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While Spicer South and his cousins had been sustaining the their soil, the leaders of the other

faction were basing larger fortunes on the profits of h Spicer South could neither read nor write, his

chief ene an urbane and fairly

equipped ed by their heads, the clansher and more illiterate on Misery, and in closer touch with

civilization on Crippleshin A deeper scrutiny showed this see to

be one of the strange anomalies of the mountains

Micah Hollman had established himself at Hixon, that shack tohich

had passed of late years from feudal county seat to the section's one

point of contact with the outside world; a tohere the ancient and

modern orders brushed shoulders; where the neas tolerated, but dared

not becoressive Directly across the street fro, on whose side as eend: "Hollhold of Hollly of that

spirit of lawlessness which had given the mountains a bad name He

himself, he declared, believed that the best assets of any community

were tenets of peace and brotherhood Any ner who

cae Micah Hollistrate

As the years went on, the proprietor of the "Mammoth Department Store"

found that he had es

stored away in his strong box To the cry of distress, he turned a

sympathetic ear His infectious smile and suave manner won him fame as

"the best-hearted man in the mountains" Steadily and unostentatiously,