Over Paradise Ridge

f Grandmother Nelson that was planted deep in my disposition, ready to spring up and bear fruit as soon as I was brought in direct acquaintance with a seed-basket and a garden hoe? Also why sh

in us is n

on you more thoroughly before you-you saw me in the act. I'm sorry, dear," Sam comforted

he top of an old, moss-covered stone wall he had begged me to climb to for a view of Harpeth Valley w

ered, quietly, as he steadied his shoulder against an old oak-tree th

undue eagerness, while an early blue jay flitted across from tree-top to tree-top in so happy a spirit that I sympathized with

housands of hungry men, women, and children when they come down to us over Paradise Ridge from the crowded old world; but men have to make her give it up and be ready for them. At first I wasn't sure I could, but now I'm going to put enough heart and brain and muscle into my couple of hundred acres to dig out my share of food, and that of the othe

nd scratched up and muddy, and-and-" I was saying as he lifted me back into the road ag

ionate excitement as he peered into the bushes on the side of the road. "There's my lost heifer calf! You run your car on up to my house beyond the bend there and I'll drive her back

counted on a rail fence on one side, a rock wall just fifty feet across from it, and two stumps besides. It was almost like a maxixe, but I fina

d off the steering-gear for fear I would run into a slow, old farm horse, with a bronzed overalled driver and wagon piled high with all sorts of uninteresting crates and bales and unspeakable pigs and chi

ctly wonderful to look at with his team ribbon in the buttonhole of his dress-coat, and I was very proud of him. We were all having dinner at the Ritz with two of Sam's classma

re you are forty. I'm glad the governor will have you, for I'll never make it. Oh, you Samboy!" said Peter

t raised their

Sam

admiration. And I beamed with the rest, perhaps even more proudly. Still, that twinkle in Sam's hazel eyes ought to ha

s and set it down still full, then grinned at me as he said, so low that the oth

go to Europe with Mabel and Peter Vandyne and Miss Greenough. The inclination to do two things at once is a sword that slices you in two, as the man in the Bible wanted to do to the baby to make enough of him for the two mothers; and that is the way I felt about Peter and Sam as I whirled along the road. I am afraid Sam is going to be the hardest to manage. He is harder than Peter by nature. If Sam had just taken to drink instead of farming I would have known better what to do. I reformed Peter in one night in Naples when he took too much of that queer Italian wine merely because it was his birthday. I used tears, and he said it should never happen again. I don't believe it has, or he wouldn't have got an act and a half of his "Epic of American Life" finished as he told me he had done when I dined with him in New York th

n Civil War. And as I listened to those splendid men talk about military matters, just as Judge Crittenden had talked to Sam and me about his father, the general, ever since we were big enough to sit up and hear about it, and discuss what American brains and character could be depended upon to do, I glowed with pride and confi

he office at all any more; he spends his waking moments at a club where players and play-writers and

t that he has? I must go forward and he must realize that he should urge me on up. I ought not to be tied down to unimportant material things. I must not be. You of all people understand me and my ambi

w to do about that international war loan. In England and Scotland they speak of him

gs over which your soul and mine seem to draw near to each other. Betty, the second act of 'The Emergence' is almost finished, and Farrington is going to read it himself when I

nstance. But then I ought not to compare Peter and Sam. Peter is of so much finer clay than Sam. Just thinking about clay made me remember those unspeakable boots of Sam's I had encountered out on the road, and again I determinedly turned my thoughts back to that wonderful afternoon with Peter at the Astor a few short days ago. Miss Greenough kept telling Mabel and me all over Europe to look at everything as material to build nests of pleasan

e rest of the tea paraphernalia to make way for that of dinner he had made me see that I was positively necessary to his career, especially as bo

it is-is for you, dearest dear Betty," was the last thing that Peter

eter anything, but he never noticed that when he thou

oad with perfectly good faith in me when she saw me coming. And as I rounded her off well to the left again my thoughts skidded back to Sam and

