Their general tone had been negative.

Now they spoke in a lightsome tone of self-sufficiency.

They were gay, even jaunty.

It was in this very epoch that the verse was born which for many years sang blithely from the top of the first column--sang of Denney's public-spirited optimism as to Slocum County and the Little Country.
Keep your eye on Slocum, She's all right! Her skies are clear and full of cheer, And all her prospects bright.
As pointing more specifically to the incubus of Potts, there was this:-- "Lots of people are saying that we have met our Waterloo.

They forget that Waterloo was a _victory_ as well as a defeat.