193
XVI ON THE BRIDGE 202
XVII OUT OF A CLEAR SKY 216
XVIII BUSINESS PLANS 230
XIX HILDA 242
XX SACRIFICE 255
XXI A POKE PARTY 267
XXII VON RITTENHEIM COLLECTS HIS RENT 285
XXIII THE 'POSSUM-HUNT 299
XXIV "FOUGHT THE FIGHT" 312
XXV CARL VON STERNBURG 322
XXVI SURRENDER 335
XXVII DIXIE 348

List of Illustrations

Page

OAKWOOD _Frontispiece_

A FENCE AT THE TOP OF A SHARP ASCENT 109

TO THE FRENCH BROAD, WHERE FLETCHER'S BRIDGE CROSSES THE
RIVER 204

PINK ROSES AND RED SWUNG TO AND FRO IN THE SUNSHINE AS
THEY CLIMBED THE DOCTOR'S WHITEWASHED PORCH 242

"IT IS NOT FITTING THAT A VON RITTENHEIM SHOULD LIVE
IN A CABIN LIKE THAT" 269

A Tar-Heel Baron

I

Friedrich von Rittenheim

The incongruity of his manner of life was patent to all who saw. The
mountaineers around him recognized it, but they attributed it to the
fact of his being a foreigner. The more cultivated folk realized that a
man of the world who bore every mark of good birth and breeding was
indeed out of place in the gray jeans of the North Carolina farmer,
guiding the plough with his own hand.

At first no one knew just how to take him, even to the calling of his
name. Baron Friedrich Johann Ludwig--and a half-dozen more--von
Rittenheim was a good deal to compass. The farmers and the negroes
finally settled upon "Mr. Baron."

As to "taking him," it was he who took them, and by storm. He was as
poor as his poorest neighbors, that was evident, so they felt no
jealousy, and laid aside the mistrust which is the countryman's shield
and buckler. He asked agricultural instruction from the men, was
courteously respectful to the women, and played with the children.
Among those of