en of this goodly domain, this new Crestlands. Is it not
so?"

"I see visions and dream dreams of such a consummation," acknowledged
the young man, flushing warmly; "but at present I am on probation with
this lady fair. I shall know my fate when I return in November for her
verdict. But, uncle, whatever my hopes in that direction, there's
another hope almost equally dear--that my loving foster parents should
share my prosperity. Leave this old home which must be lonely to you
and Aunt Rachel now that I am gone and your daughters both married and
gone from the home nest. You have toiled hard, and have borne the
burden and heat of the day, and now in your declining years I would
have your life all ease and sunshine. Come to me, and share my new
home. I promise you comfort, cheer and happiness. Will you not come?"

"No, my boy," answered his uncle. "'Ephraim is joined to his idols.' I
am too old to transplant to a new soil, however vigorous and genial it
may be; and your Aunt Rachel would never consent to go so far from her
daughters and their children. But some day, when that saucy, black-eyed
siren (I'm certain she is saucy and black-eyed) shall have come to
reign as mistress of your hearth and home, I'll cross the mountains,
old as I am, to spend a few months with you. But all this is far in the
future, and we have too much business still to transact before we can
hope to get you thoroughly established in your rights, to plan so far
ahead."

"As to this Kentucky land, Uncle Richard," said Abner, presently, "when
and how did Uncle Hite acquire it?"

"Back in 1775, I believe, when he went out there on that exploring
trip. Under the provisions of the 'Henderson grant' made that same
year, Andrew Hite purchased, as I see from these papers, a tract of
four hundred acres in that part of the Green River valley now known as
Henderson County. But, instead of remaining in Kentucky and settling on
his land, he returned to this State and joined the army. Now, this
'Henderson grant' was annulled in 1778 by the Virginia Assembly, but
the next year, when the war burdens were beginning to press heavily on
the country, the Assembly enacted a new land law which, besides
arranging for the sale of lands in her western territory, also offered
as military bounty tracts of these western lands to her soldiers. So,
Hite, then a colonel in the Continental army, applied for and received
from the State of Virginia this same land he had purchas