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Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851

"Oak Openings"

One man will pass his days in hunting deer;
another in catching fish; my taste has been for the bees, and for
such chances with other creatures as may offer. What between
hunting, and hiving, and getting the honey to market, I have very
little time to long for company. But my taste is altering, Margery;
HAS altered."
The girl blushed, but she also smiled, and, moreover, she looked
pleased.
"I am afraid that you are not as much altered as you think," she
answered, laughingly, however. "It may seem so now; but when you
come to LIVE in the settlements again, you will get tired of
crowds."
"Then I will come with you, Margery, into these Openings, and we can
live TOGETHER here, surely, as well, or far better than I can live
here ALONE. You and Gershom's wife have spoiled my housekeeping. I
really did not know, until you came up here, how much a woman can do
in a chiente.
"Why, Bourdon, you have lived long enough in the settlements to know
THAT!"
"That is true; but I look upon the settlements as one thing, and on
the Openings as another. What will do there isn't needed here; and
what will do here won't answer there. But these last few days have
so changed Castle Meal, that I hardly know it myself.


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