I have been inside one or two of them, and know what they are lined with. The secretary of the Province of New Netherland, writing in Dutch, in 1650, for the information of those who wished to take up land there, states more particularly that “those in New Netherland, and especially in New England, who have no means to build farmhouses at first according to their wishes, dig a square pit in the ground, cellar fashion, six or seven feet deep, as long and as broad as they think proper, case the earth inside with wood all round the wall, and line the wood with the bark of trees or something else to prevent the caving in of the earth; floor this cellar with plank, and wainscot it overhead for a ceiling, raise a roof of spars clear up, and cover the spars with bark or green sods, so that they can live dry and warm in these houses with their entire families for two, three, and four years, it being understood that partitions are run through those cellars which are adapted to the size of the family. They were pleasant spring days, in which the winter of man’s discontent was thawing as well as the earth, and the life that had lain torpid began to stretch itself. Near the end of March, 1845, I borrowed an axe and went down to the woods by Walden Pond, nearest to where I intended to build my house, and began to cut down some tall, arrowy white pines, still in their youth, for timber.

In such a neighborhood as this, boards and shingles, lime and bricks, are cheaper and more easily obtained than suitable caves, or whole logs, or bark in sufficient quantities, or even well-tempered clay or flat stones. By the middle of April, for I made no haste in my work, but rather made the most of it, my house was framed and ready for the raising. On the 1st of April it rained and melted the ice, and in the early part of the day, which was very foggy, I heard a stray goose groping about over the pond and cackling as if lost, or like the spirit of the fog. In the course of three or four years, when the country became adapted to agriculture, they built themselves handsome houses, spending on them several thousands.”

One day, when my axe had come off and I had cut a green hickory for a wedge, driving it with a stone, and had placed the whole to soak in a pond hole in order to swell the wood, I saw a striped snake run into the water, and he lay on the bottom, apparently without inconvenience, as long as I stayed there, or more than a quarter of an hour; perhaps because he had not yet fairly come out of the torpid state. The wealthy and principal men in New England, in the beginning of the colonies, commenced their first dwelling houses in this fashion for two reasons; firstly, in order not to waste time in building, and not to want food the next season; secondly, in order not to discourage poor laboring people whom they brought over in numbers from Fatherland. With a little more wit we might use these materials so as to become richer than the richest now are, and make our civilization a blessing. they have taken wings,— The arts and sciences, And a thousand appliances; The wind that blows Is all that any body knows.

The civilized man is a more experienced and wiser savage. The owner of the axe, as he released his hold on it, said that it was the apple of his eye; but I returned it sharper than I received it. Though we are not so degenerate but that we might possibly live in a cave or a wigwam or wear skins today, it certainly is better to accept the advantages, though so dearly bought, which the invention and industry of mankind offer. I had previously seen the snakes in frosty mornings in my path with portions of their bodies still numb and inflexible, waiting for the sun to thaw them.

Sometimes a rambler in the wood was attracted by the sound of my axe, and we chatted pleasantly over the chips which I had made. It was of small dimensions, with a peaked cottage roof, and not much else to be seen, the dirt being raised five feet all around as if it were a compost heap. Men say they know many things; But lo! But to make haste to my own experiment.

They did not “provide them houses,” says he, “till the earth, by the Lord’s blessing, brought forth bread to feed them,” and the first year’s crop was so light that “they were forced to cut their bread very thin for a long season.” Old Johnson, in his “Wonder-Working Providence,” speaking of the first settlers of this town, with whom he was contemporary, tells us that “they burrow themselves in the earth for their first shelter under some hillside, and, casting the soil aloft upon timber, they make a smoky fire against the earth, at the highest side.” But are the more pressing wants satisfied now? I speak understandingly on this subject, for I have made myself acquainted with it both theoretically and practically.

It was a pleasant hillside where I worked, covered with pine woods, through which I looked out on the pond, and a small open field in the woods where pines and hickories were springing up. James Collins’ shanty was considered an uncommonly fine one. In this course which our ancestors took there was a show of prudence at least, as if their principle were to satisfy the more pressing wants first. When I think of acquiring for myself one of our luxurious dwellings, I am deterred, for, so to speak, the country is not yet adapted to human culture, and we are still forced to cut our spiritual bread far thinner than our forefathers did their wheaten.

It is difficult to begin without borrowing, but perhaps it is the most generous course thus to permit your fellow-men to have an interest in your enterprise. I had already bought the shanty of James Collins, an Irishman who worked on the Fitchburg Railroad, for boards. There were some slight flurries of snow during the days that I worked there; but for the most part when I came out on to the railroad, on my way home, its yellow sand heap stretched away gleaming in the hazy atmosphere, and the rails shone in the spring sun, and I heard the lark and pewee and other birds already come to commence another year with us. I walked about the outside, at first unobserved from within, the window was so deep and high.

The roof was the soundest part, though a good deal warped and made brittle by the sun. Before I had done I was more the friend than the foe of the pine tree, though I had cut down some of them, having become better acquainted with it. Before we can adorn our houses with beautiful objects the walls must be stripped, and our lives must be stripped, and beautiful housekeeping and beautiful living be laid for a foundation: now, a taste for the beautiful is most cultivated out of doors, where there is no house and no housekeeper. Each stick was carefully mortised or tenoned by its stump, for I had borrowed other tools by this time.

Not that all architectural ornament is to be neglected even in the rudest periods; but let our houses first be lined with beauty, where they come in contact with our lives, like the tenement of the shellfish, and not overlaid with it. When I called to see it he was not at home. The ice in the pond was not yet dissolved, though there were some open spaces, and it was all dark colored and saturated with water. My days in the woods were not very long ones; yet I usually carried my dinner of bread and butter, and read the newspaper in which it was wrapped, at noon, sitting amid the green pine boughs which I had cut off, and to my bread was imparted some of their fragrance, for my hands were covered with a thick coat of pitch.

It appeared to me that for a like reason men remain in their present low and primitive condition; but if they should feel the influence of the spring of springs arousing them, they would of necessity rise to a higher and more ethereal life. I hewed the main timbers six inches square, most of the studs on two sides only, and the rafters and floor timbers on one side, leaving the rest of the bark on, so that they were just as straight and much stronger than sawed ones.


The same phenomenon here presented a slightly different appearance. I kept several of them alive for some time: their tails are very singular organs, for they act, by a well-fitted contrivance, as suckers or organs of attachment, and likewise as reservoirs for saliva, or some such fluid. This mountain, like most others, when thus partly veiled, appeared to rise to a far prouder elevation than its real height of 2300 feet. My companion, the day before, had shot two large bearded monkeys.

The flash was almost co-instantaneous in the two rings, but it was just perceptible first in the anterior one. The house in which I lived was seated close beneath the well-known mountain of the Corcovado. After the hotter days, it was delicious to sit quietly in the garden and watch the evening pass into night. This was soon effected, and down came tree and monkey with an awful crash.

I have seen a number of little boys practising this art as a game of play and from their skill in hitting an upright stick, they promised well for more earnest attempts. A small frog, of the genus Hyla, sits on a blade of grass about an inch above the surface of the water, and sends forth a pleasing chirp: when several are together they sing in harmony on different notes. Every evening after dark this great concert commenced; and often have I sat listening to it, until my attention has been drawn away by some curious passing insect. One morning, in the course of six hours, 1.6 inches of rain fell.

I repeatedly fed them on raw meat; and I invariably observed, that every now and then the extremity of the tail was applied to the mouth, and a drop of fluid exuded on the meat, which was then in the act of being consumed. At these times the fireflies are seen flitting about from hedge to hedge. Nature, in these climes, chooses her vocalists from more humble performers than in Europe. One of them thus remained fast to a branch, and it was necessary to cut down a large tree to procure it.

It has been remarked, with much truth, that abruptly conical hills are characteristic of the formation which Humboldt designates as gneiss-granite. It is extremely difficult to preserve these Planariae; as soon as the cessation of life allows the ordinary laws of change to act, their entire bodies become soft and fluid, with a rapidity which I have never seen equalled. I was often interested by watching the clouds, which, rolling in from seaward, formed a bank just beneath the highest point of the Corcovado. The habit of carrying the knife is universal; and in traversing a thick wood it is almost necessary, on account of the creeping plants.

He was dressed in a tattered old shirt and trousers, and had his head uncovered: he carried an old-fashioned gun and a large knife. The Brazilians are so dexterous with the knife, that they can throw it to some distance with precision, and with sufficient force to cause a fatal wound. Various cicidae and crickets, at the same time, keep up a ceaseless shrill cry, but which, softened by the distance, is not unpleasant. It often rained heavily, but the drying southerly winds soon again rendered the walks pleasant.

We were accompanied by the son of a neighbouring farmer--a good specimen of a wild Brazilian youth. The sun was setting, and a gentle southerly breeze, striking against the southern side of the rock, mingled its current with the colder air above; and the vapour was thus condensed; but as the light wreaths of cloud passed over the ridge, and came within the influence of the warmer atmosphere of the northern sloping bank, they were immediately re-dissolved. Every one has heard of the beauty of the scenery near Botofogo. I found that this insect emitted the most brilliant flashes when irritated: in the intervals, the abdominal rings were obscured.

The elater, when placed on its back and preparing to spring, moved its head and thorax backwards, so that the pectoral spine was drawn out, and rested on the edge of its sheath. On a dark night the light can be seen at about two hundred paces distant. As this storm passed over the forests which surround the Corcovado, the sound produced by the drops pattering on the countless multitude of leaves was very remarkable, it could be heard at the distance of a quarter of a mile, and was like the rushing of a great body of water. Daniell has observed, in his meteorological essays, that a cloud sometimes appears fixed on a mountain summit, while the wind continues to blow over it.

seemed the most common luminous insect. These animals have prehensile tails, the extremity of which, even after death, can support the whole weight of the body. In this case the cloud was clearly seen to curl over, and rapidly pass by the summit, and yet was neither diminished nor increased in size. I profited, however, by my acquaintance with the Portuguese padre, for on another occasion he gave me a fine specimen of the Yagouaroundi cat.

