146 THE HIVE OF THE BEE-HUNTER. 



So, public opinion was in favor of its being an ani- 

 mal, though a harmless one ; for there had been a land 

 speculator through the village a few weeks previously, 

 who distributed circulars of a '' Female Academy," for 

 the accomplishment of young ladies. These circulars 

 distinctly stated " the use of the piano to be one dollar 

 per month." 



One knowing old chap said, if they would tell him 

 what so-i-ree meant, he would tell them what a piano 

 was, and no mistake. 



The owner of this strange instrument was no less 

 than a very quiet and very respectable late merchant of 

 a little town somewhere " north," who having failed at 

 home, had emigrated into the new and hospitable coun- 

 try of Arkansas, for the purpose of bettering his for- 

 tune, and escaping the heartless sympathy of his more 

 lucky neighbors, who seemed to consider him a very 

 bad and degraded man because he had become honestly 

 poor. 



The new comers were strangers, of course. The 

 house in which they were setting up their furniture was 

 too little arranged " to admit of calls ;" and as the fa- 

 mily seemed very little disposed to court society, all 

 prospects of immediately solving the mystery that hung 

 about the piano seemed hopeless. In the mean time 

 public opinion was " rife." 



The depository of this strange thing was looked upon 

 by the passers-by with indefinable awe ; and as noises 