niffed, as I ran the car into the side yard

dn't. As I turned Redwheels over to old Eph, who adores it because it is the only one he ever had his hands on, I felt a queer sinking somewhere in the heart of that same young self. I always had helped Sam-and suppose that unspeakable animal had got lost to him for ev

freshman year at college. As I looked across the lilac hedge, which was just beginning to show a green sap tint along its gray branches, I seemed to see my poor little blue-ginghamed, pigtailed self crouched at Judge Crittenden's feet on the front steps, sobbing my lonely heart away while he smoked his sorrow down with a long brier pipe, and the Byrd chirped his little three-year-old protest in concert with us both. Most eighteen-year-old men would have resented having a motherless little bro

asked, in a stern voice, as I walked in and interrupted mot

through every soul-storm I have ever had, and she is the most dear and irresponsible parent an executive girl would wish to have leave her affairs alone. As for daddy, he has always smiled and beckoned me away from her into a corner and given me what I was making a stand for. My father loves me with such confidence that he pays no attention to me whatever except when he thinks it is about time for him to write my name on a check. His phosphate deals have made him rich

addy reared his head from his evening paper and immediately took notice

sell his ancestral home even to the third and fourth

s mouth under his fierce white mustache. "The judge's debts made a mortgage that nicely blanketed the place, and Sam had only

ut and take his place in the world," I s

r-patch has never had a deed against it since the grant from Virginia to old Samuel Foster Crittenden of 1793 he thinks it i

earlier! But could they be really hungry-hungry, daddy?" I said, with a sudden va

a remarkably fine Jersey calf. We'll go out in that new flying-machine you brought home with you and pull them out of their burrow some

I had been crying over Sam Crittenden, and then I had to eat a supper of fried chicken and waffles that would have been delicious if it hadn't been flavored by restrained sobs in my throat. I was so mad at my disloyal thoughts about a beautiful character, which Sam's reverence for his ancestral land p

Sam's cows had been sick and that

gate where up to my seventh year I had always kept house with and for Sam whenever he would enter into the bonds of an imaginary marriage with me for an hour or two.

which was so thin that I shivered in the cool April moonlight as I leaned against the gate and looked away out at the

e right at my elbow as a big, rough hand ruffled my beautifully smoothed hair and then gave a frien

stop ruffing my hair, Sam Crittenden; and did you find that

ly by a neighbor's buggy, to find and-er-rope you in. I am glad to see you are standing quietly at the bars waiting for me, and as soon as I've greeted your mother and Dad Hayes a

arms around his neck to tell him how noble I had found out he was, and how glad I was that he ha

nd leaned closer to me in a thoughtful manner. "Cows are such feminine things and s

ly, though I did take his big rough hand in my own and

a day to drive over and back, besides costing me about ten dollars. Still, I ought to get him. Buttercup is pretty sick," answered Sam, and I c

This moon will last all night; and you go get the apple-float from mother while I make Eph run out the car and jump into my corduroys.

oss expedition as that. They'll have to wait. I came in to call on y

deposited him beside mother, who was still sipping a last cup of co

was like a lovely silver ribbon that we wound up on a spool under the machine, and a Southern spring breeze seemed to be helping the gasoline to waft us on more rapidly in our

ew yards on two wheels, then tried the opposite two before it settled back to the prosa

and hot, in front of the dry-goods, feed, and drug store. There I knew we could find out anything we wanted to know about the whereabouts or profession of any of

ay between us and the store door. Then in less than two minutes he appeared wi

at the idea of the long ride in it, which would be the f

ot to run away with us? Old folks is tetchy, like a basket of pullet eg

he sank into his seat. "If you run as you did coming,

of social conventions that tied up our mothers. As we neared the cross-road that turned off to Sam's brier-patch I began to wonder how long it would take me to rush back into Hayesboro, bundle mother into Redwheels, and get back to the cows. It was just a quarter after nine o'clock, but I knew she would be sleepy and would have to be forced to come with me very gently and

