and carefully wrote the document.

They went on their way rejoicing, and old Aleck hurried into Piedmont with
the consciousness of lordship of the soil. He held himself so proudly that
it seemed to straighten some of the crook out of his bow legs.

He marched up to the hotel where Margaret sat reading and Marion was on
the steps playing with a setter.

"Why, Uncle Aleck!" Marion exclaimed, "I haven't seen you in a long
time."

Aleck drew himself to his full height--at least, as full as his bow legs
would permit, and said gruffly:

"Miss Ma'ian, I axes you to stop callin' me 'uncle'; my name is Mr.
Alexander Lenoir----"

"Until Aunt Cindy gets after you," laughed the girl. "Then it's much
shorter than that, Uncle Aleck."

He shuffled his feet and looked out at the square unconcernedly.

"Yaas'm, dat's what fetch me here now. I comes ter tell yer Ma ter tell
dat 'oman Cindy ter take her chillun off my farm. I gwine 'low no mo'
rent-payin' ter nobody off'n my lan'!"

"Your land, Uncle Aleck? When did you get it?" asked Marion, placing her
cheek against the setter.

"De Gubment gim it ter me to-day," he replied, fumbling in his pocket, and
pulling out the document. "You kin read it all dar yo'sef."

He handed Marion the paper, and Margaret hurried down and read it over her
shoulder.

Both girls broke into screams of laughter.

Aleck looked up sharply.

"Do you know what's written on this paper, Uncle Aleck?" Margaret asked.

"Cose I do. Dat's de deed ter my farm er forty acres in de land er de
creek, whar I done stuck off wid de red, white, an' blue sticks de Gubment
gimme."

"I'll read it to you," said Margaret.

"Wait a minute," interrupted Marion. "I want Aunt Cindy to hear it--she's
here to see Mamma in the kitchen now."

She ran for Uncle Aleck's spouse. Aunt Cindy walked around the house and
stood by the steps, eying her erstwhile lord with contempt.

"Got yer deed, is yer, ter stop me payin' my missy her rent fum de lan' my
chillun wucks? Yu'se er smart boy, you is--let's hear de deed!"

Aleck edged away a little, and said with a bow:

"Dar's de paper wid de big mark er de Gubment."

Aunt Cindy sniffed the air contemptuously.

"What is it, honey?" she asked of Margaret.

Margaret read in mock solemnity the mystic writing on the deed:

_To Whom It May Concern_:

As Moses lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness for the
enlightenment of the people, even so have I lifted twen