sunshine fell hotly over her, and
straight ahead the white road lay like a living thing.

She stooped, gravely gathered up the books, and walked resolutely on her
way, a cloud of yellow butterflies fluttering like loosened petals of
full-blown buttercups about her head.

V

Battie Hall was a square white frame house with bright-green window
shutters and a deep front porch, supported by heavy pillars, and reached
from the gravelled walk below by a flight of rugged stone steps. In the
rear of the house, through which a wide hall ran, dividing the rooms of
the first floor, there was another porch similar to the one at the
front, except that the pillars were hidden in musk roses and the long
benches at either side were of plain, unpainted pine. At the foot of the
back steps a narrow, well-trodden path led to the vegetable garden,
which was separated from the yard by what was called "Cattle Lane"--a
name derived from the morning and evening passage of the cows on their
way to and from the pasture.

Beginning at the gate into the garden, where the tall white palings were
gay with hollyhocks and heavy-headed sunflowers, a grapevine trellis
extended to the farmyard at the end of the lane, whence an overgrown
walk led across tangled meadows to the negro "quarters"--a long,
whitewashed row of almost deserted cabins. Since the close of the war
the "quarters" had fallen partly into disuse and had decayed rapidly,
though some few were still tenanted by the former slaves, who gathered
as of old in the doorways of an evening to strum upon broken-stringed
banjos and to wrap the hair of their small offspring. Beyond this row
there was a slight elevation called "Hickory Hill," where Uncle Ishmael
had lived for more than seventy years; and at the foot of the hill, on
the other side, near "Sweet Gum Spring," there were several neatly
patched log cabins occupied by the house servants, who held in social
contempt the field hands in the neighbouring "quarters." Overlooking the
"Sweet Gum Spring," on a loftier hill, was the family graveyard, which
was walled off from the orchard near by, where the twisted old fruit
trees had long since yielded the larger part of their abundance.

At the front of the Hall the view was vastly different. There the great
blue-grass lawn was thickly studded with ancient elms and maples, whose
shade fell like a blanket upon the velvety sod beneath. The gravelled
walk, beginning at the front steps, was