ing your corn before long and seeding your winter crops. What are
you planting this fall?"

He could not be induced to engage upon social topics with the young man
or to allude in the most distant manner to his legal profession. He was
a Burr, and a Burr was a small farmer, nothing more.

"We're ploughing for oats now, sir," responded Nicholas diffidently,
"and we're going to seed a little rye with clover--if the clover's
killed, the rye'll last."

"I should advise you to look after the land," said the general, stuffing
the tobacco into the bowl of his pipe and pressing it down with his fat
thumb. "What you need is to plant it in cow-peas and turn them down.
There's nothing like them for fertilising."

Nicholas, who was listening attentively, rose to shake hands with Miss
Chris who appeared in the doorway.

"The fall comes earlier than it used to," she remarked, drawing a light
crocheted shawl about her shoulders. "Why, I remember when it used to be
summer up to the middle of November. I was talking to Judge Bassett
about it yesterday, and he said he certainly thought the seasons had
changed since he was a boy."

"I don't reckon your father has much opinion of fertilisers," broke in
the general, reverting to his pleasant patronage.

Nicholas answered before Eugenia could interpose. "No, sir, he doesn't
believe in them much," he replied.

"Well, you tell him it's lime he needs," continued the general. "The
most successful peanut grower I ever knew put about a thousand pounds of
lime to an acre, and he cleared--"

"Have you seen Dudley Webb?" asked Eugenia, shaking her head at the
general's frown.

"For an hour this morning. He was in Tom Bassett's office. He told some
good stories."

Miss Chris heaved a reminiscent sigh.

"That's poor Julius Webb all over again," she said. "He could keep a
dinner table laughing for two hours and fight a duel at daybreak. I
remember at his own wedding, when they drank his health, he told such a
funny story that old Judge Blitherstone, who was upwards of eighty, had
to have cold bandages put to his head."

The general took his pipe from his mouth. "Dudley's a fine young
fellow," he said. "I saw him yesterday when I went to the post-office.
They tell me he's making a name for himself in Richmond."

Eugenia laughed lightly.

"Papa adores Mrs. Webb, so he thinks Dudley splendid," she said.

"That lady is one of the noblest of her sex," loyally asserted the
general.

"An