I amused myself one day by observing the springing powers of this insect, which have not, as it appears to me, been properly described. Nothing can be more striking than the effect of these huge rounded masses of naked rock rising out of the most luxuriant vegetation. I first visited the forest in which these Planariae were found, in company with an old Portuguese priest who took me out to hunt with him. The genus Hyla has its toes terminated by small suckers; and I found this animal could crawl up a pane of glass, when placed absolutely perpendicular.

The same backward movement being continued, the spine, by the full action of the muscles, was bent like a spring; and the insect at this moment rested on the extremity of its head and wing-cases. The climate, during the months of May and June, or the beginning of winter, was delightful. The mean temperature, from observations taken at nine o'clock, both morning and evening, was only 72 degs. On the muddy and wet gravel-walks I found the larvae of this lampyris in great numbers: they resembled in general form the female of the English glowworm.

When the insect was decapitated the rings remained uninterruptedly bright, but not so brilliant as before: local irritation with a needle always increased the vividness of the light. These larvae possessed but feeble luminous powers; very differently from their parents, on the slightest touch they feigned death and ceased to shine; nor did irritation excite any fresh display. Our day's sport, besides the monkey, was confined to sundry small green parrots and a few toucans. The sport consisted in turning into the cover a few dogs, and then patiently waiting to fire at any animal which might appear.

The light in this case was also rendered more brilliant by irritation. All the fireflies, which I caught here, belonged to the Lampyridae (in which family the English glowworm is included), and the greater number of specimens were of Lampyris occidentalis. When we were at Bahia, an elater or beetle (Pyrophorus luminosus, Illig.) From these facts it would appear probable, that the animal has only the power of concealing or extinguishing the light for short intervals, and that at other times the display is involuntary.

The rings in one instance retained their luminous property nearly twenty-four hours after the death of the insect. The shining matter was fluid and very adhesive: little spots, where the skin had been torn, continued bright with a slight scintillation, whilst the uninjured parts were obscured. I had some difficulty in catching a specimen of this frog. The tail, notwithstanding so much practice, does not seem to be able to find its way to the mouth; at least the neck was always touched first, and apparently as a guide.

The frequent occurrence of murder may be partly attributed to this habit. It is remarkable that in all the different kinds of glowworms, shining elaters, and various marine animals (such as the crustacea, medusae, nereidae, a coralline of the genus Clytia, and Pyrosma), which I have observed, the light has been of a well-marked green colour.

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I amused myself one day by observing the springing powers of this insect, which have not, as it appears to me, been properly described. The landscape in the neighbourhood of Bahia almost takes its character from the two latter trees. The light in this case was also rendered more brilliant by irritation. On the muddy and wet gravel-walks I found the larvae of this lampyris in great numbers: they resembled in general form the female of the English glowworm.

When the insect was decapitated the rings remained uninterruptedly bright, but not so brilliant as before: local irritation with a needle always increased the vividness of the light. In the interval, the difference between the dew point and temperature had increased from 7.5 to 17 degs. I kept several of them alive for some time: their tails are very singular organs, for they act, by a well-fitted contrivance, as suckers or organs of attachment, and likewise as reservoirs for saliva, or some such fluid. The atmosphere, seen through a short space of half or three-quarters of a mile, was perfectly lucid, but at a greater distance all colours were blended into a most beautiful haze, of a pale French grey, mingled with a little blue.

It is remarkable that in all the different kinds of glowworms, shining elaters, and various marine animals (such as the crustacea, medusae, nereidae, a coralline of the genus Clytia, and Pyrosma), which I have observed, the light has been of a well-marked green colour. So was it here; for a Strongylus, attracted by the odour, alighted on the fungus as I carried it in my hand. The shining matter was fluid and very adhesive: little spots, where the skin had been torn, continued bright with a slight scintillation, whilst the uninjured parts were obscured. On several occasions I enjoyed some short but most pleasant excursions in the neighbouring country.

Sitting down on a block of granite, it was delightful to watch the various insects and birds as they flew past. Following a pathway, I entered a noble forest, and from a height of five or six hundred feet, one of those splendid views was presented, which are so common on every side of Rio. Who can doubt that these qualities are united in the banana, the cocoa-nut, the many kinds of palm, the orange, and the bread-fruit tree? The leaves of the camphor, pepper, cinnamon, and clove trees were delightfully aromatic; and the bread-fruit, the jaca, and the mango, vied with each other in the magnificence of their foliage.

At this elevation the landscape attains its most brilliant tint; and every form, every shade, so completely surpasses in magnificence all that the European has ever beheld in his own country, that he knows not how to express his feelings. I never returned from these excursions empty-handed. The same backward movement being continued, the spine, by the full action of the muscles, was bent like a spring; and the insect at this moment rested on the extremity of its head and wing-cases. The projecting points of the thorax, and the sheath of the spine, served to steady the whole body during the spring.

During this day I was particularly struck with a remark of Humboldt's, who often alludes to "the thin vapour which, without changing the transparency of the air, renders its tints more harmonious, and softens its effects." The humming-bird seems particularly fond of such shady retired spots. When man is the agent in introducing into a country a new species, this relation is often broken: as one instance of this I may mention, that the leaves of the cabbages and lettuces, which in England afford food to such a multitude of slugs and caterpillars, in the gardens near Rio are untouched. I found that this insect emitted the most brilliant flashes when irritated: in the intervals, the abdominal rings were obscured.

The elater, when placed on its back and preparing to spring, moved its head and thorax backwards, so that the pectoral spine was drawn out, and rested on the edge of its sheath. Both of them bear to the evergreen vegetation of these climates the same kind of relation which laurels and hollies in England do to the lighter green of the deciduous trees. The air was delightfully cool and fragrant; and the drops of dew still glittered on the leaves of the large liliaceous plants, which shaded the streamlets of clear water. During our stay at Brazil I made a large collection of insects.

We here see in two distant countries a similar relation between plants and insects of the same families, though the species of both are different. Whenever I saw these little creatures buzzing round a flower, with their wings vibrating so rapidly as to be scarcely visible, I was reminded of the sphinx moths: their movements and habits are indeed in many respects very similar. This day I found a specimen of a curious fungus, called Hymenophallus. Every evening after dark this great concert commenced; and often have I sat listening to it, until my attention has been drawn away by some curious passing insect.

When we were at Bahia, an elater or beetle (Pyrophorus luminosus, Illig.) The tail, notwithstanding so much practice, does not seem to be able to find its way to the mouth; at least the neck was always touched first, and apparently as a guide. All the fireflies, which I caught here, belonged to the Lampyridae (in which family the English glowworm is included), and the greater number of specimens were of Lampyris occidentalis. These larvae possessed but feeble luminous powers; very differently from their parents, on the slightest touch they feigned death and ceased to shine; nor did irritation excite any fresh display.

The condition of the atmosphere between the morning and about noon, when the effect was most evident, had undergone little change, excepting in its dryness. At these times the fireflies are seen flitting about from hedge to hedge. It may be observed, that the houses within the tropics are surrounded by the most beautiful forms of vegetation, because many of them are at the same time most useful to man. A few general observations on the comparative importance of the different orders may be interesting to the English entomologist.

I repeatedly fed them on raw meat; and I invariably observed, that every now and then the extremity of the tail was applied to the mouth, and a drop of fluid exuded on the meat, which was then in the act of being consumed. From these facts it would appear probable, that the animal has only the power of concealing or extinguishing the light for short intervals, and that at other times the display is involuntary. Before seeing them, I had no idea that any trees could cast so black a shade on the ground. The flash was almost co-instantaneous in the two rings, but it was just perceptible first in the anterior one.

Most people know the English Phallus, which in autumn taints the air with its odious smell: this, however, as the entomologist is aware, is, to some of our beetles a delightful fragrance. One day I went to the Botanic Garden, where many plants, well known for their great utility, might be seen growing. On a dark night the light can be seen at about two hundred paces distant. On another occasion I started early and walked to the Gavia, or topsail mountain.

This is an appearance which I have never observed in the temperate zones. In the descriptions which I have read, sufficient stress does not appear to have been laid on the elasticity of the spine: so sudden a spring could not be the result of simple muscular contraction, without the aid of some mechanical contrivance. The effort being suddenly relaxed, the head and thorax flew up, and in consequence, the base of the wing-cases struck the supporting surface with such force, that the insect by the reaction was jerked upwards to the height of one or two inches. The rings in one instance retained their luminous property nearly twenty-four hours after the death of the insect.

seemed the most common luminous insect. The general effect frequently recalled to my mind the gayest scenery of the Opera-house or the great theatres.


They did not “provide them houses,” says he, “till the earth, by the Lord’s blessing, brought forth bread to feed them,” and the first year’s crop was so light that “they were forced to cut their bread very thin for a long season.” There is not a nail to hang a picture on, nor a shelf to receive the bust of a hero or a saint. Are you one of the ninety-seven who fail, or of the three who succeed? But to make haste to my own experiment.

The cart before the horse is neither beautiful nor useful. I cannot but perceive that this so called rich and refined life is a thing jumped at, and I do not get on in the enjoyment of the fine arts which adorn it, my attention being wholly occupied with the jump; for I remember that the greatest genuine leap, due to human muscles alone, on record, is that of certain wandering Arabs, who are said to have cleared twenty-five feet on level ground. Without factitious support, man is sure to come to earth again beyond that distance. The first question which I am tempted to put to the proprietor of such great impropriety is, Who bolsters you?

