intruders, and beyond the garden,
in the distant meadows, ploughmen were plodding back and forth in the
purple furrows. Peace had descended here at least, and, with a smile, he
detected Betty's abounding energy in the moving spirit of the place. He saw
her in the freshly swept walks, in the small negroes weeding the blue-grass
lawn, in the distant ploughs that made blots upon the meadows. For a moment
he hesitated, and laid his hand upon the iron gate; then, stifling the
temptation, he turned back into the white sand of the road. Before he met
Betty's eyes, he meant that his peace should be made with the old man at
Chericoke.

Big Abel, tramping at his side, opened his mouth from time to time to let
out a rapturous exclamation.

"Dar 'tis! des look at it!" he chuckled, when Uplands had been left far
behind them. "Dat's de ve'y same clump er cedars, en dat's de wil' cher'y
lyin' right flat on hit's back--dey's done cut it down ter git de
cher'ies."

"And the locust! Look, the big locust tree is still there, and in full
bloom!"

"Lawd, de 'simmons! Dar's de 'simmon tree way down yonder in the meadow,
whar we all use ter set ouah ole hyar traps. You ain' furgot dose ole hyar
traps, Marse Dan?"

"Forgotten them! good Lord!" said Dan; "why I remember we caught five one
Christmas morning, and Betty fed them and set them free again."

"Dat she did, suh, dat she did! Hit's de gospel trufe!"

"We never could hide our traps from Betty," pursued Dan, in delight. "She
was a regular fox for scenting them out--I never saw such a nose for traps
as hers, and she always set the things loose and smashed the doors."

"We hid 'em one time way way in de thicket by de ice pond," returned Big
Abel, "but she spied 'em out. Yes, Lawd, she spied 'em out fo' ouah backs
wuz turnt."

He talked on rapidly while Dan listened with a faint smile about his mouth.
Since they had left the tavern road, Big Abel's onward march had been
accompanied by ceaseless ejaculations. His joy was childlike, unrestrained,
full of whimsical surprises--the flight of a bluebird or the recognition of
a shrub beside the way sent him with shining eyes and quickened steps along
the turnpike.

From free Levi's cabin, which was still standing, though a battle had raged
in the fallen woods beyond it, and men had fought and been buried within a
stone's throw of the doorstep, they heard the steady falling of a hammer
and caught the red glow from the rude forge at which