ospitality--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.

According, therefore, to the established custom of the early settlers,
the stranger for whom Algernon proceeded to make inquiries, was entitled
to all the rights of hospitality; and whether liked or disliked, could
not consistently be smiled away, nor frowned away, as doubtless he would
have been, had he lived in this civil, wonderworking age of lightning
and steam; and though his appearance was any thing but agreeable to Mrs.
Younker, who surveyed him through her spectacles (being a little near
sighted) from the adjoining cabin, whither Algernon had repaired to
learn he