When I consider how our houses are built and paid for, or not paid for, and their internal economy managed and sustained, I wonder that the floor does not give way under the visitor while he is admiring the gewgaws upon the mantel-piece, and let him through into the cellar, to some solid and honest though earthy foundation. The secretary of the Province of New Netherland, writing in Dutch, in 1650, for the information of those who wished to take up land there, states more particularly that “those in New Netherland, and especially in New England, who have no means to build farmhouses at first according to their wishes, dig a square pit in the ground, cellar fashion, six or seven feet deep, as long and as broad as they think proper, case the earth inside with wood all round the wall, and line the wood with the bark of trees or something else to prevent the caving in of the earth; floor this cellar with plank, and wainscot it overhead for a ceiling, raise a roof of spars clear up, and cover the spars with bark or green sods, so that they can live dry and warm in these houses with their entire families for two, three, and four years, it being understood that partitions are run through those cellars which are adapted to the size of the family. Before we can adorn our houses with beautiful objects the walls must be stripped, and our lives must be stripped, and beautiful housekeeping and beautiful living be laid for a foundation: now, a taste for the beautiful is most cultivated out of doors, where there is no house and no housekeeper. It is difficult to begin without borrowing, but perhaps it is the most generous course thus to permit your fellow-men to have an interest in your enterprise.

We have built for this world a family mansion, and for the next a family tomb. With a little more wit we might use these materials so as to become richer than the richest now are, and make our civilization a blessing. Not that all architectural ornament is to be neglected even in the rudest periods; but let our houses first be lined with beauty, where they come in contact with our lives, like the tenement of the shellfish, and not overlaid with it. Answer me these questions, and then perhaps I may look at your bawbles and find them ornamental.

There is actually no place in this village for a work of fine art, if any had come down to us, to stand, for our lives, our houses and streets, furnish no proper pedestal for it. I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion. Though we are not so degenerate but that we might possibly live in a cave or a wigwam or wear skins today, it certainly is better to accept the advantages, though so dearly bought, which the invention and industry of mankind offer. men have become the tools of their tools.

He dwelt, as it were, in a tent in this world, and was either threading the valleys, or crossing the plains, or climbing the mountain tops. In this course which our ancestors took there was a show of prudence at least, as if their principle were to satisfy the more pressing wants first. One day, when my axe had come off and I had cut a green hickory for a wedge, driving it with a stone, and had placed the whole to soak in a pond hole in order to swell the wood, I saw a striped snake run into the water, and he lay on the bottom, apparently without inconvenience, as long as I stayed there, or more than a quarter of an hour; perhaps because he had not yet fairly come out of the torpid state. I speak understandingly on this subject, for I have made myself acquainted with it both theoretically and practically.

But are the more pressing wants satisfied now? The man who independently plucked the fruits when he was hungry is become a farmer; and he who stood under a tree for shelter, a housekeeper. The very simplicity and nakedness of man’s life in the primitive ages imply this advantage at least, that they left him still but a sojourner in nature. Old Johnson, in his “Wonder-Working Providence,” speaking of the first settlers of this town, with whom he was contemporary, tells us that “they burrow themselves in the earth for their first shelter under some hillside, and, casting the soil aloft upon timber, they make a smoky fire against the earth, at the highest side.”

I have been inside one or two of them, and know what they are lined with. When he was refreshed with food and sleep he contemplated his journey again. The civilized man is a more experienced and wiser savage. There were some slight flurries of snow during the days that I worked there; but for the most part when I came out on to the railroad, on my way home, its yellow sand heap stretched away gleaming in the hazy atmosphere, and the rails shone in the spring sun, and I heard the lark and pewee and other birds already come to commence another year with us.

In the course of three or four years, when the country became adapted to agriculture, they built themselves handsome houses, spending on them several thousands.” We have adopted Christianity merely as an improved method of agri-culture. The ice in the pond was not yet dissolved, though there were some open spaces, and it was all dark colored and saturated with water. I would rather ride on earth in an ox cart with a free circulation, than go to heaven in the fancy car of an excursion train and breathe a malaria all the way.

The owner of the axe, as he released his hold on it, said that it was the apple of his eye; but I returned it sharper than I received it. They were pleasant spring days, in which the winter of man’s discontent was thawing as well as the earth, and the life that had lain torpid began to stretch itself. We now no longer camp as for a night, but have settled down on earth and forgotten heaven. In such a neighborhood as this, boards and shingles, lime and bricks, are cheaper and more easily obtained than suitable caves, or whole logs, or bark in sufficient quantities, or even well-tempered clay or flat stones.

The wealthy and principal men in New England, in the beginning of the colonies, commenced their first dwelling houses in this fashion for two reasons; firstly, in order not to waste time in building, and not to want food the next season; secondly, in order not to discourage poor laboring people whom they brought over in numbers from Fatherland. Near the end of March, 1845, I borrowed an axe and went down to the woods by Walden Pond, nearest to where I intended to build my house, and began to cut down some tall, arrowy white pines, still in their youth, for timber. The best works of art are the expression of man’s struggle to free himself from this condition, but the effect of our art is merely to make this low state comfortable and that higher state to be forgotten. It was a pleasant hillside where I worked, covered with pine woods, through which I looked out on the pond, and a small open field in the woods where pines and hickories were springing up.

When I think of acquiring for myself one of our luxurious dwellings, I am deterred, for, so to speak, the country is not yet adapted to human culture, and we are still forced to cut our spiritual bread far thinner than our forefathers did their wheaten.


Then the little Margaret had hushed her sobs, and tried to lie quiet as if asleep, for fear of making her father unhappy by her grief, which she dared not express before her aunt, and which she rather thought it was wrong to feel at all after the long hoping, and planning, and contriving they had gone through at home, before her wardrobe could be arranged to suit her grander circumstances, and before papa could leave his parish to come up to London, even for a few days. My eyes are not so good as they were, and the light here is so bad that I can’t see to mend laces except just at the window, where there’s always a shocking draught—enough to give one one’s death of cold.” You must keep as much of your darning as you can till then. Hale to show him his little sleeping daughter.

She received him with a smile which had not a tinge of shyness or self-consciousness in it. She remembered the dark, dim look of the London nursery, presided over by an austere and ceremonious nurse, who was terribly particular about clean hands and torn frocks. Her aunt asked her to stand as a sort of lay figure on which to display them, as Edith was still asleep. She touched the shawls gently as they hung around her, and took a pleasure in their soft feel and their brilliant colours, and rather liked to be dressed in such splendour—enjoying it much as a child would do, with a quiet pleased smile on her lips.

“I have no doubt they are. Margaret stood right under the chandelier, quite silent and passive, while her aunt adjusted the draperies. well did the tall stately girl of eighteen remember the tears shed with such wild passion of grief by the little girl of nine, as she hid her face under the bed-clothes in that first night; and how she was bidden not to cry by the nurse, because it would disturb Miss Edith; and how she had cried as bitterly, but more quietly, till her newly-seen, grand, pretty aunt had come softly upstairs with Mr. Gibson, a lady who was taking a double interest in the conversation, from the fact of one of her daughters having been married within the last few weeks.

“Ah Newton!” Almost immediately, Edith came in from the back drawing-room, winking and blinking her eyes at the stronger light, shaking back her slightly-ruffled curls, and altogether looking like the Sleeping Beauty just startled from her dreams. He liked and disliked pretty nearly the same things that she did. on receiving this distressing intelligence about Edith; and the minute lap-dog in Mrs.

The gentlemen came dropping in one by one, and the buzz and noise deepened in tone. “Well, I suppose you are all in the depth of business—ladies’ business, I mean. Lennox with a bright, amused face, as if sure of his sympathy in her sense of the ludicrousness at being thus surprised. cried she; and then she sank as if wearied by the exertion.

She will be quite envious when she hears of Edith having Indian shawls. Playing with shawls is very different work to drawing up settlements.” Henry Lennox was suddenly announced. Whenever I have seen you lately, you have been carried away by a whirlwind of some other person’s making.”

What kind are they? “Helen had set her heart upon an Indian shawl, but really when I found what an extravagant price was asked, I was obliged to refuse her. At home—before she came to live in Harley Street—her mother’s dressing-room had been her nursery; and as they kept early hours in the country parsonage, Margaret had always had her meals with her father and mother. Just then the door opened, and Mr.

She recollected the first tea up there—separate from her father and aunt, who were dining somewhere down below, an infinite depth of stairs; for unless she were up in the sky (the child thought), they must be deep down in the bowels of the earth. with the lovely little borders?” I shall be glad to have time to think, and I am sure Edith will.” As Margaret sank rather more into the background on her aunt’s joining the conversation, she saw Henry Lennox directing his look towards a vacant seat near her; and she knew perfectly well that as soon as Edith released him from her questioning, he would take possession of that chair.

“Well, I dare say you will have both good light and plenty of warmth at Naples. Margaret stepped forward. While Newton went (not without a muttered grumbling) to undo the shawls, which had already been exhibited four or five times that day, Margaret looked round upon the nursery; the first room in that house with which she had become familiar nine years ago, when she was brought, all untamed from the forest, to share the home, the play, and the lessons of her cousin Edith. Her aunt was so much absorbed in asking Mr.

Margaret’s face was lightened up into an honest, open brightness. I think after this evening we shall feel at rest, which I am sure I have not done for many weeks; at least, that kind of rest when the hands have nothing more to do, and all the arrangements are complete for an event which must occupy one’s head and heart. Shaw’s arms began to bark, as if excited by the burst of pity. said she, “I think we shall all be sorry to leave this dear old room.”

you will waken your mistress. All the ladies said “poor child!” It was only to ask Edith if she would tell Newton to bring down her shawls; perhaps you would go, Margaret dear?” Even in her slumber she had instinctively felt that a Lennox was worth rousing herself for; and she had a multitude of questions to ask about dear Janet, the future, unseen sister-in-law, for whom she professed so much affection, that if Margaret had not been very proud she might have almost felt jealous of the mushroom rival.

So Margaret went down laden with shawls, and snuffing up their spicy Eastern smell. Some of the ladies started back, as if half-ashamed of their feminine interest in dress. She had not been quite sure, from her aunt’s rather confused account of his engagements, whether he would come that night; it was almost a surprise to see him; and now she was sure of a pleasant evening. you naughty little girl!

