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 
