170 VIRGINIA 



its hilltops is all a forest, and Virginia a 

 cleared country. 



Kain began falling by the time the valley 

 was reached, on my return, and coming to a 

 store in the vicinity of the lower furnace, 

 the one store of that suburb, so far as I 

 could discover, I stepped inside, partly 

 for shelter, partly to see the people at their 

 Saturday shopping. A glance at the walls 

 and the show-cases made it plain that one 

 store was enough. You had only to ask for 

 what you wanted : a shotgun, a revolver, a 

 violin case, a shovel, a plug of tobacco, a 

 pound of sugar, a coffee-pot, a dress pattern, 

 a ribbon, a necktie, a pair of trousers, or 

 what not. The merchant might have written 

 over his door, '* Humani nihil alienum ; " 

 if he had been a city shopkeeper, he might 

 even have called his establishment a depart- 

 ment store, and filled the Sunday news- 

 papers with the wonders of it. Then it 

 would have been but a step to the governor's 

 chair, or possibly to a seat in the national 

 council. 



The place was like a beehive ; customers 

 of both sexes and both colors going and 

 coming with a ceaseless buzz of gossip and 