Nothing wanting.” No one thought about it; but Margaret’s tall, finely made figure, in the black silk dress which she was wearing as mourning for some distant relative of her father’s, set off the long beautiful folds of the gorgeous shawls that would have half-smothered Edith. By-and-by he came. Margaret went up into the old nursery at the very top of the house, where Newton was busy getting up some laces which were required for the wedding.

“I am not so sure about her, but I can fancy that you will. “Ah, I knew how you would be amused to find us all so occupied in admiring finery. Margaret heard her aunt’s voice again, but this time it was as if she had raised herself up from her half-recumbent position, and were looking into the more dimly lighted back drawing-room. Their prices are very perfect, too.

Henry Lennox—who had not been able to come to dinner—all sorts of questions about his brother the bridegroom, his sister the bridesmaid (coming with the Captain from Scotland for the occasion), and various other members of the Lennox family, that Margaret saw she was no more wanted as shawl-bearer, and devoted herself to the amusement of the other visitors, whom her aunt had for the moment forgotten. “Indeed, miss, I shan’t for one. Occasionally, as she was turned round, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror over the chimney-piece, and smiled at her own appearance there—the familiar features in the usual garb of a princess. Shaw held out her hand to the new-comer; Margaret stood perfectly still, thinking she might be yet wanted as a sort of block for the shawls; but looking at Mr.

Very different to my business, which is the real true law business. Thank you, Newton, I can take them down—you’re busy.” Now she had got to love the old nursery, though it was but a dismantled place; and she looked all round with a kind of cat-like regret, at the idea of leaving it for ever in three days. “Hush, Tiny!

But really Indian shawls are very perfect things of their kind.”


She moved forward a few steps—and I said to myself, The lady is young. In the first case, I advise you, as a friend, to have nothing to do with that cold ham at your elbow, and to wait till the omelette comes in. We sat down together at the breakfast-table in as cordial and customary a manner as if we had known each other for years, and had met at Limmeridge House to talk over old times by previous appointment. There is nobody else in the house but me.

She had a large, firm, masculine mouth and jaw; prominent, piercing, resolute brown eyes; and thick, coal-black hair, growing unusually low down on her forehead. A little before nine o’clock, I descended to the ground-floor of the house. She approached nearer—and I said to myself (with a sense of surprise which words fail me to express), The lady is ugly! The lady’s complexion was almost swarthy, and the dark down on her upper lip was almost a moustache.

Are you wondering what you will have for breakfast? In the second case, I will give you some tea to compose your spirits, and do all a woman can (which is very little, by-the-bye) to hold my tongue.” Shall we shake hands? At any rate, I can set it right now.

The easy elegance of every movement of her limbs and body as soon as she began to advance from the far end of the room, set me in a flutter of expectation to see her face clearly. How can you expect four women to dine together alone every day, and not quarrel? or are you surprised at my careless way of talking? Never was the old conventional maxim, that Nature cannot err, more flatly contradicted—never was the fair promise of a lovely figure more strangely and startlingly belied by the face and head that crowned it.

She left the window—and I said to myself, The lady is dark. The solemn servant conducted me into a prettily furnished room—said, “Breakfast at nine o’clock, sir”—looked all round him to see that everything was in its proper place, and noiselessly withdrew. Dear me, you look puzzled. You see I don’t think much of my own sex, Mr.

A confused sensation of having suddenly lost my familiarity with the past, without acquiring any additional clearness of idea in reference to the present or the future, took possession of my mind. The solemn man-servant of the night before met me wandering among the passages, and compassionately showed me the way to the breakfast-room. The instant my eyes rested on her, I was struck by the rare beauty of her form, and by the unaffected grace of her attitude. Circumstances that were but a few days old faded back in my memory, as if they had happened months and months since.

Her figure was tall, yet not too tall; comely and well-developed, yet not fat; her head set on her shoulders with an easy, pliant firmness; her waist, perfection in the eyes of a man, for it occupied its natural place, it filled out its natural circle, it was visibly and delightfully undeformed by stays. She handed me my cup of tea, laughing gaily. Fairlie, never joins us at any of our meals: he is an invalid, and keeps bachelor state in his own apartments. Fairlie’s invalid condition) we produced no such convenience in the house as a flirtable, danceable, small-talkable creature of the male sex; and the consequence was, we did nothing but quarrel, especially at dinner-time.

All through their visit (in consequence of Mr. “I hope you come here good-humouredly determined to make the best of your position,” continued the lady. “Yes, yes,” she said, when I had suggested the only explanation I could offer, to account for my perplexed looks, “I understand. said the lady interrogatively, her dark face lighting up with a smile, and softening and growing womanly the moment she began to speak.

These odd words of welcome were spoken in a clear, ringing, pleasant voice. Vesey, is charitably attending on her with restorative tea. She turned towards me immediately. I looked from the table to the window farthest from me, and saw a lady standing at it, with her back turned towards me.

The view was such a surprise, and such a change to me, after my weary London experience of brick and mortar landscape, that I seemed to burst into a new life and a new set of thoughts the moment I looked at it. or the unknown inhabitants of this Cumberland mansion?” It was a strange sensation to be sleeping in the house, like a friend of the family, and yet not to know one of the inmates, even by sight! When I rose the next morning and drew up my blind, the sea opened before me joyously under the broad August sunlight, and the distant coast of Scotland fringed the horizon with its lines of melting blue.

I felt this instinctively, even while I caught the infection of her own bright gaiety of spirits—even while I did my best to answer her in her own frank, lively way. My sister is in her own room, nursing that essentially feminine malady, a slight headache; and her old governess, Mrs. My first glance round me, as the man opened the door, disclosed a well-furnished breakfast-table, standing in the middle of a long room, with many windows in it. While it was impossible to be formal and reserved in her company, it was more than impossible to take the faintest vestige of a liberty with her, even in thought.

Her light flow of talk, and her lively familiarity of manner with a total stranger, were accompanied by an unaffected naturalness and an easy inborn confidence in herself and her position, which would have secured her the respect of the most audacious man breathing. You are such a perfect stranger in the house, that you are puzzled by my familiar references to the worthy inhabitants. Hartright—which will you have, tea or coffee?—no woman does think much of her own sex, although few of them confess it as freely as I do. The offered hand—rather large, but beautifully formed—was given to me with the easy, unaffected self-reliance of a highly-bred woman.

Accept my apologies for our apparent want of attention; and allow me to introduce myself as one of your pupils. In a quarter of an hour I was ready to be taken up to my bedchamber. Natural enough: I ought to have thought of it before. Pesca’s quaint announcement of the means by which he had procured me my present employment; the farewell evening I had passed with my mother and sister; even my mysterious adventure on the way home from Hampstead—had all become like events which might have occurred at some former epoch of my existence.

“You will have to begin this morning by putting up with no other company at breakfast than mine. Her expression—bright, frank, and intelligent—appeared, while she was silent, to be altogether wanting in those feminine attractions of gentleness and pliability, without which the beauty of the handsomest woman alive is beauty incomplete. We are such fools, we can’t entertain each other at table. “What shall I see in my dreams to-night?”

Two young ladies have been staying here, but they went away yesterday, in despair; and no wonder. “We resigned all hope of you last night, and went to bed as usual. My uncle, Mr. She had not heard my entrance into the room; and I allowed myself the luxury of admiring her for a few moments, before I moved one of the chairs near me, as the least embarrassing means of attracting her attention.

Although the woman in white was still in my mind, the image of her seemed to have grown dull and faint already. To see such a face as this set on shoulders that a sculptor would have longed to model—to be charmed by the modest graces of action through which the symmetrical limbs betrayed their beauty when they moved, and then to be almost repelled by the masculine form and masculine look of the features in which the perfectly shaped figure ended—was to feel a sensation oddly akin to the helpless discomfort familiar to us all in sleep, when we recognise yet cannot reconcile the anomalies and contradictions of a dream. I thought to myself, as I put out the candle; “the woman in white? I suppose we must come to it sooner or later—and why not sooner?”


It was the natural yearning of that portion of our most primitive ancestor which still survived in us. He was at first bare and out of doors; but though this was pleasant enough in serene and warm weather, by daylight, the rainy season and the winter, to say nothing of the torrid sun, would perhaps have nipped his race in the bud if he had not made haste to clothe himself with the shelter of a house. From the cave we have advanced to roofs of palm leaves, of bark and boughs, of linen woven and stretched, of grass and straw, of boards and shingles, of stones and tiles. I have often lodged in their wigwams, and found them as warm as the best English houses.”

From the hearth to the field is a great distance. The rest pay an annual tax for this outside garment of all, become indispensable summer and winter, which would buy a village of Indian wigwams, but now helps to keep them poor as long as they live. Every child begins the world again, to some extent, and loves to stay out doors, even in wet and cold. The Indians had advanced so far as to regulate the effect of the wind by a mat suspended over the hole in the roof and moved by a string.

An annual rent of from twenty-five to a hundred dollars, these are the country rates, entitles him to the benefit of the improvements of centuries, spacious apartments, clean paint and paper, Rumford fireplace, back plastering, Venetian blinds, copper pump, spring lock, a commodious cellar, and many other things. The meaner sort are covered with mats which they make of a kind of bulrush, and are also indifferently tight and warm, but not so good as the former.... I am far from jesting. Adam and Eve, according to the fable, wore the bower before other clothes.

But, answers one, by merely paying this tax the poor civilized man secures an abode which is a palace compared with the savage’s. Birds do not sing in caves, nor do doves cherish their innocence in dovecots. If it is asserted that civilization is a real advance in the condition of man,—and I think that it is, though only the wise improve their advantages,—it must be shown that it has produced better dwellings without making them more costly; and the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. Would the savage have been wise to exchange his wigwam for a palace on these terms?

