, or as it is styled in New-England "landed estate," was situated in one of the smaller towns in the vicinity of that where she resided. It was under the care of a farmer of undoubted integrity, and industry, who rendered her, with great punctuality, her stipulated share of its products. His father had been, for many years, tenant of the same estate. After him a younger son succeeded to this trust, but died at an early age. The present occupant, being the only remaining branch of the family, and feeling an affection for the abode of his infancy, returned from "up-country," where, to use his own expression, he had "moved to make room for brother Zedekiah;" and resumed with delight the culture of those fields, where he had "drivteam when a leetle boy."
Madam L——— had often taken pleasure in his conversation, which was marked with that plain common-sense,
