They shared the hospitality of many a
quiet farm-house, as freely as it was offered, and enjoyed many a
pleasant conversation with the farmers and their families, seated on
door-steps, or by the kitchen-fire.

Though the hospitality of the country people was, as a general thing,
fully and freely offered, it was sometimes, it must be confessed, not
without a certain reserve. That a "live Yankee," cute, and able-bodied,
should be going about in these out-of-the-way parts, for the sole
purpose of satisfying himself as to the features, resources, and
inhabitants of the country, was a circumstance so rare, so unheard of,
indeed, in these parts, that the shrewd country people did not like to
commit themselves at the first glance. Will's frank, handsome face, and
simple, kindly manners, won him speedily enough the confidence of all,
and Mr Snow's kindly advances were seldom long withstood. But there
sometimes lingered an uneasy feeling, not to say suspicion, that when he
had succeeded in winning their confidence, he would turn round and make
some startling demand on their faith or their purses in behalf of some
patent medicine or new invention--perhaps one of those wonderful
labour-saving machines, of which he had so much to say. As for himself,
if he ever observed their reserve or its cause, he never resented it, or
commented upon it, but entered at once into the discussion of all
possible subjects with the zest of a man determined to make the most of
the pleasant circumstances in which he found himself. If he did not
always agree with the opinions expressed, or approve of the modes of
farming pursued, he at least found that the sturdy farmers of Glengarry
and the country beyond had more to say for their opinions and practice
than "so had their fathers said and done before them," and their
discussions ended, quite as frequently as otherwise, in the American
frankly confessing himself convinced that all the agricultural wisdom on
the continent did not lie on the south side of the line forty-five.

Will was greatly amused and interested by all this. He was, to a
certain extent, able to look at the ideas, opinions, and prejudices of
each from the other's point of view, and so to enjoy with double zest
the discussion of subjects which could not fail to present such
dissimilar aspects to minds so differently constituted, and developed
under circumstances and influences so different. This power helped him
to make the opinio