. The story of Cooperstown . mid the quiet scene. A momentof silence followed. Then Fenimore Coopercracked his whip, resumed his song, with somecareless chat on incidents of the day, and drovehomeward. Not long afterward he shut himselfin his library, and the first pages of The Deer-slayer were written.^ There were perhaps many in the village whofelt honored in. being neighbor to a novelist ofinternational fame. But the general sentimenttoward Fenimore Cooper in his -home town wasnot altogether created by his success as a may be that the aged Miss Nancy WiUiams,who lived in the house
. The story of Cooperstown . mid the quiet scene. A momentof silence followed. Then Fenimore Coopercracked his whip, resumed his song, with somecareless chat on incidents of the day, and drovehomeward. Not long afterward he shut himselfin his library, and the first pages of The Deer-slayer were written.^ There were perhaps many in the village whofelt honored in. being neighbor to a novelist ofinternational fame. But the general sentimenttoward Fenimore Cooper in his -home town wasnot altogether created by his success as a may be that the aged Miss Nancy WiUiams,who lived in the house which still stands on MainStreet next east of the Second National Bank,was not alone in her estimate of this kind of suc- Pages and Pictures, Susan Fenimore Cooper, p. 322. FENIMORE COOPER IN THE VILLAGE 271 cess. Her favorite seat was at a front windowwhere she was daily occupied in knitting, andwatching all passers-by. Whenever FenimoreCooper passed, whom she had Icnown as a boy,Miss Williams called out to him: James, why. C. A. SchneiderThe Home of Nancy Williams dont you stop wasting your time writing thosesilly novels, and try to make something ofyourself! Whatever may have been the village estimateof his fame as a novelist, there were certain per-sonal traits in Cooper that went farther than any- 272 THE STORY OF COOPEESTOWN thing he ever wrote to fix the esteem of his fellowcitizens. Among acquaintances whom he admittedas his social equals he was universally beloved; tothese he showed all the charm and fascination ofa gracious personality and brilliant mind. Themore intimately Cooper was approached the moreunreservedly he was admired, and within his ownfamily he was almost adored. In the humblerwalks of life those who habitually recognizedCooper as a superior had nothing to complain there were many in Cooperstown who had nowarmth of feeling toward Fenimore were quick to detect in him an attitude ofcontemptuous superiority toward the of
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