BATTLE, n. A method of untying with the teeth of a political knot that would not yield to the tongue. - Ambrose Bierce

HAND, n. A singular instrument worn at the end of the human arm and commonly thrust into somebody's pocket.

What did I fear, and why? — I, to whom the night had been

a more familiar face
than that of man — I, in whom that element of hereditary superstition from which none of us is altogether free had given to solitude and darkness and silence only a more alluring interest and charm!

Halpin was pretty generally deprecated as an intellectual black sheep who was likely at any moment to disgrace the flock by bleating in metre. The Tennessee Fraysers were a practical folk - not practical in the popular sense of devotion to sordid pursuits, but having a robust contempt for any qualities unfitting a man for the wholesome vocation of politics.