The Adair County news., 1922-08-15

path of thick grass as broad as q |
modern highway ran hundreds of |
yards between hedges of roses
straight to the open door of the great
manor-house with its wide verandas
and mighty pillars set deep back
from the river in a grove of ancient
oaks. Behind the house spread little
kingdom, divided into fields of grass,
wheat, tobacco, and corn, and dotted
with white-washed cabins filled with
slaves. Already the house had been
built hundred years of brick
brought from England in the builders
own ships, it was said, and the second
son of the reigning generation, one
Colonel Dale, sat in the veranda
alone He was a rOyalist officer, this
second son, but his elder brother had
the spirit of daring and adventure
that should have been his, and he had
been sitting there four years before
when that elder brother came home
from his first pioneering trip into the
wilds, to tell that his wife was dead
and their only son was a captive
among the Indians Two years later
still, word came that the father, too,
had met death from the savageS, and
the little kingdom passed into Colonel
Dale's hands.
Indentured servants, as well as
blacks from Africa, had labOred on
! that path in front of him; and up
it haG once stalked deputatiOn of
the great POwhatan's red tribes. Up
that path had come members of the
| worShipful House of Burgesses; bluff
planters in silk coats, the governor
and members of the council; dis
| tinguiShed visitors from England
colonial gentlemen and ladies. And all
was English still - books, Clothes
plates. knives, and forks; the church,
the Church of England; the Governor,
the representative of the King; his
| Council the English Parliament-so-
cially aristocratic, politically repub-
lican. For ancient usage held that all
''freemen" should have "a voice in the
elections, have equal right to say
who the lawmakers and what the law.
The way was open as now. Any man
could get two thousand acres by
service to the colony, could build,
plow, reap, save, buy servants, and
roll in his own coach to sit as burgess.
There was but one seat Of learning
at williamsburg What culture they
had they brought from England or
got from parents or minister. And al
ways they had seemed to prefer sword
and stump to the pen. They hated
l A ,.e 6,I-r
trestle ran from warehouse out into
the river to load ships with tobacco
for England and to get in return all
conveniences and luXuries, and that
was enough. In towns men jOstled
and individual freedom was lost, so,
Ho! for the great sweeps of land and
the sway Of a territorial lord Eng
lishmen they were Of Shakespeare's
time but living in Virginia, and that
is all they were-save that the flower
of liberty was growing faster In the
new-world sell
Englishmen called It the "Good
Land" and found it "most plentiful,
sweet, wholesome, and fruitful of all
others" The east was the ocean
|
Nova Francia, and the west unknown.
Only the shores touched the interior,
which was an untraveled realm of
fairer fruits and flowers than in Eng
land; green shores, majestic forests,
and blue mountains filed with gold
and jewels. And the feet Of all who
had made history had trod that broad
| 70 fho 3e hno hnnao
Down it now came little girl-the
flower of all those dead and gone
and her coming was just as though
one Of the flowers about her had
stepped from its gay company on one
or the other side of the path to make
through them a dainty, triumphal
march as the fairest of them all. AT
the dial she paused and her impa'
tient blue eyes turned TO a bend OF
the yellow river for the first glimpse
of a gay barge that soon must come
At the wharf the song of negroes rose
as they unloaded the boat just from
Richmond. She would go and see II
there was not package for her moth
er and perhaps present for herself
| ONAAN
she turned, but she moved no farther
Instead, she gave a little gasp, II
which there was no fear, though what
she saw was surely startling enough
to have made her wheel in fight In
stead, she. gazed steadily into a pail
of grave black eyes that were fixed OF
her from under green branch thai
Overhung the footpath, and steadily
she searched the figure standing
there from the coonskin cap down thu
fringed hunting shirt and fringet
breeches to the moccasfned feet. Ant
still the strange figure stood arm
folded, motionIess and silent. Neithe
the attitude nor the silence was quit
pleasing and the girls supple slender
, ness stiffened, her arms went rigidl.
to her sides, and naughty little snal
, sent her undimpled chin upward.
"Who are you and what do yo1
T want?'
f<,.