Formerly, when how to get my living honestly, with freedom left for my proper pursuits, was a question which vexed me even more than it does now, for unfortunately I am become somewhat callous, I used to see a large box by the railroad, six feet long by three wide, in which the laborers locked up their tools at night, and it suggested to me that every man who was hard pushed might get such a one for a dollar, and, having bored a few auger holes in it, to admit the air at least, get into it when it rained and at night, and hook down the lid, and so have freedom in his love, and in his soul be free. I do not mean to insist here on the disadvantage of hiring compared with owning, but it is evident that the savage owns his shelter because it costs so little, while the civilized man hires his commonly because he cannot afford to own it; nor can he, in the long run, any better afford to hire. In the savage state every family owns a shelter as good as the best, and sufficient for its coarser and simpler wants; but I think that I speak within bounds when I say that, though the birds of the air have their nests, and the foxes their holes, and the savages their wigwams, in modern civilized society not more than one half the families own a shelter. Gookin, who was superintendent of the Indians subject to the Massachusetts Colony, writing in 1674, says, “The best of their houses are covered very neatly, tight and warm, with barks of trees, slipped from their bodies at those seasons when the sap is up, and made into great flakes, with pressure of weighty timber, when they are green....

Economy is a subject which admits of being treated with levity, but it cannot so be disposed of. If we suppose him to pay a rent instead, this is but a doubtful choice of evils. Nevertheless this points to an important distinction between the civilized man and the savage; and, no doubt, they have designs on us for our benefit, in making the life of a civilized people an institution, in which the life of the individual is to a great extent absorbed, in order to preserve and perfect that of the race. It may be guessed that I reduce almost the whole advantage of holding this superfluous property as a fund in store against the future, so far as the individual is concerned, mainly to the defraying of funeral expenses.

Many a man is harassed to death to pay the rent of a larger and more luxurious box who would not have frozen to death in such a box as this. In the large towns and cities, where civilization especially prevails, the number of those who own a shelter is a very small fraction of the whole. I have seen Penobscot Indians, in this town, living in tents of thin cotton cloth, while the snow was nearly a foot deep around them, and I thought that they would be glad to have it deeper to keep out the wind. But perhaps a man is not required to bury himself.

He adds, that they were commonly carpeted and lined within with well-wrought embroidered mats, and were furnished with various utensils. However, if one designs to construct a dwelling house, it behooves him to exercise a little Yankee shrewdness, lest after all he find himself in a workhouse, a labyrinth without a clue, a museum, an almshouse, a prison, or a splendid mausoleum instead. Who does not remember the interest with which when young he looked at shelving rocks, or any approach to a cave? Some I have seen, sixty or a hundred feet long and thirty feet broad....

This did not appear the worst, nor by any means a despicable alternative. Man was not made so large limbed and robust but that he must seek to narrow his world, and wall in a space such as fitted him. We may imagine a time when, in the infancy of the human race, some enterprising mortal crept into a hollow in a rock for shelter. But how happens it that he who is said to enjoy these things is so commonly a poor civilized man, while the savage, who has them not, is rich as a savage?

But I wish to show at what a sacrifice this advantage is at present obtained, and to suggest that we may possibly so live as to secure all the advantage without suffering any of the disadvantage. Such a lodge was in the first instance constructed in a day or two at most, and taken down and put up in a few hours; and every family owned one, or its apartment in one. It would be well perhaps if we were to spend more of our days and nights without any obstruction between us and the celestial bodies, if the poet did not speak so much from under a roof, or the saint dwell there so long. An average house in this neighborhood costs perhaps eight hundred dollars, and to lay up this sum will take from ten to fifteen years of the laborer’s life, even if he is not encumbered with a family;—estimating the pecuniary value of every man’s labor at one dollar a day, for if some receive more, others receive less;—so that he must have spent more than half his life commonly before his wigwam will be earned.

It plays house, as well as horse, having an instinct for it. At last, we know not what it is to live in the open air, and our lives are domestic in more senses than we think. A comfortable house for a rude and hardy race, that lived mostly out of doors, was once made here almost entirely of such materials as Nature furnished ready to their hands. What mean ye by saying that the poor ye have always with you, or that the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?

You could sit up as late as you pleased, and, whenever you got up, go abroad without any landlord or house-lord dogging you for rent. Man wanted a home, a place of warmth, or comfort, first of physical warmth, then the warmth of the affections. Consider first how slight a shelter is absolutely necessary.


I think we are far better off, knowing only cottagers and labourers, and people without pretence.” Helstone was at some distance from any neighbours of their own standard of cultivation. But he had the same large, soft eyes as his daughter,—eyes which moved slowly and almost grandly round in their orbits, and were well veiled by their transparent white eyelids. Hale a better living; and almost reproached her husband because he could not bring himself to say that he wished to leave the parish, and undertake the charge of a larger.

The forest trees were all one dark, full, dusky green; the fern below them caught all the slanting sunbeams; the weather was sultry and broodingly still. This marring of the peace of home, by long hours of discontent, was what Margaret was unprepared for. “Gormons,” said Margaret, “Are those the Gormons who made their fortunes in trade at Southampton? I’m glad we don’t visit them.

There had been slight complaints and passing regrets on her mother’s part, over some trifle connected with Helstone, and her father’s position there, when Margaret had been spending her holidays at home before; but in the general happiness of the recollection of those times, she had forgotten the small details which were not so pleasant. If we only lived at the other side of the parish, it would be something; there we should be almost within walking distance of the Stansfields; certainly the Gormons would be within a walk.” Hale, in one of her plaintive moods. Hale grew to take an increasing interest in his school and his parishioners, he found that the interruptions which arose out of these duties were regarded as hardships by his wife, not to be accepted as the natural conditions of his profession, but to be regretted and struggled against by her as they severally arose.

Margaret was more like him than like her mother. Her mouth was wide; no rosebud that could only open just enough to let out a “yes” and “no,” and “an’t please you, sir.” “But the Gormons were neither butchers nor bakers, but very respectable coach-builders.” With the healthy shame of a child, she blamed herself for her keenness of sight in perceiving that all was not as it should be there.

Now there were only the well-bound, little-read English Classics, which were weeded out of her father’s library to fill up the small book-shelves in the drawing-room. But the evenings were rather difficult to fill up agreeably. Her in-doors life had its drawbacks. “It is undoubtedly one of the most out-of-the-way places in England,” said Mrs.

She made hearty friends with them; learned and delighted in using their peculiar words; took up her freedom amongst them; nursed their babies; talked or read with slow distinctness to their old people; carried dainty messes to their sick; resolved before long to teach at the school where her father went regularly every day as to an appointed task, but she was continually tempted off to go and see some individual friend—man, woman, or child—in some cottage in the green shade of the forest. This life—at least these walks—realised all Margaret’s anticipations. Hume, a better parish priest than Mr. Her out-of-doors life was perfect.

Hale had never cared much for books, and had discouraged her husband, very early in their married life, in his desire of reading aloud to her, while she worked. “I can’t help regretting constantly that papa has really no one to associate with here; he is so thrown away; seeing no one but farmers and labourers from week’s end to week’s end. It was the latter part of July when Margaret returned home. I don’t like shoppy people.

I call mine a very comprehensive taste; I like all people whose occupations have to do with land; I like soldiers and sailors, and the three learned professions, as they call them. In the latter half of September, the autumnal rains and storms came on, and Margaret was obliged to remain more in the house than she had hitherto done. She was so happy out of doors, at her father’s side, that she almost danced; and with the soft violence of the west wind behind her, as she crossed some heath, she seemed to be borne onwards, as lightly and easily as the fallen leaf that was wafted along by the autumnal breeze. how tired I used to be of the drives every day in Aunt Shaw’s carriage, and how I longed to walk!”

So he withdrew, while the children were yet young, into his library, to spend his evenings (if he were at home), in reading the speculative and metaphysical books which were his delight. Margaret used to tramp along by her father’s side, crushing down the fern with a cruel glee, as she felt it yield under her light foot, and send up the fragrance peculiar to it—out on the broad commons into the warm scented light, seeing multitudes of wild, free, living creatures, revelling in the sunshine, and the herbs and flowers it called forth. At one time they had tried backgammon as a resource; but as Mr. If the look on her face was, in general, too dignified and reserved for one so young, now, talking to her father, it was bright as the morning,—full of dimples, and glances that spoke of childish gladness, and boundless hope in the future.

She knew, and had rather revelled in the idea, that she should have to give up many luxuries, which had only been troubles and trammels to her freedom in Harley Street. And walk Margaret did, in spite of the weather. But the wide mouth was one soft curve of rich red lips; and the skin, if not white and fair, was of an ivory smoothness and delicacy. She took a pride in her forest.

Hale said that the near neighbourhood of so many trees affected her health; and Margaret would try to tempt her forth on to the beautiful, broad, upland, sun-streaked, cloud-shadowed common; for she was sure that her mother had accustomed herself too much to an in-doors life, seldom extending her walks beyond the church, the school, and the neighbouring cottages. Gormon whom she had once met at Mr. said her mother, secretly thinking of a young and handsome Mr. Sometimes people wondered that parents so handsome should have a daughter who was so far regularly beautiful; not beautiful at all, was occasionally said.

This did good for a time; but when the autumn drew on, and the weather became more changeable, her mother’s idea of the unhealthiness of the place increased; and she repined even more frequently that her husband, who was more learned than Mr. Its people were her people. I’m sure you don’t want me to admire butchers and bakers, and candlestick-makers, do you, mamma?” At each repeated urgency of his wife, that he would put himself in the way of seeking some preferment, Margaret saw that her father shrank more and more; and she strove at such times to reconcile her mother to Helstone.

He would sigh aloud as he answered, that if he could do what he ought in little Helstone, he should be thankful; but every day he was more overpowered; the world became more bewildering. But the cloud never comes in that quarter of the horizon from which we watch for it. Her keen enjoyment of every sensuous pleasure was balanced finely, if not overbalanced, by her conscious pride in being able to do without them all, if need were. Immediately after tea her father withdrew into his small library, and she and her mother were left alone.

Houldsworth, should not have met with the preferment that these two former neighbours of theirs had done. Coach-building is a trade all the same, and I think a much more useless one than that of butchers or bakers. “You must not be so fastidious, Margaret, dear!” Her mother—her mother always so kind and tender towards her—seemed now and then so much discontented with their situation; thought that the bishop strangely neglected his episcopal duties, in not giving Mr.