stone wall?" And as he spoke he peered out toward

opposite the object

d bundle as he lifted it off the wall. It was attired in scanty night-drawers and

m going to somewhere that a lady lives at, too." And the manful

morning. You never did before; but when I go-go gallivanting, hav

r my lap-blanket beyond the steering-gear. "You didn't forget Betty while she was away, did you?" I asked, as we snuggled to each other

had adored him since his birth; "but I like to go see M

ickly adopting this recovered old friend in the double capacity of an excuse and a chaperon. "Just sit he

ittle over a mile now, and the doctor and Byrd and I c

us, get in quick," I answered, in a tone of voice I have used on Sam once or

ed to me or Redwheels. But there was evident relish of real pace in his voice, so

ones with utter disregard of the heavy new tires. One of the lessons I learned early is that men are timid of a woman's driving them in any vehicle, and I was surprised

rom the depths of the shed as we all

to me. "It's good to have you back, Betty," he whispered, in an undertone, as he turned

d him determinedly, because I felt that it was

ow's throat, with a vile, greasy mixture out of a black bottle, at the directions of a shirt-sleeved little man and a red-headed farmer in blue overalls, while a wisp of a boy writhed in and out and around and under a pathetic old Jersey cow, who was being rescued from the jaws of death. Now I wonder just what I would have done to escape such an experience? Slated myself for Belgian widowhood, perhaps, as a kinder fate, or stayed right there in New York to help Peter on "The Emergence." I wonder if Peter ever saw a dear, big-eyed, trustful old Jersey cow have medicine poured down her throat. It is called "drenching." I wish he could see it before he finishes t

er young cows we had been working over all night, with as fine an exaltation of achievement as any

d on old Buttercup's back and

reath, as he stood up straight and tall with the early light streaming over his gr

closely that she looked around from her meal from the Byrd's hand and mooed with grateful affection

t ungrateful if it hadn't sounded so comfortable and warm out in the cold of the dawn-which had come before I realized that midnight ha

of the hill. It was long and low, with a wide red roof that seemed to hover in the whitewashed walls and green shutters; while white smoke from an old gray-rock, mud-daubed chimney melted away among the tree-tops into the lavender of the coming day. It looked like a great brooding white hen setting in a nest of radiant woods, and I felt like a little cold chicken as Sam led the way through the low, wide door for me to creep under the sheltering wings. In about two seconds we were all sheltered in complete comfort. A

, but never another word did she utter. I almost never remember hearing Mammy say an articulate word; but all children

ash with the best," said Sam, coming over to warm his hands and tower above us, while Byr

fire-glow and the early morning light with his low-beamed

ped, as I moved still closer to Mammy a

d any man want or get, no matter how he worked?" answered Sam, as he looked down at me with the smo

stir more vigorously while she shook up her coffee-pot and raked a few last coals over the cakes for their complete

hock children and the w

tice," interrupted Dr. Chubb. He and the Byrd had

lf from Sam's plate as I brought the food back and forth. He didn't want me to wait on them, and I suppose t

nspeakably dirty, and you had only saved me about two good

n your stomach was so near it," he answered as he finished the bottom half of a pon

nd the old white rooster has to be put in a coop 'cause he gobbles the hen feed; but 'cause you are company he lets you do it," the

ong to nibble feed, and life, too," remarked the doctor of distressed animals as we all

k under the low side. It had a shelf or two with a curtain of dark chintz under which farm clothes hung, a gun in the corner, a jolly little wood stove, and close beside Sam's bed was the young Byrd's cot with its little pillow my mother had made for him before he was ushered into the world on the day his mother left it. I could almost see the big rough hand go out to comfort the little fledgling in the dark. I choked still further, and turned hurriedly out on to the low, wide ol

eralls of the exact shade and cut of Sam's, standing by R

the common sense of God Almighty made up by men, 'ste'd er animals made up by His-self. But I must git on, mi

arm if I hadn't wanted so much to find out all about cows from Dr. Chubb. I drove slowly and extracted the whole story from his enthusiastic old mind. What I don't know about the bovine family now is not worth knowing, and I believe I would enjoy undertaking to

