My science, so called, had given me little more than the names of things which to her were familiar and common.

It was in her company that I learned to read nature as a book always open, and full of delectable teachings, until my poor school-lore did seem undesirable and tedious, and the very chatter of the noisy blackbirds in the spring meadows more profitable and more pleasing than the angry disputes and the cavils and subtleties of schoolmen and divines." My cousin blushed, and, smiling through her moist eyes at this language of her beloved friend, said that I must not believe all he said; for, indeed, it was along of his studies of the heathen poets that he had first thought of becoming a farmer.

And she asked him to repeat some of the verses which he had at his tongue's end.

He laughed, and said he did suppose she meant some lines of Horace, which had been thus Englished:-- "I often wished I had a farm, A decent dwelling, snug and warm, A garden, and a spring as pure As crystal flowing by my door, Besides an ancient oaken grove, Where at my leisure I might rove.
"The gracious gods, to crown my bliss, Have granted this, and more than this,-- They promise me a modest spouse, To light my hearth and keep my house.
I ask no more than, free from strife, To hold these blessings all my life!" Tam exceedingly pleased, I must say, with the prospect of my cousin Polly.

Her suitor is altogether a worthy young man; and, making allowances for the uncertainty of all human things, she may well look forward to a happy life with him.