"I am a guest here, sir."
"Aha—yes; a hunter I presume?"
"I sometimes hunt."
"Pardon me again—but are there more indwellers here than you have mentioned?"
"One, sir—the good dame of the cottage."
For a moment or two the stranger mused, as if running over in his mind all that had been said; and then observed:
"Doubtless you think me very inquisitive; but I had a reason for all my questions; and I thank you sincerely, sir, for your prompt replies. It is now growing late; the sun will presently be down; and as I am a traveler—a stranger in this region—I would rather not pursue my journey further, providing I could be entertained here for the night."
"As to that, I am unable to answer," said Algernon; "but if you will step within, I will make the necessary inquiries."
"Thank you," replied the stranger, with a show of cordiality; "thank you;" and he immediately entered the cottage.
Those days, as before said, were the good old days of hospitality—and, as far as population went, of social intercourse also—when every man's cabin was the stranger's home, and every neighbor every neighbor's friend. There were no distinct grades of society then as now, from which an honest individual of moral worth must be excluded because of poverty—a good character for upright dealing being the standard by which all were judged; and whoever possessed this, could rank equally with the best, though poor as the beggar Lazarus. Doubtless intellect and education then, as well as at the present day, held in many things a superiority over imbecility and ignorance; but there were no distinct lines of demarcation drawn; and in the ordinary routine of intercourse one with another, there was no superiority claimed, and none acknowledged. And this arose, probably, from the necessity each felt for there being a general unity—a general blending together of all qualifications, as it were, into one body politic—by which each individual became an individual member of the whole, perfect in his place, and capable of supplying what another might chance to need; as the man of education might be puny in stature and deficient of a strong arm; the man of strong arm deficient in education; the imbecile man might be a superior woodman—the man of intellect an inferior one:—so that, as before remarked, each of these qualities, being essential to perfect the whole, each one of course was called upon to exercise his peculiar talent, and take his position on an equality with his neighbor. There has been great change in society since then; those days of simple equality have gone forever; but we question if the present race, with all their privileges, with all their security, with all their means of enjoyment, are as happy as those noble old pioneers, with all their necessities, with all their dangers, with all their sufferings.