ause they wish to
give demonstrations and try experiments in land restoration, though very
little of that is needed here in the valley. It's a pretty big thing, Mr.
Craddock and Father William, sixty thousand dollars will provide all the--"

"Did I understand that this proposition is put to us in the form of a
demand of our Government upon our patriotism?" asked Uncle Cradd in a
booming voice, while father only looked uncertain and ready to say, "With
you, Cradd." I sat speechless for a moment, with a queer pain in my heart
that I did not for the first second understand.

"Well, not exactly that, Mr. Craddock, but something like it in a--"
Matthew was beginning to say in a judicial way.

"That is enough, Matthew Berry, son of the friend of my youth. If the
United States needs Elmnest for national defenses, I am willing to give it
up--indeed insist on presenting it to the Government except for a small
part of the sum mentioned, which is needed for the simple and declining
lives of my brother William, Rufus, and me, and my niece Nancy. Will you so
convey our answer, William?"

"With you, Cradd," came the devoted formula with which father slipped back
finally into the dependence of his youth.

"Good, Mr. Craddock," exclaimed Matthew, and I could see visions of Ann
Craddock reclaimed from her farmer's smock in a ball-gown upon the floor
of the country club in the fleeting glance of triumph he gave me. "Of
course, about the price--"

Then in that counsel of the mighty arose Ann Craddock, farm woman in the
stronghold of her worn-out acres.

"Is it or is it not true, Uncle Cradd, that no deed to this property can be
made without my consent?" I asked calmly.

"Why, yes, Nancy," answered Uncle Cradd, indulgently. "But this is a matter
for your father and me to decide for you. I am sure you cannot fail in
patriotism, my child."

"I don't," I answered. "I am going to be more patriotic than any woman ever
was before. I am not going to sell my Grandmother's rosebushes in their
gardens or the acres that have nourished my family since its infancy in
America long before this Evan Baldwin ever had any family, I feel sure, for
sixty thousand dollars to go back and sit down in a corner with. I am going
to demonstrate to the United States what one woman can do in the way of
nutriment production aided by one beautiful rooster and ten equally
beautiful hens, and when they begin to take stock of the resources of this
Government, we