is
well-nigh worthless. Besides being heavily mortgaged, the land is worn,
and the grand old brick mansion built over a hundred years ago by your
great-grandfather, Abner Hite, is sadly out of repair--in fact, is
almost in ruins."

"'Lord of Crestlands, an ancestral estate in the proud old dominion of
Virginia,' sounds rich and grand," laughed Abner; "but is only as
'sounding brass and tinkling cymbals,' after all, without money to lift
mortgages and to repair the breaches made by the prodigality and
carelessness of my predecessors. And, uncle, how about the negroes I am
to inherit?" taking up the copy of the will, and reading therefrom, "'I
give and bequeath all houses, lands, slaves, live stock, goods and
chattels of whatsoever nature of which I die possessed, etc.' How many
of these dusky retainers are there remaining in my ancestral halls?"

"Only three," the doctor answered, "out of the troops of slaves which
Andrew Hite owned twenty years ago. The others, I find, have been sold
from time to time, to pay the gambling debts and for the other vicious
habits of the precious Stephen, I presume. And of the three negroes
still left, two are old and decrepit, which leaves but one of
marketable value. But, Abner, my boy," jokingly added Dr. Dudley, "when
you have realized a fortune out of that Henderson County land which you
think so valuable, you can use this wealth to lift mortgages and to
rebuild this home of your forefathers; so that you will be, after all,
'lord of Crestlands,' the ancestral home of the family."

"That plan doesn't appeal to me," said the young man, stoutly. "For one
thing, I do not consider Crestlands as my ancestral estate. My
Grandmother Hite lived there only until her marriage, and neither
Hollises nor Logans had part or lot in it. No, my ancestral halls shall
be of my own rearing," he said promptly. "I intend indeed to be one day
known as 'Logan of Crestlands;' but not of that ramshackle old manor
house in southeastern Virginia, but of a new Crestlands in that
transmontine paradise, Kentucky. Crestlands!" he said musingly. "Yes, I
like the name. It has a pleasing sound, and I mean that in its
symbolical sense it shall be appropriate; for I intend that life in
this home I shall found shall be one of purity, truth, love, and high
ideals."

"And from the light in your eyes, and that hopeful, exultant smile, I
suspect," said Uncle Richard, "that you have found the fair damsel who
is to reign que