When Margaret had been here before, she had brought down with her a great box of books, recommended by masters or governess, and had found the summer’s day all too short to get through the reading she had to do before her return to town.


It was impossible to wish for anything more delightful than thus to spend some weeks in so magnificent a country. In the evening it rained very heavily, and although the thermometer stood at 65 degs., I felt very cold. He, I suppose, thought I was in a passion, and was going to strike him; for instantly, with a frightened look and half-shut eyes, he dropped his hands. On such fazendas as these, I have no doubt the slaves pass happy and contented lives.

It is easy to specify the individual objects of admiration in these grand scenes; but it is not possible to give an adequate idea of the higher feelings of wonder, astonishment, and devotion, which fill and elevate the mind. If the eye was turned from the world of foliage above, to the ground beneath, it was attracted by the extreme elegance of the leaves of the ferns and mimosae. On Saturday and Sunday they work for themselves, and in this fertile climate the labour of two days is sufficient to support a man and his family for the whole week. This profusion of food showed itself at dinner, where, if the tables did not groan, the guests surely did; for each person is expected to eat of every dish.

I was crossing a ferry with a negro, who was uncommonly stupid. I shall never forget my feelings of surprise, disgust, and shame, at seeing a great powerful man afraid even to ward off a blow, directed, as he thought, at his face. The estate was two and a half miles long, and the owner had forgotten how many broad. With a stem so narrow that it might be clasped with the two hands, it waves its elegant head at the height of forty or fifty feet above the ground.

I suppose it is owing to the large surface of foliage, previously heated by the sun's rays. The woody creepers, themselves covered by other creepers, were of great thickness: some which I measured were two feet in circumference. The event is thus announced to the rocks and woods, but to nothing else. Indeed, I do not believe the inhumanity of separating thirty families, who had lived together for many years, even occurred to the owner.

April 18th.--In returning we spent two days at Socego, and I employed them in collecting insects in the forest. The forest abounded with beautiful objects; among which the tree ferns, though not large, were, from their bright green foliage, and the elegant curvature of their fronds, most worthy of admiration. On the evening of the 23rd we arrived at Rio, having finished our pleasant little excursion. During the remainder of my stay at Rio, I resided in a cottage at Botofogo Bay.

This man had been trained to a degradation lower than the slavery of the most helpless animal. Many of the older trees presented a very curious appearance from the tresses of a liana hanging from their boughs, and resembling bundles of hay. There are, of course, a few of much greater dimensions. It is a curious, though well-known fact, that the juice of this most nutritious plant is highly poisonous.

During the meals, it was the employment of a man to drive out of the room sundry old hounds, and dozens of little black children, which crawled in together, at every opportunity. Owing to a quarrel and a lawsuit, the owner was on the point of taking all the women and children from the male slaves, and selling them separately at the public auction at Rio. A few years ago a cow died at this Fazenda, in consequence of having drunk some of it. The greater number of trees, although so lofty, are not more than three or four feet in circumference.

Only a very small piece had been cleared, yet almost every acre was capable of yielding all the various rich productions of a tropical land. As long as the idea of slavery could be banished, there was something exceedingly fascinating in this simple and patriarchal style of living: it was such a perfect retirement and independence from the rest of the world. The road is often marked by crosses, in the place of milestones, to signify where human blood has been spilled. It was very wearisome work, as the road generally ran across a glaring hot sandy plain, not far from the coast.

One morning I walked out an hour before daylight to admire the solemn stillness of the scene; at last, the silence was broken by the morning hymn, raised on high by the whole body of the blacks; and in this manner their daily work is generally begun. Here the woods were ornamented by the Cabbage Palm--one of the most beautiful of its family. This is one of the principal lines of road in Brazil; yet it was in so bad a state that no wheeled vehicle, excepting the clumsy bullock-wagon, could pass along. April 14th.--Leaving Socego, we rode to another estate on the Rio Macae, which was the last patch of cultivated ground in that direction.

One day, having, as I thought, nicely calculated so that nothing should go away untasted, to my utter dismay a roast turkey and a pig appeared in all their substantial reality. Interest, and not any feeling of compassion, prevented this act. While staying at this estate, I was very nearly being an eye-witness to one of those atrocious acts which can only take place in a slave country. April 19th.--Leaving Socego, during the two first days, we retraced our steps.

Senhor Manuel was then making a canoe 70 feet in length from a solid trunk, which had originally been 110 feet long, and of great thickness. Senhor Figuireda told me that he had planted, the year before, one bag of feijao or beans, and three of rice; the former of which produced eighty, and the latter three hundred and twenty fold. In walking across these thick beds of mimosae, a broad track was marked by the change of shade, produced by the drooping of their sensitive petioles. At the height of a hundred feet the hills were buried in a dense white vapour, which rose like columns of smoke from the most thickly wooded parts, and especially from the valleys.

I observed this phenomenon on several occasions. The pasturage supports a fine stock of cattle, and the woods are so full of game that a deer had been killed on each of the three previous days. On the third day we took a different line, and passed through the gay little village of Madre de Deos. In our whole journey we did not cross a single bridge built of stone; and those made of logs of wood were frequently so much out of repair, that it was necessary to go on one side to avoid them.

As soon as the rain ceased, it was curious to observe the extraordinary evaporation which commenced over the whole extent of the forest. The latter, in some parts, covered the surface with a brushwood only a few inches high. I may mention one very trifling anecdote, which at the time struck me more forcibly than any story of cruelty. Every part of this plant is useful; the leaves and stalks are eaten by the horses, and the roots are ground into a pulp, which, when pressed dry and baked, forms the farinha, the principal article of sustenance in the Brazils.

It may be said there exists no limit to the blindness of interest and selfish habit. During the second day's journey we found the road so shut up, that it was necessary that a man should go ahead with a sword to cut away the creepers. I noticed that each time the horse put its foot on the fine siliceous sand, a gentle chirping noise was produced. As soon as any stranger is seen arriving, a large bell is set tolling, and generally some small cannon are fired.

All distances are inaccurately known. In endeavouring to make him understand, I talked loud, and made signs, in doing which I passed my hand near his face. Mandioca or cassada is likewise cultivated in great quantity. Yet I will pledge myself, that in humanity and good feeling he was superior to the common run of men.

The contrast of palm trees, growing amidst the common branching kinds, never fails to give the scene an intertropical character. Considering the enormous area of Brazil, the proportion of cultivated ground can scarcely be considered as anything, compared to that which is left in the state of nature: at some future age, how vast a population it will support!


Shaw welcomed him in her gentle kindly way, which had always something plaintive in it, arising from the long habit of considering herself a victim to an uncongenial marriage. Then Edith came back, glowing with pleasure, half-shyly, half-proudly leading in her tall handsome Captain. He thought it a pretty sight to see the two cousins so busy in their little arrangements about the table. Whenever I have seen you lately, you have been carried away by a whirlwind of some other person’s making.”

Here you read, or have lessons, or otherwise improve your mind, till the middle of the day; take a walk before lunch, go a drive with your aunt after, and have some kind of engagement in the evening. There is the church and a few houses near it on the green—cottages, rather—with roses growing all over them.” You have never described it to me. “And flowering all the year round, especially at Christmas—make your picture complete,” said he.

You would only laugh at me if I told you what I think of it—what it really is.” In the middle of the piece the door half-opened, and Edith saw Captain Lennox hesitating whether to come in. You should not have said that.” “Only it really sounded like a village in a tale rather than in real life.”

I don’t quite think it is a thing to be talked about, unless you knew it.” It is home, and I can’t put its charm into words.” “I am not so sure about her, but I can fancy that you will. There, now fill up your day at Helstone.

She found out that the water in the urn was cold, and ordered up the great kitchen tea-kettle; the only consequence of which was that when she met it at the door, and tried to carry it in, it was too heavy for her, and she came in pouting, with a black mark on her muslin gown, and a little round white hand indented by the handle, which she took to show to Captain Lennox, just like a hurt child, and, of course, the remedy was the same in both cases. The walks are so beautiful, it would be a shame to drive—almost a shame to ride.” A sense of indescribable weariness of all the arrangements for a pretty effect, in which Edith had been busied as supreme authority for the last six weeks, oppressed her just now; and she really wanted some one to help her to a few pleasant, quiet ideas connected with a marriage. Then you will see for yourself how beautiful Helstone is.

It was in this way she began to speak of her own journey to Captain Lennox, who assented, as in duty bound, to all his future mother-in-law said, while his eyes sought Edith, who was busying herself in re-arranging the tea-table, and ordering up all sorts of good things in spite of his assurances that he had dined within the last two hours. “And so it is,” replied Margaret, eagerly. The sarcastic feeling was called out by Mrs. Edith chose to do most herself.

“I did not know I was.” Henry Lennox stood leaning against the chimney-piece, amused with the family scene. asked Margaret, looking up straight at him for an answer. I should like to have some idea of the place you will be living in, when ninety-six Harley Street will be looking dingy and dirty, and dull, and shut up.

“No,” replied Margaret, somewhat annoyed, “I am not making a picture. “I see, you won’t tell me anything. “Oh, of course,” he replied with a change to gravity in his tone. “I hope you will.

You will only tell me that you are not going to do this and that. She threw down her music, and rushed out of the room, leaving Margaret standing confused and blushing to explain to the astonished guests what vision had shown itself to cause Edith’s sudden flight. Edith played brilliantly. “Walk, decidedly.

Is Helstone a village, or a town, in the first place?” “Oh, I have never thought much about it; only I should like it to be a very fine summer morning; and I should like to walk to church through the shade of trees; and not to have so many bridesmaids, and to have no wedding-breakfast. “It is natural for me to think of Helstone church, and the walk to it, rather than of driving up to a London church in the middle of a paved street.” I dare say I am resolving against the very things that have given me the most trouble just now.”

