Or it may be that some large-hearted, jovial son of the chase had overrated his winter store, or underrated the assiduity of his friends.

His recourse in such case being the more carefully estimated stock of some neighbor, who could in no wise suffer the reproach to lie at his door, that he had turned his back, in such emergence, upon his good-natured, if injudicious countryman.
This practical communism--borrowed from the Indians, among whom it was inviolable--was, in the matter of hospitality, the rule of all,--a reciprocation of good offices, in the absence of all houses of public entertainment, becoming a social necessity.

The manner of its exercise hearty, a knitting of the people together,--no one was at a loss for a winter camp when travelling.

Every house he saw was his own, the bustling wife, with welcome in her eyes, eager to assure your comfort.
The supper being laid and dealt sturdily with, the good man's pipe and your own alight and breathing satisfaction,--a neighbor soul drops in to swell the gale of talk, that rocks you at last into a restful sleep.

How now, my masters! Smacks not this of Arcady?
Early and universal marriage was the rule.