is on the left of the mantel-piece.
Katrina, tell Sydney to put a shade less cream in my tea than she did
yesterday. No cake, thank you, John, but a rusk,--yes, a rusk appeals
to me. Bob, what wild thing did you do on that horse of yours on your
way here?"

"Not a thing, Mrs. Carroll. He came along like a Shetland pony. Gray
Eagle doesn't like rain. It depresses him."

"Patton is riding the black mare to-day, grandmother," called Sydney
from behind her tea equipage.

The old lady raised her eyes in comical despair and shook her head
mournfully.

"You certainly have courage, my dear child."

"Only the courage of a Cotswold lion, I'm afraid. But you mustn't be
distressed about her, she's really beginning to do Sydney credit."

"You see, Mr. Wendell, Black Monday was raised on the place here, and
she's been the hardest colt to break of any we ever had. Patton owns
her now, but I feel a personal responsibility for her because he took
her out of my hands before she was thoroughly quiet."

"I see," nodded John, gravely, in accord with Sydney's seriousness.
"You fear some burst of girlish exuberance."

"Did you see her roll in her saddle just as we were coming out of
church Sunday?" asked Patton, turning eagerly to Sydney.

"How do you dare to use such half-broken creatures?" cried Katrina.

"My dear," said Mrs. Carroll, "when you've been with us a little while
you'll realize how close we are to primitive conditions. To-day you
break the horse you mean to ride next week. To-morrow you kill the
steer or the pig or the chickens that were your pets to-day."

"I suppose it must be so always in the country, but you can't be very
primitive here with a large town near by and a railroad."

"In reality we are only as far from the Asheville Court House as the
people on the upper boundary of the Bronx are from Castle Garden; but
in point of convenience, owing to the scarcity of trains and their poor
arrangement, we are almost as near to Washington."

"Still, the railroad has opened the country and given the farmers new
markets," asserted John.

"Undoubtedly; but that is not an unmixed good, in my opinion," said
Mrs. Carroll, stoutly. "They sell more cabbages and apples, but they
buy cheap fabrics and ready-made clothing in place of the stout
homespun that the women used to weave."

"You'd be surprised," said Patton, "to know how little the country
people use the railroad. There was an example of it day before
yesterda