The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-12-26
LenGanSett.
BY OPIE p. READ.
CHAPTER |.

WCHJ HOW tC you pASdSCu WILL tuS place by this timer remarked old Bot Gansett, addressing his grandson, who, z few days before, had arrived in the neigh borhood of Abbott's Ford.
 "l am very much pleased"
 "Ah, hah, l s'pose so. What do you say your fust name is ?"
 "Now, pap," interposed old Mrs. Gan sett, "l don't want you to torment the child. You know his names Lenqubees an what makes you want to keep on a-askin' an a-askin' O him ?"
 The old mans eyes winked with mer. riment. Lenqubees," he repeated "Well, I'll swearl Lenqubees Well, hope it won't result in nothin' bad. How old are you?"
 "I am going on twenty-two."
 "Had that name all the timer"
 "Of course, have"
 "l didn't know. Didn't know you could stand it that long"
 Again the old lady demonstrated. "You know very well when he was named" she said !" know it as well as do, every bit in grain."
 "Oh. mout O heard something about 1t, Sarah, but it passed out O my mind" "I am sorry," said the young man with an air of annoyance, "that you are so much exercised over my name. It is the name which my father-your son-gave me-"
 "That may be true," old Bob replied, "but Hildenroy never did have good jedgment."
 Hildenroy," repeated young Gansett. The two men looked at each other and laughed. Then the old man acknowl- edged that he had bestowed upon his son the name of Hildenroy, and after an ar- gument in which he exhibited much tact, he agreed that the name had an odd sound ; but even after this, he continued to repeat the name of his grandson as though it had taken possession of him.
 The neighborhood of Abbott's Ford is
  of Arkansaw. Six Points river, which runs through the neighborhood is forda- ble at any place, and why any ford should be specially designated. is beyond the power of any man to make clear. The neighborhood of Abbott's Ford is not a wild section of country. Many of its farm houeAe orA x, ,Oce grou,p ood n, opv Of lie fields, long since worn, by succession of corn crops, into sterrility, have been thrown out to grow up in persimmon and sassafras bushes. The people have never held education in high esteem. They arr gued, many of them, that education had been largely instrumental in causing the war, and that they would rather be igno- rant and contented than to be educated and unhappy. Schools, however, were not wholly unknown in the neighborhood of Abbott's Ford, for, " readin', ritin' an 'dthmetic" were, during three months of the year, taught in the Ebeneezer meeting-house. The higher branches of learning were condemned, and grammar was looked upon with especial disfavor. The circuit rider, at the time to which this story relates, was man of great im- portance and, to him, many good people looked for information, not alone that which concerned their souls, but, in great part, the gossip of the neighborhood. He was a kind of newsletter. He prayed earnestly and ate with vigor and relish. He sang lustily, and, with marked perti- nacity, insisted that his meager salary should be paid.
 Robert Gansest and his wife, while they were both young, settled in the Abbotts Ford neighborhood, having come from Tennessee. Old Bob, as nearly every one called him, was man of good sense bu, of little education. While young man he possessed passion for horse-racing, and when he became old, although he had long since allied his speculative des- tinies with those of church, there was still about him perceptible fondness for spirited horse-fesh. His temper, humor- ously equable, rendered him an agree able companion. His was quizzical and pgankish he was kind-hearted and gen. ssous. The wild bursts of laughter which had characterized him in youth,