hing of her father's
real position or power as leader of his party. The stunning tragedy of the
war had for the time crushed out of his consciousness all political ideas,
as it had for most young Southerners. He took her hand while a dreamy look
overspread his swarthy face:

"Don't cross a bridge till you come to it. I learned that in the war.
Politics are a mess. Let me tell you something that counts----"

He felt her hand's soft pressure and reverently kissed it. "Listen," he
whispered. "I was dreaming last night after I left you of the home we'll
build. Just back of our place, on the hill overlooking the river, my
father and mother planted trees in exact duplicate of the ones they placed
around our house when they were married. They set these trees in honour of
the first-born of their love, that he should make his nest there when
grown. But it was not for him. He had pitched his tent on higher ground,
and the others with him. This place will be mine. There are forty
varieties of trees, all grown--elm, maple, oak, holly, pine, cedar,
magnolia, and every fruit and flowering stem that grows in our friendly
soil. A little house, built near the vacant space reserved for the
homestead, is nicely kept by a farmer, and birds have learned to build in
every shrub and tree. All the year their music rings its chorus--one long
overture awaiting the coming of my bride----"

Elsie sighed.

"Listen, dear," he went on eagerly. "Last night I dreamed the South had
risen from her ruins. I saw you there. I saw our home standing amid a
bower of roses your hands had planted. The full moon wrapped it in soft
light, while you and I walked hand in hand in silence beneath our trees.
But fairer and brighter than the moon was the face of her I loved, and
sweeter than all the songs of birds the music of her voice!"

A tear dimmed the girl's warm eyes, and a deeper flush mantled her cheeks,
as she lifted her face and whispered:

"Kiss me."

CHAPTER IX

THE KING AMUSES HIMSELF

With savage energy the Great Commoner pressed to trial the first
impeachment of a President of the United States for high crimes and
misdemeanours.

His bill to confiscate the property of the Southern people was already
pending on the calendar of the House. This bill was the most remarkable
ever written in the English language or introduced into a legislative body
of the Aryan race. It provided for the confiscation of ninety per cent. of
the land of ten