196* WILD SPOET8 IN THE SOUTH. 



They are not the showy people, whose dress and equi- 

 page, house, wife, watering-place, and tight boots, dazzle 

 us, nor the men in great places in the nation, nor the 

 very pious men. They, perchance, are very plain men, 

 and don't obtrude. They have not many friends. They 

 are composed in manner, and sparse and simple in their 

 words. If you don't know them you will not hear any- 

 thing very bad of them, unless some very fashionable 

 person says it in her manner rather than her words, when 

 alluding to them. If you do know them, and you can't 

 know them in a day, you will like them forever. If it 

 is a woman, her gentle presence has filled the house for 

 months, providing and directing so softly it was never 

 known. She has read much, but it was in her chamber ; 

 she has opinions stronger than any partisan, but she 

 never expresses them in conversation, only in their exer- 

 cise. Her quiet eye is on you, but you don't perceive it, 

 and she knows you before you thought enough of her to 

 notice her, and yet, for all that forgotten presence, when 

 the great ills come and sorrow extinguishes the light 

 in the house, where does the household so surely turn as 

 to her counsel and her consolation ? If it is a man, his 

 coming and going and long absences were scarcely noted, 

 except by those who leaned on him. In his mind are 

 stored up years of studies and observation, and in his 

 breast there is a spring of love for simple things and 

 honest ways, and a hidden honor that makes him a rich 

 man, though often with scarcely a dollar to spend. 

 Everybody says he must be rich, for he has everything 



