rned the
points of view from which the settlement about Fort Loudon ceased to
present the aspect of the earlier Paradisaic era.

Mrs. Halsing had a hard, set visage, and was very shrewd,--none the
worse gossip for that,--and went straight to the weak point, and
unraveled the tangle of mystery in any subject that presented itself for
discussion. She was thin and angular and uncultivated, and had evidently
come of people who had been used to small advantages in education and
breeding. Equally humble of origin was another of Odalie's future
neighbors, with a sort of homespun dress made after the fashion called a
"short gown," a red petticoat, and a pair of moccasons in lieu of shoes.
Her face was as broad as the moon, and as bland. Much smiling had worn
dimples around her mouth instead of wrinkles in her forehead. She, too,
had a keen gleam of discernment in her eyes, but tempered with a
perception of the sweetly ludicrous in life, which converted folly into
the semblance of fun. She seemed to love her comfort, to judge by her
leisurely motions and the way her arms fell into easy foldings, but the
wife of a pioneer could never have lived at ease in those days. She sat
opposite Mrs. Halsing, by the cabin door, on a bench which the hostess
had vacated in her favor, adopting instead an inverted tub, and although
admitting as true much that was said, Mrs. Beedie advanced palliating
theories which, paradoxically enough, while they did not contradict the
main statement, had all the effect of denial.

For her part, said Mrs. Halsing, she did not see what anybody who was
safe in Virginia or Carolina, or anywhere else, would come to this
country for. She wouldn't, except that her husband was possessed! The
sight of a road put him into a "trembly fit." He was moving west to get
rid of civilization, and he was as uncivilized as a "bar himself, or an
Injun."

Odalie learned that a number of the men were wild, roving, roaring
fellows, who came here because they hated law and order; then, without
contradiction, Mrs. Beedie's exposition tended to show that it was a new
country with splendid prospects and they desired to take advantage of
its opening opportunities; some of them being already poor, sought here
cheaper homes, with more chance for development.

And, pursuing the interpretation of her side of the shield, Mrs. Halsing
detailed the fact that some people love change and adventure, because no
matter what the Lord gave 'em the