50 SHEPHEEDSTOWN, ON THE POTOMAC. 



there were other things besides money and trade that the Shepherds- 

 stonians despised. Lying and the train of vices that come with it 

 were still more despicable. The names of more important people 

 than the factory builders and owners might be forgotton, but 

 the name of a Sliepherdstown man or woman who told a lie, 

 was not forgotten. I hare known the reputation of "liar" to 

 cling to a man for years, and beyond his own town and even county, 

 for what less tender consciences would have counted little more than 

 a subterfuge. In short, they had almost as great a regard for their 

 ancestry, for their honor, at any rate, as we Northerners of later date 

 have for our posterity, just as the respect and consideration which, 

 in those days, it was thought right that children should pay their 

 parents and grandparents, is now almost demanded by children 

 from their elders. From the time, when, little barefoot children [as 

 most of the children still are in that primitive region] they first ran 

 about the fields and streets, this respect for their elders and betters, 

 living and dead was never disregarded. They not only did not lie 

 but they did not seem to consider that a lie was possible, as an 

 escape from a difficulty, or as a stepping stone toward what they 

 -.ranted. I don't know that this was derived from their religious 

 up-bringing [though this was of the strictest kind] it was, ap 

 parently, partly inherited,'°drawn in with their Mother's milk, and 

 partly, it formed the ground-work of their education as gentlemen. 



And so they grew up, and put on shoes and stockings as their for- 

 bear's had done, living for the most part honest and honorable lives ; 

 many far away from their early home, to which after their first 

 venture into the outside world, they never returned, until they were 

 brought back to rest at last under the shadow of the old gray church 

 of their earliest recollections; and many more, returning after a col- 

 lege course in some neighboring city, to marry a pretty towns- 

 woman, and live happily ever after ; — or at least until time brought 

 them, also, to the old Churchyard, and they slept with their fore- 

 fathers. 



The Town itself, even apart from its situation, which is very fine, 

 was much handsomer than most American country towns. It 

 was built entirely of stone and brick, and consequently, instead of 

 the shabby, crazy appearance of many of our Towns, as they fall in- 

 to years, it had only mellowed with age. There it lay among the 



