Rose of Old Harpeth

mist-wreathed, sun-up aspect of Sweetbriar with a stretch of Providence Road winding away to the Nob and bending caressingly ar

is gray lavender muffler, which always formed a part of his early morning costume, flew

Rose Mary over a crock of milk she was expe

e out from under the woodpile with thirteen little pesters, Sniffer has got five pups-three spots and two solids

me just as soon as I get the skimming done. We'll want some corn meal and millet seed for the chirp-babies, but the others

dubiously appreciative smile at Rose Mary's hospitable enthusiasm. "Looks to me like a girl tending three old folks, one rampage of a boy, a

n her heart that might be an awful burden on her shoulders. Don't you know I don't allow you out before the sun is up good without your muffler tied up tight? There;

lves, Tobe says, with just Mrs. Butter for the mother and Sniffie beat her with three more puppies than two calves. It's sixteen chickens and a passel of turkeys and we waked up Mr. Mark to tell him and he said-" Stonie paused in the rapid fire of his announcement of the morning news and then added in judicial tone of voice, as if giving the aroused sleeper his modicum of fair play: "Well, he didn't quite say it before he swallowed, but he throwed a pillow at Tobe and pulled the sheet over his head and groaned awful. Aunt Viney was saying her prayers when I went to tell her, and Aunt Mandy was taking down her frizzles,

esh cream lifted from the milk into the stone jars to be clabbered for the to-morrow churning. And Rose Mary herself was a fresh, fragrant incarnation of the spirit of a spring sun-dawn that had come over the Ridge from Old Harpeth. Her merry voice floated out over the

and the mistress of her undying affections. The long-eared, plumy, young setter-mother stood licking the back of Rose Mary's neck as she sat on the barn floor with all five of the young tumblers in her lap, wit

k, not a one and everybody's of thems toes stick way apart

bunch and up went every little new-born nose as it sniffed at the recession of the maternal fount. One little precocious even went so far as to attempt to set his wee fore paddies against Rose Mary's knee and to stiffen a tiny plume of a tail, with a plain instinc

he spoke, he laughed down into Rose Mary's lifted blue eyes that were positively tender with pride

rts, that swung against the white petticoat ruffling around her slim ankles. With the utmost care she deposited the puppies in an overturned barrel, nicely lined with hay, that Stonie and Tobe had

Mrs. Butter stood switching her tail and chewing at a wisp of hay with an air of triumphant pride tinged with mild surprise as she turned occasionally to glance at the offsp

he surprise calf to her, Rose

calfs to purpose, boy and girl, one to keep and one to kill. She got mixed about wh

and it's no use to tell 'em," answered the General in a disgusted tone of voice, and with a stem glance at Uncle Tucker, as he and Tob

nd breakfast ensuing. On the instant two pairs of pink heels were shown to the company as Stonie and Tobe raced up the walk, which were quickly followed by Uncle T

his every morning for a month?" demanded Everett quizzically. "What

ckly applying his plagiarized compliment. "Let's hurry or I'll be late for prayers. Would you like-will you come in to-day, as you are already

wrong?" he finished in laughing confusion as the color came under the tan of his cheeks to match that in hers and the y

d the front steps and came across the front porch to the doorway of the

d lavender scarf had been laid aside to display a straight white collar and clerical black bow tie. His eyes were bent on the book before him as he sought for the text for the morning lesson. Aunt Viney sat close beside him as if anxious to be as near to the source of worship as possible, though the strain of refraining fr

oblivious to the unseemly contention. The General and Tobe, who came as near to living and having his being at the Briars as was possible in consideration of the fact that he was supposed to have his

he situation, which was fast becoming acute, when the two tardy members arrived on the scene of action. It took Rose Mary one second to grasp the situation, and, motioning Everett to a chair beside the rocker, she seated herself quickly in

most as close to Rose Mary's protective presence as either of the two combatants. With a welcoming smile the General slipped the little brown hand of fellowship into th

e open door to see the bit of divine dominion that spread before him with new eyes and a newer understanding. Harpeth Valley lay like the tender palm of a huge master hand with the knuckles of rough blue hills knotted around it, and dotted over the fostering me

