The night, on which I had looked
out before going to bed, was clear and most beautiful; but a few stars
now only remained as the day had begun to dawn, and the east was
reddened by the approaching sunrise. Below the window was a very large
market-place, lighted up and crowded with buyers and sellers. The women
all had on the usual bonnet worn by the lower classes in this
country,--a sun-bonnet, made of coloured cotton, with a very deep
curtain hanging down the back. They wore besides warm cloaks and
coloured shawls, and the men large wide-awakes. I have already described
the brilliantly red houses, and the day being sufficiently advanced to
bring out the colour very conspicuously, I think I never saw a prettier
or busier scene, nor one which I could have wished more to have drawn,
but there was no time even to attempt it.
After leaving Harrisburgh our road lay for some miles along the course
of the Susquehanna, and papa, who had bought a copy of Gertrude of
Wyoming, made me read it aloud to him, to the great astonishment of our
fellow-travellers and at the expense of my lungs, the noise of a railway
carriage in America not being much suited for such an occupation. The
river presented a succession of rich scenery, being most picturesquely
studded with islands. We were quite sorry to take leave of it; but after
these few miles of great beauty, the road made a dash across the country
to Philadelphia.
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