t know where to find one i shouldn t know how to manage her if i did find her so i ve got to post up for the position myself the child was so happy with him in all circumstances in connection with the de claim that it was easy to teach her anything she had learned to read and write before she discovered that the process she went through to acquire these accomplishments was not an agreeable specially invented by tom for her amusement at eleven years old she had become so interested in her work that she was quite an excited little student by the time she was twelve tom began to shake his head at her if you go on like this he said i sha n t be able to keep up with you and what i ve got to do is to keep ahead if i can t i shall have to send you to the academy at and how should we stand that she came and sat upon his big knee � a slim little thing as light as a bird we couldn t stand it uncle tom she said we have to be together we always have been haven t we and she rubbed her ruffled head against his huge breast yes we always have been answered tom and it would go pretty hard with us to make a change she was not sent to the war broke out and altered the aspect of things even at the cross roads the bank in which tom s modest were deposited was swept away by misfortune the primitive resources of county were as the resources of all the land were but for the existence of the white vine house and the garden full of and bloom tom s position at the close of the rebellion was far less fortunate than it had been at the time the mystery of s hollow had occurred in those old happy go lucky days the three rooms behind the store and the three meals cooked for him had been quite sufficient for free and easy peace he had been able to himself these primitive comforts with so little expenditure that money had scarcely seemed an ob in connection with the de claim he had taken eggs in exchange for sugar bacon in exchange for tea and butter in exchange for everything now he had no means of resource but the store and the people were poorer than they had been farms had gone to temporary ruin through neglect during the absence of their masters more than one honest fellow had marched away and never returned and their were left to struggle with the land and their children the store which had so wonderfully for a year or two before the breaking out of the war began to wear a less cheerful aspect as far as he himself was concerned tom knew that life was a simple enough thing but by his side there was growing up a young goddess she was not aware that she was a young goddess there was no one in the vicinity of the cross roads who could have informed her that she presented somewhat of that aspect and that she was youth and happiness and nature s self at once tom continually indulged in deep reflection on his charge after she was twelve years old she shot up into the tall of a lovely young and she was a sweetly glowing thing a baby had been a different matter the baby had not been so difficult to manage but when he found himself day by day the sweetness of child womanhood in the eyes that were gold brown pools and the softening grace of the fair young body he began to be conscious of something like alarm he was not at all sure what he ought to do at this crisis and whether life its experiences entirely to s cross roads was all that was required i don t know whether it s right by thunder he said i don t know whether it s right and that s what a man who s taken the place of a young mother ought to know s in connection with the de claim there came a sunday when one of the occasional was to be held at the log cabin church a few miles distant and they were going together as they always did it was a heavenly warm spring morning and having made herself ready wandered into the garden to wait among the flowers the first of the year were there drawn by the sun and blown by of wind from and white and blue walked among the beds every few minutes kneeling down upon the grass to bury her face in pink and yellow and white clusters the breath of flowers and the freshness of the sweet brown earth at the same time she had lived among leaves and growing things until she felt herself in some way a part of the world they belonged to the world beyond the mountains she knew nothing of but this world which was the brown earth springing forth into green blades and leaves and little warming into bloom and sun fragrance setting the birds singing and nest building giving fruits and grain and yellow and scarlet leaves and folding itself later in snow and winter sleep � this world she knew as well as she knew herself the birds were singing and nest building this morning and as she hung over a bed of purple and white kneeling on the grass and getting as close to them as she could their perfume mounted to her brain and she began to kiss them i love you she said dwelling on their sweet coolness with her lips i love and love you and suddenly she made a little and kissed the brown earth itself and oh i love you 