droned Uncle Tucker. "The hollow of His hand," assented Ev

im. Quickly he turned toward Rose Mary with almost a startled glance and found in her eyes the fact that she had been faring forth over Harpeth Valley on the wings of Uncle Tucker's supplication as had he. The wonder of it rose in his eyes, whi

into Miss Ro' Mary's sleeve," avowed

ymn-book and Bible, so leaving the family altar in readiness for the beginning of a new day. And thus the primitive ceremonial, the dread of which had kept Everett late in bed every morning for a month, had res

osts in battle array and at all times she was enlisted in the ranks of the church

proach and cordiality vied in her voice. "I have been a-laying off to ask you what church you belonged to in New

before the waffles set. Sister Viney, your coffee is a-getting cold." Little Miss Amanda had seen and guessed at his plight and the coffee threat to Miss Lavinia had been one of the nimble manoeuvers that sh

d taken the wilderness trail across the mountains and settled here "in the hollow" of old Harpeth's hand. They were as interesting scientifically from a philosophical standpoint as were the geological formations which lay beneath their blue-grass and clover fields. They built altars to what seemed to him a primitive God, and yet their codes were in many cases not only ethically but economically and

e barn rose to his mind, strong and gracious and wonderful, with the young "fullness" pressing around her, teeming with-force. What force-and what source? Suddenly he dropped his pick behind a

use he found Rose Mary and her cooling draft-

walked a mile and a half with a picture of a woman handing him a glass of cool milk with a certain lift of

ker saying as he forced his attention. "She won't touch mine if there's any of Rose Mary's

edge he regarded the roses that suddenly blushed out in her cheeks, but she refused to raise her lashes th

poke a roguish smile coaxed at the comer of her mouth. "Don't you suppose a piece of hemp twine would turn into a gold cord

as, for, in due course of time, I sold all them hogs and bought the plush furniture in the front room, melojeon and all. Now Mr. Rucker, he give me a ring with a blue set and 'darling' printed inside it that cost fifty cents extra, and Jennie Rucker swallowed that ring before she was a year old. I guess she has got it growed up inside her, for all I know of it, and her Paw is a-setting o

t at the mention of his name a moment earlier, young Peter, the bond between the past and present, had sidled out the door and proceeded to sit calmly down on the ripp

loth close over it with a stone top. "To-night is the full April moon and I've got a surprise for you, if you don't fi

nded Everett with boyish enthusiasm, if not a wholly accurate use of mythol

everybody safely tucked in before I can leave. Aren't they all a precious houseful of early-to-bed chickens? The old Sweeties have forgotten there is such a thing as the moon and Stonie hasn't-found it out-yet." And with a mischievo

oss the barn-lot over to the broad, moss-covered Tilting Rock that jutte

xclaimed Rose Mary excitedly as

nder his breath, "it's enchant

walls and gables, shone a soft, old-brick pink in the glow of moonlight, and over and around it all gushed a very shower of shimmering white blossoms, surro

thlessly, as if dizzy from a t

ey would be out in the full moon. They are so delicate that the least little cold wind sets them back days or destroys them altogether. I wanted them so very much this year for y

t?" asked Ev

e of her ever-ready, gracious little gestures. "And it's lovely to have you here to look at it with me," she added. "So many times I have sat here alone with the miracle, and my heart has

fifty thousand in it to me. I thought it was moral courage, but I know now it was just on account of the locus

dge and nothing ever seemed to come or go for me. But that was only for a little while, and now I never get the time to breathe between the things that happen along Providence Road for me to attend to. I came back to Sweetbriar like a

ege hall-mark and suffragist leanings. I have made the mistake of putting you in the home-guard brigade

sure of, I was given my chance at college. In my senior year his tragedy came and I hurried back to find Uncle Tucker broken and old with the horror of it, and with the place practically sold to avoid open disgrace. His son died that year and left-left-some day I will tell you the rest of it. I might have gone back into the world and made a success of things and helped them in that way, from a distance-but what they needed was-was me. And so I sat here many sunset hours of loneliness and looked along Providence Road until-until I think the Maste

eel easy in y