undisturbed portion of his country had created some
sensation. The news of the arrival of a stranger had spread itself abroad
and aroused a slow-growing excitement.

They were a kindly, simple people who surrounded him--hospitable,
ignorant, and curious beyond measure concerning the ways of the outside
world of which they knew so little.

In the course of time, as the first keenness of his misery wore away, Tom
began to discover the advantages of the change he had made. He no longer
need contrast himself unfavourably with his neighbours. He knew more than
they, and they found nothing in him to condemn or jeer at. To them he was
a mine of worldly knowledge. He amused them and won their hearts. His
natural indolence and lack of active ambition helped the healing of his
wounds, perhaps; and then he began to appreciate the humourous side of
his position and his old tendency to ponderous joking came back, and
assisted him to win a greater popularity than any mere practical quality
could have done.

The novelty of his _role_ was its chief attraction. He began to enjoy
and give himself up to it, and make the most of his few gifts. Life was
no longer without zest. His natural indolence increased with the size of
his great body as the years passed, and his slow whimsical humour became
his strongest characteristic. He felt it a fine point in the sarcasm of
his destiny that he should at last have become a hero and be regarded
with admiration for his conversational abilities, but he bore his honours
discreetly, and found both moral and physical comfort in them.

He insensibly adopted the habits of his neighbours; he dressed with their
primitive regard for ease; he dropped now and then into their slurring
speech, and adopted one by one their arcadian customs.

Whether the change was the better or the worse for him might easily be a
matter of opinion, and depend entirely on the standpoint from which it
was viewed. At least he lived harmlessly and had no enemy.

And so existence stood with him when the second great change in his life
took place.

CHAPTER III

Scarcely a month before the events described in the opening chapter took
place, the stranger and a young woman, who was his companion, had
appeared in the community. There was little that seemed mysterious about
them at the outset. A long, uninhabited cabin, a score or so of yards
from the mountain road, had been roughly patched up and taken possession
of by them