She understood the metaphor at once , though , indeed , it would not much have troubled me if she had assented to the literal meaning of my words . The mahogany box was placed in a proper position , and I peeped in through its small round magnifying-window while the girl sat by my side and gave short descriptive sketches as one after another the pictures were unfolded to my view . We visited together -- at least , our imaginations did -- full many a famous city in the streets of which I had long yearned to tread . Once , I remember , we were in the harbor of Barcelona , gazing townward ; next , she bore me through the air to Sicily and bade me look up at blazing Ætna ; then we took wing to Venice and sat in a gondola beneath the arch of the Rialto , and anon she set me down among the thronged spectators at the coronation of Napoleon . But there was one scene -- its locality she could not tell -- which charmed my attention longer than all those gorgeous palaces and churches , because the fancy haunted me that I myself the preceding summer had beheld just such a humble meeting-house , in just such a pine-surrounded nook , among our own green mountains . All these pictures were tolerably executed , though far inferior to the girl 's touches of description ; nor was it easy to comprehend how in so few sentences , and these , as I supposed , in a language foreign to her , she contrived to present an airy copy of each varied scene . When we had travelled through the vast extent of the mahogany box , I looked into my guide 's face . '' ` Where are you going , my pretty maid ? ' '' inquired I , in the words of an old song . `` Ah ! '' said the gay damsel ; `` you might as well ask where the summer wind is going . We are wanderers here and there and everywhere . Wherever there is mirth our merry hearts are drawn to it . To-day , indeed , the people have told us of a great frolic and festival in these parts ; so perhaps we may be needed at what you call the camp-meeting at Stamford . '' Then , in my happy youth , and while her pleasant voice yet sounded in my ears , I sighed ; for none but myself , I thought , should have been her companion in a life which seemed to realize my own wild fancies cherished all through visionary boyhood to that hour . To these two strangers the world was in its Golden Age -- not that , indeed , it was less dark and sad than ever , but because its weariness and sorrow had no community with their ethereal nature . Wherever they might appear in their pilgrimage of bliss , Youth would echo back their gladness , care-stricken Maturity would rest a moment from its toil , and Age , tottering among the graves , would smile in withered joy for their sakes . The lonely cot , the narrow and gloomy street , the sombre shade , would catch a passing gleam like that now shining on ourselves as these bright spirits wandered by . Blessed pair , whose happy home was throughout all the earth ! I looked at my shoulders , and thought them broad enough to sustain those pictured towns and mountains ; mine , too , was an elastic foot as tireless as the wing of the bird of Paradise ; mine was then an untroubled heart that would have gone singing on its delightful way .
`` Oh , maiden , '' XXXXX I aloud , `` why did you not come hither alone ? ''
assented frolic haunted looked pictured said sat smile toil travelled