the vicinity of the wealthiest beaux.  All this fired the quiet imagination of the good farmer’s wife; and no sooner had the boarders departed to enjoy themselves in spite of heat, and dust, and fever-and-ague, than she stated her determination to follow them.  ’Why have we not as good a right to travel, as they have?’ said she; ’they have paid us money enough to go to Niagara with; and it really is a shame for people to live and die so ignorant of their own country.’  ’But then we want the money to pay for that stock, which turned out unlucky, you know.’  ’Oh, that can be done next summer; we can always get boarders enough, and those that will pay handsomely.  Give the man a mortgage of the house, to keep him quiet till next summer.’  ’But what will you do with the children?’ ’Sally is a very smart girl; I am sure she will take as good care of them as if I were at home.’

To make a long story short, the farmer and his wife concluded to go to Quebec, just to show they had a right to put themselves to inconvenience, if they pleased.  They went; spent all their money; had a watch stolen from them in the steamboat; were dreadfully sea-sick off Point Judith; came home tired, and dusty; found the babe sick, because Sally had stood at the door with it, one chilly, damp morning, while she was feeding the chickens; and the eldest girl screaming and screeching at the thoughts of going to bed, because Sally, in order to bring her under her authority, had told her a frightful ‘raw-head-and-bloody-bones’ story; the horse had broken into the garden, and made wretched work with the vegetables; and fifty pounds of butter had become fit for the grease-pot, because the hoops of the firkin had sprung, and Sally had so much to do, that she never thought of going to see whether the butter was covered with brine.

After six or eight weeks, the children were pretty well restored to orderly habits; and the wife, being really a notable and prudent woman, resolved to make up for her lost butter and vegetables, by doing without help through the winter.  When summer came, they should have boarders, she said; and sure enough, they had boarders in plenty; but not profitable ones.  There were forty cousins, at whose houses they had stopped; and twenty people who had been very polite to them on the way; and it being such a pleasant season, and travelling so cheap, everyone of these people felt they had a right to take a journey; and they could not help passing a day or two with their friends at the farm.  One after another came, till the farmer could bear it no longer.  ‘I tell you what, wife,’ said he, ’I am going to jail as fast as a man can go.  If there is no other way of putting a stop to this, I’ll sell every bed in the house, except the one we sleep on.’