ed by him that he did not think
education would have been of any advantage to him. It enabled men, with
pretty words, to hide their thoughts, and deceive their fellow-men with
a grace and an ease he despised; and it might have acted so with him,
but it would have made him a worse and a more unhappy man. He now never
did or said anything that he was ashamed to think of. He did not want
to conceal his feelings and opinions, because he did not know how to do
it; and he was sure if he attempted it he should make a fool of
himself; for lies required so much dressing up in pretty words to make
them look like truth, that he should fail for want of words; and truth
was always prettiest when naked. In the main, the General was correct;
but there are some who lie with a _naivete_ so perfect that even he
would have deemed it truth naked and unadorned.

Larry Moore was a different man, but quite as illiterate and bold as
Thomas, without his abilities; yet he was by no means devoid of mind.
He resided upon the lake border, in the flat pine country, where the
land is poor, and the people are ignorant and bigoted. Larry was far
from being bigoted, save in his politics. He had been a Jeffersonian
Democrat, he knew; but he did not know why. He lived off the road, and
did not take the papers. He knew Jefferson had bought Louisiana and her
people, and, as he understood, at seventy-five cents a head. He did not
complain of the bargain, though he thought, if old Tom had seen them
before the bargain was clinched, he would have hesitated to pay so
much. But, anyhow, he had given the country a free government and a
legislature of her own, and he was a Jefferson man, or Democrat, or
whatever you call his party. He had been sent to the Legislature, and
volunteered to meet the British under General Jackson.

From Jefferson to Jackson he transferred all his devotion; because the
one bought, and the other fought for, the country. Some part of the
glory of the successful defence of New Orleans was his, for he had
fought for it, side by side with Old Hickory; and he loved him because
he had imprisoned Louallier and Hall. The one was a Frenchman, the
other an Englishman, and both were enemies of Jackson and the country.

Now he adored General Jackson, and was a Jackson Democrat. He did not
know the meaning of the word, but he understood that it was the slogan
of the dominant party, and that General Jackson was the head of that
party. He knew he was