be, would serve
as a beginning. I congratulated myself on my good luck; and, without
further parley, parted with my scrip--receiving in return the necessary
documents, that constituted me the legal owner and lord of the soil of
Section 9. The only additional information the agent could afford me
was: that my new purchase was all "heavily timbered," with the exception
before referred to; that the township in which it was situated was
called Swampville; and that the section itself was known as "Holt's
Clearing"--from the name, it was supposed, of the squatter who had made
the "improvement."

With this intelligence in my head, and the title-deeds in my pocket, I
took leave of the friendly official; who, at parting, politely wished me
"a pleasant time of it on my new plantation!"

CHAPTER NINE.

FRIENDLY ADVICE.

On returning to the house of my friend, I informed him of my purchase;
and was pleased to find that he approved of it. "You can't be taken
in," said he, "by land upon the Obion. From what I have heard of it, it
is one of the most fertile spots in Tennessee. Moreover, as you are
fond of hunting, you'll find game in abundance. The black bear, and
even the panther--or `painter,' as our backwoodsmen have it--are still
common in the Obion bottom; and indeed, all throughout the forests of
the Reserve."

"I'm rejoiced to hear it."

"No doubt," continued my friend, with a smile, "you may shoot deer from
your own door; or trap wolves and wild-cats at the entrance to your
hen-roost."

"Good!"

"O yes--though I can't promise that you will see anything of _Venus_ in
the woods, you may enjoy to your heart's content the noble art of
_venerie_. The Obion bottom is a very paradise for hunters. It was it
that gave birth to the celebrated Crockett."

"On that account it will be all the more interesting to me; and, from
what you say, it is just the sort of place I should have chosen to
_squat_ upon."

"_By_ the by," interrupted my friend, looking a little grave as he
spoke, "your making use of that familiar phrase, recalls the
circumstance you mentioned just now. Did I understand you to say, there
was a _squatter_ on the land?"

"There _was_ one--so the agent has told me; but whether he be still
_squatted_ there, the official could not say."

"Rather awkward, if he be," rejoined my friend, in a sort of musing
soliloquy; while, with his eyes fixed upon the ground, he kept pulling
his "goatee" to its full