Part 12 (2/2)

”Had you thought of moving West into one of the new Territories just opening?”

”Yessir. I'd thought of it. But how am I goin' to get there with a wife and five children?”

Lee rose and looked about the place thoughtfully.

”How much could you realize from the sale of your things?”

Doyle scratched his head doubtfully.

”I ain't got no idee, sir. I'm afraid not much. Ye see it's just home stuff. The old 'oman's awful smart. She raises enough chickens and turkeys and ducks and guineas to eat, and she sells a few eggs and young chickens and turkeys when they brings anything in the market. I got six sheep, a cow, a calf, a mule, a couple o' pigs in the pen. But they won't bring much money. Ye see I never felt so poor ez long ez I had a _home_ where I can live independent like. That house ain't much, sir.

But you ain't no idea how deep down in my heart it's got.”

He paused and looked at it. The Colonel followed his gaze. It was a small frame structure standing in a yard filled with trees. A one-story affair with a sharp, gabled attic. Two dormer windows projected from the high roof and a solid brick chimney at each end gave it dignity. A narrow porch came straight out from the front door. On either side of the porch were built wooden benches and behind them on a lattice grew a luxuriant rambler rose. It was still blooming richly in the warm September sun.

”Ye see, sir,” Doyle went on, ”what we've got that's worth havin' can't be sold. I love the smell o' them roses. I wake up in the night and the breeze brings it in the window and it puts me to sleep like an old song my mother used to sing when I was a little shaver--”

He stopped short.

”I didn't mean to snivel, sir.”

”I understand, my friend. No apologies are necessary.”

”And that big scuppernong grape vine out there in the garden--I couldn't sell that. I planted it fifteen years ago. Folks told us we was too fur north here fur it to grow good. But I knowed better. You can see its covered a place as big ez the house. And you can smell them ripe grapes a hundred yards before ye get to the gate. I make a little wine outen 'em. We have 'em to eat a whole month. That garden keeps us goin' winter and summer. You see them five rows of flat turnips and the ruttabaggers beside 'em? I've cabbage enough banked under them pine tops to make a fifty-gallon barrel o' kraut and give us cabbage with our bacon all winter. We've got turnip greens, onions and collards. I've got corn and wheat in my crib and bacon enough to last me till next year. I raise the finest watermelons and mushmelons in the county and it ain't much trouble to live here. I never knowed how well off I wuz till the Sheriff come and told me I had to go.”

”You're in the prime of life. You can go to a new country and begin over again. Why not?”

”If I could get there. I reckon I could.”

He stopped short as his wife appeared by his side. She had heard Colonel Lee's last question.

”Of course, you can begin over again. Haven't we got three of the finest boys the Lord ever give a mother? They ain't got no chance here nohow.

My baby boy's one o' the smartest youngsters in the county. Ef old Andy Jackson wuz a poor boy an' got ter be President, he might do the same thing ef we give him a chance--”

”Yes, I reckon we could, ef we had a chance,” Doyle agreed doubtfully.

”But it would be a hard pull to leave my ole Virginy home. You know that would pull you, Colonel--now wouldn't it?”

”Yes, it would,” was the earnest answer.

”You see I wuz born in this country an' me daddy before me. I like it here. I like the feel of the air in the fall. There's a flock o' ducks now circlin' over that bend o' the river. The geese are comin'. I heard 'em honk high up in the sky last night. I like my oysters and terrapin.

I like to shoot ducks and geese, rabbits and quail. I like the smell o' the water. I like the smell o' these fields. I like the way the sun s.h.i.+nes and the winds blow down here. It's in my blood.”

”But you'll go if you can get away,” his wife interrupted cheerfully.

Two little girls timidly drew near. Their faces were washed clean and their s.h.i.+ning blonde hair gleamed in circles of golden light as the rays of the setting sun caught it.

Lee smiled, took them both in his arms and kissed them.

A tear softened his eyes as he placed them on the ground.

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