ucated in boyhood,
with capacity to build on, the chances are that the scales will fall
from his eyes very fast on landing in the old world--that his ideas and
tastes will take a new turn--that he will become what nature intended
him for, an intellectual man; and that he will finally return home,
conscious alike of the evils and blessings, the advantages and
disadvantages, of his own system and country--a wiser, and it is to be
hoped a better man. How the experiment had succeeded with the Marstons,
neither myself nor my uncle knew; for they had paid their visit while we
were in the East, and had already returned to America. As for Miss Anne,
she had a mother to take care of her mind and person, though I had
learned she was pretty, sensible and discreet.

Miss Opportunity Newcome was a belle of Ravensnest, a village on my own
property; a rural beauty, and of rural education, virtues, manners and
habits. As Ravensnest was not particularly advanced in civilization, or,
to make use of the common language of the country, was not a very
"aristocratic place," I shall not dwell on her accomplishments, which
did well enough for Ravensnest, but would not essentially ornament my
manuscript.

Opportunity was the daughter of Ovid, who was the son of Jason, of the
house of Newcome. In using the term "house," I adopt it understandingly;
for the family had dwelt in the same tenement, a leasehold property of
which the fee was in myself, and the dwelling had been associated with
the name of Newcome from time immemorial; that is, for about eighty
years. All that time had a Newcome been the tenant of the mill, tavern,
store and farm, that lay nearest the village of Ravensnest, or Little
Nest, as it was commonly called; and it may not be impertinent to the
moral of my narrative if I add that, for all that time, and for
something longer, had I and my ancestors been the landlords. I beg the
reader to bear this last fact in mind, as there will soon be occasion to
show that there was a strong disposition in certain persons to forget
it.

As I have said, Opportunity was the daughter of Ovid. There was also a
brother, who was named Seneca, or Sene_ky_, as he always pronounced it
himself, the son of Ovid, the son of Jason, the first of the name at
Ravensnest. This Seneca was a lawyer, in the sense of a license granted
by the Justices of the Supreme Court, as well as by the Court of Common
Pleas, in and for the county of Washington. As there had