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MARY ELIZABETH MORAGNE.
417

with the interlacing arms of hawthorn and wild honeysuckle, arrest the attention as we are proceeding along a strongly beaten track in the deep woods, and we are assured that this is the site of the “old French town,” which has given its name to the portion of country around. After some years, but not till the country was established in peace, it was gradually abandoned, on account of the unhealthiness of the situation, and because the narrowness of its limits obliged the citizens, as they grew rich enough, to move out upon the hills, to which their familiarity with the usages of the country had now rendered them less opposed; and it must be confessed, also, that in the course of the Indian wars, and the scenes of the revolution which followed, attrition with the more enterprising and crafty had worn off so much of their native simplicity as to admit the passion of avarice, which, by calling them to a more enlarged sphere, greatly tended to the oblivion of their town, though more than half a century had passed away before they had forfeited any of their national characteristics, or admitted any corruption of their native tongue.