his fig-tree that sermons have
been preached and marriages solemnised under its wide-spreading
branches; and there is a vague tradition to the effect that a duel was
once fought in its shadow by some of the hot-bloods. But no harm will
come of respectfully but firmly doubting this tradition; for it is a
fact, common to both memory and observation, that duels, even in the
old days, when each and every one of us was the pink of chivalry and
the soul of honour, were much rarer than the talk of them.
Nevertheless, the confession may be made that without such a tradition
a fig-tree surrounded by so many evidences of neglect and decay would
be a tame affair indeed.

The house, with its double veranda, its tall chimneys, and its curious
collection of gables, was built as late as 1836 by young Felix
Kendrick, in order, as Grandsir Kendrick declared, to show that "some
folks was as good as other folks." Whether Felix succeeded in this or
not, it is impossible to gather from either local history or tradition;
but there is no doubt that the house attracted attention, for its
architectural liveliness has never to this day been duplicated in that
region. In those days the Kendrick family was a new one, so to speak,
but ambitious. Grandsir Kendrick--a fatal title in itself--was a hatter
by trade, who had come to Georgia in search of a precarious livelihood.
He obtained permission to build him a little log hut by the side of a
running stream; and, for a year or two, people going along the road
could hear the snap and twang of his bowstring as he whipped wool or
rabbit fur into shape. Some said he was from North Carolina; others
said he was from Connecticut; but whether from one State or the other,
what should a hatter do away off in the woods in Putnam County?
Grandsir Kendrick, who was shrewd, close-fisted, and industrious, did
what any sensible man would have done: he became an overseer. In this
business, which required no capital, he developed considerable
executive ability. The plantations he had charge of paid large profits
to their owners, and he found his good management in demand. He
commanded a large salary, and saved money. This money he invested in
negroes, buying one at a time and hiring them out. He finally came to
be the owner of seven or eight stout field hands; whereupon he bought
two hundred acres of choice land, and set himself up as a patriarch.

Grandsir Kendrick kept to his sober ways, continued his good
managem