es held twenty
horses and a coach, besides no end of gigs and carryalls. This
broad road on which we walk was lined with flower-beds and shaded by
live-oaks. Over there, near that little grove, were three great barns
and lesser out-buildings, besides the negro quarters, smoke-houses, and
hay-ricks. Really a wonderful place in its day, Kate."

Then he went on to tell of how the verandas were shaded with
honeysuckles, and the halls, drawing-rooms, and dining-room crowded
with furniture; how there were yellow damask curtains, and screens, and
hair-cloth sofas and a harmonicon of musical glasses which was played
by wetting one's fingers in a bowl of water and passing them over the
rims--he had played on it himself when a boy; and slaves galore--nearly
one hundred of them, not to mention a thousand acres of tillable land
to plough and harrow, as well as sheep, oxen, pigs, chickens,
ducks--everything that a man of wealth and position might have had in
the old days, and about every one of which St. George had a memory.

Then when Tom's father, who was the sole heir, took charge (here his
voice dropped to a whisper) dissolution proceedings set in--and Tom
finished them! and St. George sighed heavily as he pointed out the
changes:--the quarters in ruins, the stables falling to pieces, the
gates tied up with strings or swinging loose; and the flocks, herds,
and live-stock things of the past. Nor had a negro been left--none Tom
really owned: one by one they had been sold or hired out, or gone
off nobody knew where, he being too lazy, or too indifferent, or too
good-natured, to hunt them up. The house, as Kate had seen, was equally
neglected. Even what remained of the old furniture was on its last
legs--the curtains patched, or in shreds--the carpets worn into holes.

Kate listened eagerly, but she did not sigh. It was all charming to her
in the soft spring sunshine, the air a perfume, the birds singing, the
blossoms bursting, the peach-trees anthems of praise--and best of all
her dear Uncle George strolling at her side. And then everything was so
clean and fresh and sweet in every nook and corner of the tumble-down
house. Peggy, as she soon discovered, looked after that--in fact Peggy
looked after everything that required looking after--and everything
did--including the judge. Mr. Coston was tired, Peggy would say, or Mr.
Coston had not been very well, so she just did it herself instead of
bothering him. Since his promotion it w