University of Virginia Library

I.—THE PEACEFUL HAMLET.

Nestling among the grandhills of New
Hampshire, in the United States of America,
is a village called Waterbury.

Perhaps you were never there.

I do not censure you if you never were.

One can get on very well without going
to Waterbury.

Indeed, there are millions of meritorious
persons who were never there, and yet
they are happy.

In this peaceful hamlet lived a young
man named Pettingill.

Reuben Pettingill.

He was an agriculturist.

A broad-shouldered, deep-chested agriculturist.

He was contented to live in this peaceful
hamlet.

He said it was better than a noisy
Othello.

Thus do these simple children of nature
joke in a first class manner.