corn, oftener grown wild in broomsedge or life-everlasting, shimmered
under the heat, which was alive with the whirring of innumerable
insects. Here and there a negro cabin, built close to the road, stood
bare in a piece of burned-out clearing, or showed behind the thick
fanlike leaves of gourd vines, with the heads of sunflowers nodding
heavily beside the open doorways. Occasionally, in the first few miles,
a covered wagon crawled by us on its way to town, the driver leaning far
over the dusty horses, and singing out "Howdy!" in a friendly voice,--to
which the General invariably responded "Howdy," in the same tone, as he
touched the wide brim of his straw hat with his ebony stick.

"Hasn't got on the scent, has he?" he enquired presently of Sally, with
a sly wink in my direction. "Are you sure George hasn't let it out?
Never could keep a secret, could George. He's one of those close-mouthed
fellows that shuts a thing up so tight it explodes before he's aware of
it. He can't hide anything from me. I read him just as if he were a
book. It's as well, I reckon, as I told him the other day, that he isn't
still in love with your wife, Ben, or it would be written all over him
as plain as big print."

My eyes caught Sally's, and she blushed a clear, warm pink to the heavy
waves of her hair.

"Not that he'd ever be such a rascal as to keep up a fancy for a married
woman," pursued the great man, unseeing and unthinking. "The
Bolingbrokes may have been wild, but they've always been men of honour,
and even if they've played fast and loose now and then with a woman,
they have never tried to pilfer anything that belonged to another man."

"I think we're coming to it," said Sally suddenly, trying to turn the
conversation to lighter matters.

"Ah, so we are, so we are. That's a good view of the river, and there's
the railroad station at the foot of the hill not a half mile away. It's
the very thing you need, Ben, it will be the making of you and of the
youngster, as I said to Sally when the idea first entered my mind."

The barouche made a quick turn into a straight lane bordered by old
locust trees, and stopped a few minutes later before a square red brick
country house, with four white columns supporting the portico, and a
bower of ancient ivy growing over the roof.

"Here we are at last! Oh, Ben, don't you like it?" said Sally, springing
to the ground before the horses had stopped.

"Like it? Of course he likes it," return