He walks to the very extremity of his parish. But I won’t try and describe it any more. “Oh, I can’t describe my home. Shaw’s conversation with his brother; it was separate from the interest which was excited by what he saw.

“Oh, only a hamlet; I don’t think I could call it a village at all. We have no horse, not even for papa. “Why, because I made an unlucky remark, you will neither tell me what Helstone is like, nor will you say anything about your home, though I have told you how much I want to hear about both, the latter especially.” “Well, then”—pausing for a moment—“tell me what you do there.

Captain Lennox had come earlier than was expected; or was it really so late? “All the other places in England that I have seen seem so hard and prosaic-looking, after the New Forest. Well, then, tell me that which I should like still better to know: what the parsonage is like.” Before the vacation ends, I think I shall pay you a call, and see what you really do employ yourself in.”

I shall be glad to have time to think, and I am sure Edith will.” “Tell me about Helstone. That, I believe, is a proper employment for young ladies in the country.” said she, turning her large soft eyes round full upon him.

Now I must go. “Yes,” said Margaret, rather sadly, remembering the never-ending commotion about trifles that had been going on for more than a month past: “I wonder if a marriage must always be preceded by what you call a whirlwind, or whether in some cases there might not rather be a calm and peaceful time just before it.” Shaw had as strong wishes as most people, but she never liked to do anything from the open and acknowledged motive of her own good will and pleasure; she preferred being compelled to gratify herself by some other person’s command or desire. “Indeed, I would not.

I am trying to describe Helstone as it really is. She had, however, of late settled upon her own health as a source of apprehension; she had a nervous little cough whenever she thought about it; and some complaisant doctor ordered her just what she desired—a winter in Italy. She was in a humour to enjoy showing her lover how well she could behave as a soldier’s wife. “But are all these quite necessary troubles?”

The idea of stately simplicity accords well with your character.” “But indeed I cannot tell you about my own home. Helstone is like a village in a poem—in one of Tennyson’s poems. His brother shook hands with him, and Mrs.

“Cinderella’s godmother ordering the trousseau, the wedding-breakfast, writing the notes of invitation, for instance,” said Mr. “No, I don’t think you are. “I am penitent,” he answered. But how would you have a wedding arranged?”

said she, laughing. She really did persuade herself that she was submitting to some hard external necessity; and thus she was able to moan and complain in her soft manner, all the time she was in reality doing just what she liked. “There are forms and ceremonies to be gone through, not so much to satisfy oneself, as to stop the world’s mouth, without which stoppage there would be very little satisfaction in life. They looked at their watches, were duly shocked, and took their leave.

Now that, the General being gone, she had every good of life, with as few drawbacks as possible, she had been rather perplexed to find an anxiety, if not a sorrow. Lennox, laughing. “Shall you garden much? Edith is sitting down to play, and I just know enough of music to turn over the leaves for her; and, besides, Aunt Shaw won’t like us to talk.”

Shall you ride, drive, or walk?” He was close by his handsome brother; he was the plain one in a singularly good-looking family; but his face was intelligent, keen, and mobile; and now and then Margaret wondered what it was that he could be thinking about, while he kept silence, but was evidently observing, with an interest that was slightly sarcastic, all that Edith and she were doing. “Papa’s living is very small; and even if we were near such things, I doubt if I should go to them.” But I see you are going to be very resolved.


Here was she disturbed and unhappy, because her instinct had made anything but a refusal impossible; while he, not many minutes after he had met with a rejection of what ought to have been the deepest, holiest proposal of his life, could speak as if briefs, success, and all its superficial consequences of a good house, clever and agreeable society, were the sole avowed objects of his desires. At the last moment, Henry Lennox’s real self broke through the crust. “Is that tapestry thing of immediate consequence? “When thou canst no longer continue in thy work without dishonour to God, discredit to religion, foregoing thy integrity, wounding conscience, spoiling thy peace, and hazarding the loss of thy salvation; in a word, when the conditions upon which thou must continue (if thou wilt continue) in thy employments are sinful, and unwarranted by the word of God, thou mayest, yea, thou must believe that God will turn thy very silence, suspension, deprivation, and laying aside, to His glory, and the advancement of the Gospel’s interest.

“Margaret, don’t despise me; I have a heart, notwithstanding all this good-for-nothing way of talking. “I have been reading to-day of the two thousand who were ejected from their churches,”—continued Mr. It was like the story of the eastern king, who dipped his head into a basin of water, at the magician’s command, and ere he instantly took it out went through the experience of a lifetime. Her mother came into the room before this whirl of thoughts was adjusted into anything like order.

“Very serious to us all.” Hale went out to consult with Dixon about some winter clothing for the poor. “Listen, dear Margaret,” said he, putting one arm round her waist. Margaret could not tell what to say; it seemed to her as terribly mysterious as if her father were about to turn Mahometan.

As a proof of it, I believe I love you more than ever—if I do not hate you—for the disdain with which you have listened to me during this last half-hour. Margaret could not bear the sight of the suspense, which was even more distressing to her father than to herself. He glanced from time to time at her sad and pensive face. She wondered how her father and mother could be so forgetful, so regardless of their companion through the day, as never to mention his name.

The one staid foundation of her home, of her idea of her beloved father, seemed reeling and rocking. I can meet the consequences of my painful, miserable doubts; but it is an effort beyond me to speak of what has caused me so much suffering.” “It is nothing about Frederick; the bishop would have nothing to do with that. What could she say?

They proceeded to the house to find Mrs. He was gone. “I do not give up hope.” it seems so terrible, so shocking,” said Margaret, suddenly bursting into tears.

Then she took it into her head that, after all, his lightness might be but assumed, to cover a bitterness of disappointment which would have been stamped on her own heart if she had loved and been rejected. Margaret, I will tell you about it. Margaret, how I love the holy Church from which I am to be shut out!” Margaret felt stunned, and unable to recover her self-possession enough to join in the trivial conversation that ensued between her father and Mr.

“Cast me upon some naked shore, Where I may tracke Only the print of some sad wracke, If thou be there though the seas roare, I shall no gentler calm implore.” “But, papa, have you well considered? Good-bye, Margaret—Margaret!” She took his hand in hers and grasped it tight, but she could not lift up her head; nor indeed could she attend to what he read, so great was her internal agitation.

I want to speak to you about something very serious to us all.” Yet, after all, Margaret had to wait a long time in the drawing-room before her mother came down. He played with some papers on the table in a nervous and confused manner, opening his lips to speak several times, but closing them again without having the courage to utter a word. “I am not so indifferent to her as she believes,” thought he to himself.

He was almost as anxious to take his departure as she was for him to leave; but a few minutes light and careless talking, carried on at whatever effort, was a sacrifice which he owed to his mortified vanity, or his self-respect. It was a relief to all three when Mr. She sat by herself at the fire, with unlighted candles on the table behind her, thinking over the day, the happy walk, happy sketching, cheerful pleasant dinner, and the uncomfortable, miserable walk in the garden. Lennox’s proposal.

The sight of her distress made Mr. No more deep blue skies or crimson and amber tints. He could not go on for a moment or two. Hale was puzzled.

Hale, and wish her good-bye. After tea Mr. Hale nerve himself, in order to try and comfort her. Hale did not answer for a minute or two.

I will answer any questions this once, but after to-night let us never speak of it again. Margaret had to shake off the recollections of what had been done and said through the day, and turn a sympathising listener to the account of how Dixon had complained that the ironing-blanket had been burnt again; and how Susan Lightfoot had been seen with artificial flowers in her bonnet, thereby giving evidence of a vain and giddy character. “You could not understand it all, if I told you—my anxiety, for years past, to know whether I had any right to hold my living—my efforts to quench my smouldering doubts by the authority of the Church. Hale, at last, in a sort of sudden desperate way, that made her start.

Hale got up, and stood with his elbow on the chimney-piece, leaning his head on his hand, musing over something, and from time to time sighing deeply. In the first place, Margaret felt guilty and ashamed of having grown so much into a woman as to be thought of in marriage; and secondly, she did not know if her father might not be displeased that she had taken upon herself to decline Mr. Margaret was preparing her mother’s worsted work, and rather shrinking from the thought of the long evening, and wishing bed-time were come that she might go over the events of the day again. Before a quarter of an hour was over, he had fallen into a way of conversing with quiet sarcasm; speaking of life in London and life in the country, as if he were conscious of his second mocking self, and afraid of his own satire.

But she soon felt it was not about anything, which having only lately and suddenly occurred, could have given rise to any complicated thoughts, that her father wished to speak to her. He made her take a chair by him; he stirred the fire, snuffed the candles, and sighed once or twice before he could make up his mind to say—and it came out with a jerk after all—“Margaret! She showed it by brushing away viciously at Margaret’s hair, under pretence of being in a great hurry to go to Mrs. Margaret went up to dress for the early tea, finding Dixon in a pretty temper from the interruption which a visitor had naturally occasioned on a busy day.

Hale sipped his tea in abstracted silence; Margaret had the responses all to herself. Hale, smiling faintly,—“trying to steal some of their bravery; but it is of no use—no use—I cannot help feeling it acutely.” It is all myself. His visitor was a different man to what he had seen him before at the wedding-breakfast, and at dinner to-day; a lighter, cleverer, more worldly man, and, as such, dissonant to Mr.

How different men were to women! What was to be done? The house was shut up for the evening. He swallowed down the dry choking sobs which had been heaving up from his heart hitherto, and going to his bookcase he took down a volume, which he had often been reading lately, and from which he thought he had derived strength to enter upon the course in which he was now embarked.

She was grave, and little disposed to speak; full of wonder when Mr. Lennox would go, and allow her to relax into thought on the events of the last quarter of an hour. She forgot that he had not made them an offer. I am going to leave Helstone.”

I mean, can you leave it and come into my study? Lennox said that he must go directly if he meant to catch the five o’clock train. how she could have loved him if he had but been different, with a difference which she felt, on reflection, to be one that went low—deep down. Lennox had never had the opportunity of having any private conversation with her father after her refusal, or else that would indeed be a very serious affair.


