hout any rent at all, in order that the 'poor, confiding creature'
might make himself comfortable, before he commenced paying his sixpence
or shilling an acre rent for the remainder of three lives, with a moral
certainty of getting a renewal on the most liberal terms known to a new
country; and who knew, the whole time, he could buy land in fee, within
ten miles of his door, but who thought _this_ a better bargain than
_that_."

"Enough of this folly," cried uncle Ro, joining in the laugh; "we all
know that, in our excellent America, he who has the highest claims to
anything, must affect to have the least, to stifle the monster envy;
and, being of one mind as to principles, let us come to facts. What of
the girls, Jack, and of my honoured mother?"

"She, noble, heroic woman! she is at Ravensnest at this moment; and, as
the girls would not permit her to go alone, they are all with her."

"And did you, Jack Dunning, suffer them to go unattended into a part of
the country that is in open rebellion?" demanded my uncle,
reproachfully.

"Come, come! Hodge Littlepage, this is very sublime as a theory, but not
so clear when reduced to practice. I did not go with Mrs. Littlepage and
her young fry, for the good and substantial reason that I did not wish
to be 'tarred and feathered.'"

"So you leave them to run the risk of being 'tarred and feathered' in
your stead?"

"Say what you will about the cant of freedom that is becoming so common
among us, and from which we were once so free; say what you will, Ro, of
the inconsistency of those who raise the cry of 'feudality,' and
'aristocracy,' and 'nobility,' at the very moment they are manifesting a
desire for exclusive rights and privileges in their own persons; say
what you will of dishonesty, envy, that prominent American vice,
knavery, covetousness, and selfishness; and I will echo all you can
utter;--but do not say that a woman can be in serious danger among any
material body of Americans, even if anti-renters, and mock-redskins in
the bargain."

"I believe you are right there, Jack, on reflection. Pardon my warmth;
but I have lately been living in the old world, and in a country in
which women were not long since carried to the scaffold on account of
their politics."

"Because they meddled with politics. Your mother is in no serious
danger, though it needs nerve in a woman to be able to think so. There
are few women in the State, and fewer of her time of life anywhere,