VIII Anchored Hearthstones 122
IX The Beginning of Service 136
X The Coming of Love 155
XI Lights and Shadows 175
XII The Fat Years 187

PART II

XIII The Rollcall 207
XIV The Second Generation 224
XV The Coburn Book 238
XVI The Humaneness of Champers 263
XVII The Purple Notches 274
XVIII Remembering the _Maine_ 289
XIX The "Fighting Twentieth" 311
XX The Crooked Trail 330
XXI Jane Aydelot's Will 354
XXII The Farther Wilderness 362
XXIII The End of the Wilderness 379
XXIV The Call of the Sunflower 393

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

They sought the trail and followed it westward
in the face of the wind 1

"Read these," she said, "then promise me that
in the hour when Leigh needs my help you will
let me help her" 166

"It's a friendly act on somebody's part." he said grimly 180

Leigh turned to see Thaine Aydelot looking down at
her as he leaned over the high back of the rustic seat 274

PART ONE

THE FATHER

The old Antaean fable of strength renewed from the ground
Was a human truth for the ages; since the hour of the
Eden-birth.
That man among men was strongest who stood with his feet on
the earth!
--Sharlot M. Hall.

WINNING THE WILDERNESS

CHAPTER I

THE BLESSING OF ASHER

Unless there be in the background a mother,
no portrait of a man is complete.
--Winston Churchill

The old Aydelot farm reached quite down to the little village of
Cloverdale, from which it was separated by Clover Creek. But the Aydelot
farmhouse stood a good half-mile away up the National pike road toward the
Virginia state line. The farm consisted of two long narrow strips of
ground, bordering the road on either side and walled about by forests
hiding stagnant marshes in their black-shadowed depths. Francis Aydelot
had taken up the land from the government before the townsite was thought