Project Anchor-6 — Status Report
Date: 2025-09-26  |  Author: Daniel Marchetti  |  Department: Information Technology  |  Team size: 12

1. Budget and spend (USD)
   Q1: budget $85,000, spent $47,301
   Q2: budget $92,000, spent $52,102
   Q3: budget $78,500, spent $52,640
   Q4: budget $41,500, spent $34,860

2. Schedule (final deadline: 2026-09-15)
   - Design freeze: 2026-06-11
   - Tooling completion: 2026-07-12

3. Suppliers
   - Zielinski Dynamics (Oslo): glass substrate, unit price $48.20, quantity 50, lead time 63 days
   - Devereux Systems (Dubai): lithium cell, unit price $73.10, quantity 890, lead time 46 days

4. Reference identifiers
   Trace UUID: 5f412149-cbcf-47ae-1f26-07dda679deee
   Audit URL: https://hub.example.net/report/32257

5. Assessment: overall delivery risk is rated medium. The team will review progress against the 2026-09-15 deadline at the next steering meeting.

The provided document lists labelled reference identifiers. Extract the exact value of each field below and return a single JSON object with exactly these keys:
- key "uuid": the value labelled "Trace UUID"
- key "url": the value labelled "Audit URL"
Copy each value exactly as it appears, character for character. Return only the JSON object, with no other text, no explanation, and no code fences.


Project Quartz-16 — Status Report
Date: 2025-08-26  |  Author: Dmitri Delacroix  |  Department: Quality Assurance  |  Team size: 10

1. Budget and spend (USD)
   Q1: budget $30,000, spent $26,683
   Q2: budget $59,000, spent $46,426
   Q3: budget $91,000, spent $73,760
   Q4: budget $28,000, spent $23,709

2. Schedule (final deadline: 2026-05-12)
   - Safety inspection: 2025-10-15
   - Tooling completion: 2025-12-03

3. Suppliers
   - Okafor Group (Oslo): laser diode, unit price $34.10, quantity 140, lead time 61 days
   - Nakamura Group (Sydney): titanium bracket, unit price $28.25, quantity 160, lead time 56 days

4. Reference identifiers
   Firmware version: v8.2.11
   Commit hash: 55c12aa8

5. Assessment: overall delivery risk is rated medium. The team will review progress against the 2026-05-12 deadline at the next steering meeting.

The provided document lists labelled reference identifiers. Extract the exact value of each field below and return a single JSON object with exactly these keys:
- key "version": the value labelled "Firmware version"
- key "commit": the value labelled "Commit hash"
Copy each value exactly as it appears, character for character. Return only the JSON object, with no other text, no explanation, and no code fences.


Project Willow-9 — Status Report
Date: 2026-02-06  |  Author: Omar Fairbanks  |  Department: Compliance  |  Team size: 45

1. Budget and spend (USD)
   Q1: budget $30,000, spent $19,541
   Q2: budget $49,500, spent $32,354
   Q3: budget $88,000, spent $80,560
   Q4: budget $37,000, spent $33,778

2. Schedule (final deadline: 2026-05-27)
   - Design freeze: 2026-03-17
   - Launch review: 2026-05-03

3. Suppliers
   - Nakamura Materials (Dubai): steel fastener, unit price $26.65, quantity 310, lead time 65 days
   - Kowalski Systems (Oslo): titanium bracket, unit price $61.50, quantity 290, lead time 36 days

4. Reference identifiers
   Commit hash: ea0e8f2c
   Firmware version: v8.4.24

5. Assessment: overall delivery risk is rated low. The team will review progress against the 2026-05-27 deadline at the next steering meeting.

The provided document lists labelled reference identifiers. Extract the exact value of each field below and return a single JSON object with exactly these keys:
- key "commit": the value labelled "Commit hash"
- key "version": the value labelled "Firmware version"
Copy each value exactly as it appears, character for character. Return only the JSON object, with no other text, no explanation, and no code fences.


Project Summit-15 — Status Report
Date: 2026-04-28  |  Author: Naomi Njoroge  |  Department: Industrial Design  |  Team size: 20

1. Budget and spend (USD)
   Q1: budget $28,000, spent $21,852
   Q2: budget $84,500, spent $65,869
   Q3: budget $65,500, spent $42,948
   Q4: budget $28,500, spent $17,777

2. Schedule (final deadline: 2026-12-04)
   - Pilot production run: 2026-05-28
   - Field trial start: 2026-11-23

3. Suppliers
   - Vance Industrial (Dubai): pressure valve, unit price $70.10, quantity 650, lead time 7 days
   - Zielinski Materials (Paris): membrane filter, unit price $71.30, quantity 870, lead time 58 days

4. Reference identifiers
   Order ID: PO-I486O5
   Firmware version: v3.16.0

5. Assessment: overall delivery risk is rated high. The team will review progress against the 2026-12-04 deadline at the next steering meeting.

The provided document lists labelled reference identifiers. Extract the exact value of each field below and return a single JSON object with exactly these keys:
- key "order_id": the value labelled "Order ID"
- key "version": the value labelled "Firmware version"
Copy each value exactly as it appears, character for character. Return only the JSON object, with no other text, no explanation, and no code fences.


Project Meridian-5 — Status Report
Date: 2026-01-19  |  Author: Stefan Iyer  |  Department: Marketing  |  Team size: 44

1. Budget and spend (USD)
   Q1: budget $62,000, spent $40,528
   Q2: budget $86,000, spent $79,089
   Q3: budget $68,000, spent $59,834
   Q4: budget $37,500, spent $28,228

2. Schedule (final deadline: 2026-03-04)
   - Supplier onboarding: 2026-02-13
   - Certification audit: 2026-02-16

3. Suppliers
   - Nakamura Dynamics (Bangkok): hydraulic pump, unit price $48.40, quantity 310, lead time 9 days
   - Beaumont Systems (Berlin): polymer gasket, unit price $4.35, quantity 340, lead time 20 days

4. Reference identifiers
   Audit URL: https://hub.example.net/trace/34219
   Commit hash: fcf4f14a

5. Assessment: overall delivery risk is rated medium. The team will review progress against the 2026-03-04 deadline at the next steering meeting.

The provided document lists labelled reference identifiers. Extract the exact value of each field below and return a single JSON object with exactly these keys:
- key "url": the value labelled "Audit URL"
- key "commit": the value labelled "Commit hash"
Copy each value exactly as it appears, character for character. Return only the JSON object, with no other text, no explanation, and no code fences.


Project Meridian-6 — Status Report
Date: 2025-09-21  |  Author: Elena Fairbanks  |  Department: Quality Assurance  |  Team size: 15

1. Budget and spend (USD)
   Q1: budget $83,000, spent $75,223
   Q2: budget $88,500, spent $50,241
   Q3: budget $41,500, spent $22,854
   Q4: budget $28,500, spent $27,582

2. Schedule (final deadline: 2026-09-25)
   - Design freeze: 2026-02-16
   - Supplier onboarding: 2026-07-18

3. Suppliers
   - Iyer Systems (Chicago): steel fastener, unit price $90.75, quantity 260, lead time 53 days
   - Okafor Systems (Dubai): servo motor, unit price $59.10, quantity 170, lead time 27 days

4. Reference identifiers
   Audit URL: https://hub.example.net/report/44235
   Commit hash: 81ade615

5. Assessment: overall delivery risk is rated medium. The team will review progress against the 2026-09-25 deadline at the next steering meeting.


Project Prairie-9 — Status Report
Date: 2025-03-23  |  Author: Yuki Fairbanks  |  Department: Marketing  |  Team size: 26

1. Budget and spend (USD)
   Q1: budget $33,000, spent $22,630
   Q2: budget $39,500, spent $23,213
   Q3: budget $91,500, spent $64,070
   Q4: budget $52,500, spent $37,305

2. Schedule (final deadline: 2026-03-06)
   - Tooling completion: 2025-05-28
   - Certification audit: 2025-06-18

3. Suppliers
   - Lindqvist Group (Paris): laser diode, unit price $33.40, quantity 300, lead time 40 days
   - Njoroge Dynamics (Bangkok): membrane filter, unit price $95.95, quantity 290, lead time 52 days

4. Reference identifiers
   Commit hash: c624aaaa
   Access token: demo_O3FPYDFM99UQ

5. Assessment: overall delivery risk is rated high. The team will review progress against the 2026-03-06 deadline at the next steering meeting.

The provided document lists labelled reference identifiers. Extract the exact value of each field below and return a single JSON object with exactly these keys:
- key "commit": the value labelled "Commit hash"
- key "token": the value labelled "Access token"
Copy each value exactly as it appears, character for character. Return only the JSON object, with no other text, no explanation, and no code fences.


Project Prairie-7 — Status Report
Date: 2025-10-29  |  Author: Daniel Iyer  |  Department: Engineering  |  Team size: 42

1. Budget and spend (USD)
   Q1: budget $77,000, spent $43,632
   Q2: budget $64,500, spent $60,761
   Q3: budget $90,000, spent $59,181
   Q4: budget $26,500, spent $23,091

2. Schedule (final deadline: 2026-03-15)
   - Pilot production run: 2025-11-14
   - Design freeze: 2025-12-05

3. Suppliers
   - Silva Dynamics (Tokyo): membrane filter, unit price $88.90, quantity 380, lead time 31 days
   - Nakamura Works (Sydney): copper coil, unit price $60.45, quantity 710, lead time 65 days

4. Reference identifiers
   Commit hash: b2c48ede
   Serial number: P16A4-9FTV0

5. Assessment: overall delivery risk is rated medium. The team will review progress against the 2026-03-15 deadline at the next steering meeting.

The provided document lists labelled reference identifiers. Extract the exact value of each field below and return a single JSON object with exactly these keys:
- key "commit": the value labelled "Commit hash"
- key "serial": the value labelled "Serial number"
Copy each value exactly as it appears, character for character. Return only the JSON object, with no other text, no explanation, and no code fences.