Opinions to that effect prevailed widely to the south of us some years ago, but the contrary was proved, we believe.

The United States _is_, brother, ever since Appomattox, and even the grammar book should testify to its is-ness--to its everlasting and indivisible oneness." She carried it off so finely that I knew Miss Caroline had recovered from the fatigues of her journey.
"I shall write you an item myself," she exclaimed, and seizing a stubby pencil, she wrote rapidly:-- "A battered and ungrammatical old woman from the valley of Virginia has settled in our midst.

She will always believe that the United States are, but she is harmless and otherwise sane." "Have I caught the style ?--have I used 'in our midst' correctly ?" she asked Solon.

And he protested that her style was faultless but that her matter was grossly misleading.
From this she was presently assuring him, in all pleasantness, that the seed of Cain, descended through Ham, would, by reason of the curse of God, be a "servant of servants" unto the end; while Solon was assuring her, with equal good nature, that this scriptural law had been repealed by President Lincoln.
Her retort, "I dare say your Mr.Lincoln was _capable_ of wishing to repeal the Bible," was her nearest approach to asperity.
"A battered old woman!" said Solon to me later.

"She looks more like a candy saint, if they make such things,--one that a child has been careless with." We agreed that she was an addition to Little Arcady.
The editor of the _Argus_ sighed at this point, and I thought he might be wishing that all feminine newcomers could be like the latest.