er time and gone to bed; but when she heard that I had been with Sam's sick cows all night she was perfectly satisfied, even pleased. Mother rarely remembers

had finished my eulogy of Dr. Chubb and beautiful old Mrs. Buttercup. Then he kissed mother and me an

gether again I found that I made something that looked like an illustration to a farm article rather than the frontispiece to an American epic. Still, if for a friend I could grasp a farm problem with that executive enthusiasm, had I any reason to doubt that I would have any trouble in helping along an epic of American life? I decided that I would not, and settled down to find out about the eleven-foot Be

things. He's just really the dean of the American stage. Could anybody blame Peter if he had used ten pounds of paper, if paper comes by the pound, and a quart of ink telling about it? But he didn't; about five of the seven pages were all about me and Farrington. I never was so astonished. The morning I got home I had written Peter about how all my friends had been glad to see me, and the way the d

our heart spells f

], I am sending yo

II, and I know you w

lly what you think

lendid human view

ather hard on me of

ice yet. Death! He

ss will be my salvatio

summer, and then-t

he gems of success

to you soon about i

t but you, my own

TE

ow. If it had been a simple burden, like three sick cows, it would have been easier to take upon my shoulders. Then suddenly, as I was about to be in a panic about it all, the thought of the cows reminded me of Sam, and immediately, in my mind, I shared the weight of the manuscript with him and began to breathe easier. The way Sam and Peter love each other inspires positive awe in my heart, though Mabel says it is provoking when they go off to their fraternity fishing-camp for week-ends instead of coming to her delightful over-Sunday parties out on Long Island. Judge Vandyne feels as I do about it, and he loves S

lyde Tolbot, who came whistling down the street and broke

is good to see you

d is about all that is different in any of the things men say to girls when they li

foxtrot up in Louisville last week I'm dying to teach you, and now that Sue Bankhead has got

over at Hillsboro. "But, Tolly, I must give up all thought of social pleasures for a time." I spoke with a dignified reserve that fitted

he afternoon the ladies stopped in from the United Charities sewing circle, expecting a Cuban missionary thriller. I might as well have my left foot amputated, it itches so for good dancing." Tolly was so furious that I was po

o write that play for your mollycoddle poet? You can get through with it before the Country Club gets going good, can'

I know in two and a half months," I answered,

his cows and take the position your dad is offering him at the Phosphate Works, so he would be able to shake a foot occasion

e long to have Samuel Foster Crittenden come forth and take his place in the world beside his friends. Sam, I felt sure, was made to shine, not to have his light hid under a farm basket. Why, even Tolly, there beside m

olly," I added, warmly, putting my thoughts of Sa

ld boys to get up to New York to see your play, Betty, and send you a wagon-load of

find out about life. You see, Tolly, Peter's father has so many millions of dollars that it has been almost impossible for Peter to climb over them i

oo coarse-grained for association with her." And before I could stop him he was gone through the house and out the back way. That is the way it always is with Tolly and Edith, either they a

im when I have other people to help me," said Edith, as she kissed

and ruthlessly sat upon him, for the step was getting cold, though the sun was delicious and had drawn

id kiss my hair-I think." Edith is the pale-nun type, and I wish she could have seen how lovely she was with the blush that even the failure of Tolly to kiss her brought up under her deep-blue eyes. Edith didn't get any farther north to school than Louisville, and her maiden aunt, Miss Edi

nd why I couldn't dance and picnic like other people because of this great work I had to do for a dear friend. I told her not to tell anybody but Sue, and she went home completel

en he turns into a black mummy. I think it is because I used to want to talk to him at the table when I still sat in a high chair. I don't

on her farm out in Harpeth Valley. You know she ran the whole thousand acres herself after father's death in her twenty-seventh year, and she was a wonderful woman, though she did have three girls and only one son. The

ook three little brown biscuits, to Eph's affection

t own any land, and it might take a little time to force daddy to buy me some, and the planting season and fever were upon me. There is a wide plateau to the south of Sam's living-room, and I had in my mind cleared it of bushes, enriched it with all the wonderful things grandmother had directed, beginning with beautiful dead leaves, and I was planting out the row of great blush peonies in my mi

laza, could be half the fun that going to the Hayesboro post-office for the afternoon mail is. I think the distinct flavor is imparted by

