ever sense, I 'sure ye--but th' gal holes on ter th' young
'un ter kill--we couldn't get it 'way no how.'

'How did you catch them?'

'The' got 'gainst my turpentime raft--th' current driv 'em down, I
s'pose.'

'What! are they dead?' exclaimed the Colonel.

'Dead? Deader'n drownded rats!' was the native's reply.

WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?

'Do but grasp into the thick of human life! Every one _lives_
it--to not many is it _known_; and seize it where you will, it is
interesting.'--_Goethe_.

'SUCCESSFUL.--Terminating in accomplishing what is wished or
intended.'--_Webster's Dictionary._

CHAPTER III.

The people are anxious for the _detail_ of sentiments, not for
general results.'--_Lamartine._

Hiram exhibited almost from his boyhood a fondness for female society.
Even when at the district-school, he preferred spending 'noon-time'
among the girls to racing around with the boys, pitching quoits,
wrestling at 'arm's-end,' 'back-hold,' or playing base-ball and goal.
His mother was careful to encourage Hiram's predilections. She remarked
that nothing was so well calculated to keep a young man from going
astray as for him to frequent the society of virtuous females.

Before Hiram had got into his teens, he appeared to be smitten with at
least half a score of little girls of his own age. As he grew older, his
fondness for the sex increased. I do not record this, as any thing
extraordinary, except that in his case a characteristic selfishness
seemed to be at the bottom even of these manifestations. Hiram was not
influenced by those natural emotions and impulses which belong to youth,
and which, unless kept under proper restraint, are apt frequently to
lead to indiscretions. For there ran a vein of calculation through all
he did, whose prudent office it was to minister to his safety.

After Hiram joined the church he was regular in his attendance on the
evening meetings. He always went to these meetings with some young girl,
whom, of course, he accompanied home after the services were over. As I
have said, he was a handsome fellow, and bestowed particular care on his
dress and his appearance generally. He was good-natured and obliging,
and withal sensible, so that the young men who envied him and might be
inclined to call him a fop or a dandy, could not prefix 'brainless' to
these epithets and thus ridicule on him. The fact is, he was shrewder
than any of them, and he knew it.