Tolly thought they had told, and that he was soon coming down to visit me, and, of course, that meant to visit all of Hayesboro. Miss Henrietta Spain, who teaches literature from spelling to the Engli

f the footlights, Hayes," said the mayor, slapping daddy on the

c drama of Civil War, Elizabeth," said old Colonel Menefee. "Let your young friend come, and I

ifty miles and back in twenty-four hours to get Morgan to send wagons for her barnful of corn to feed his soldiers,

xpress from going down in the cut during the storm last year," Edith hastened to say when Mrs. Folk's breath had

back, it is like a seething torrent and can go on for ever. I glowed to think of all the wonderful thin

on the war drama. Just then I raised my eyes and that wonderful notebook had pushed a corner of itself out of the desk from under the manuscript. I couldn't use my mind advising between a modern epic and a war drama while it was plowed up ready for peonies, so I decided to wait and ask

ang, and was only interested in reminiscen

terrupted mother to say, indulging in perhaps his first speech while waiting on the table during the long and honorable life as a butler which that grandmo

day, and I am afraid it won't do for me to go after him with Redwheels every time I want him. I can go about two-thirds of the time, but he must be allowed some liberty about expressing his desire for my company. Of course a tactful w

ight before I got Sam seated by me on the deep old mahogany sofa in front of one nice April blaze in behind the brass fender, and under another from Tolly's power-house. He was pretty tired, as he had been up since daylight, but the cows were all right and on feed again, Mammy wasn't any sti

from town and stole them for you," he said, as he squirmed aro

just what I want to talk to you about." With which I produced my ancestral treasure, and with our h

clung against his shoulder while his strong, rough hand folded over mine as the

g hands in greeting, despite my reproof. "I'll plow up that southern plot for you just after daylight to-morrow, and every minu

and rake and things. I think I'll take those two young white lilacs that are crowded over by the fence in the fron

rst thing, Betty," answered Sam, with the gridiron smolder in his eyes which snapped

he eat things, too. I may like them best. Let's see what grandmother says about onions."

we had finished with onions and many other profitable vegetables. "Why, that description of

e, with all those five miles to walk and plowing to do at daylight." "Play? What play? Won't it keep?" asked Sam, as

am. If I hadn't been so distressed by the collision of the play and the garden in my heart I never would have been so dishonorable as to let Sam read the last paragraph in Peter's letter, which was more affectionate than I felt was really right for Peter to write me, even aft

me back the letter. "It is a great chance for him, and if you can help you'll hav

se and clung to his sleeve as I had done in all serious moments of my life, even when his coat-

ou see, dear, I am in a hard hand-to-hand struggle with my land, which is all I possess, for-for bread for myself and the kiddie, and I-I can't have a woman's flower-garden. It looks as if you and old Petie c

sped, as I flew after him a

me and turned his bronze head away from me out toward hi

d when I had clung to him and kicked and fought to go to places with him when he didn't want me, and wh

ream gardens out in the world you can play in when you have time away from the bright lights. Everybody grows 'em without a lick of work. I have to work mine or starve. Good night!" T

t the tall old post that had been one of Sam's perches when he wanted to climb away fr

me while I went about in a picture-hat snipping them with garden scissors. I had asked him to let me set onions and weed beans and drop peas and corn for him and share his poverty and hard work as a true friend, and he had shut his cedar-pole gate in my face and heart. And I didn't understand why. I tr

th help," "give me dirt to work in somewhere except in just a yard if I can't have Sam's. Help me to get somebody to help me to raise th

ittle glimpse which my window framed of Old Harpeth, the tallest hill in