The Heart's Kingdom

crushed by my plainly intended gau

ats occupied. We'll sing a bit and plan the dedication; not have a formal service. So then, Billy, you can have your fox-trotting and a good time to all of you, bless you, my children." As he spoke he smiled at the entire group with the most delightful interest and pleasure. He was dressed in a straight black coat with a plain silk vest cut around a white collar that buttoned in the ba

u don't object," Letitia said with her usual directness and lack of

I have a cup of that tea he has been trying to make you serve for the last five minutes?" With these words the Reverend Mr. Goodloe turned me around and sent me to the tea tray that Dabney and Sallie had put on a table under the rose vine; but not before he had taken up my hand, put the star flower in it a

upon," and Billy grumbled all the while the Morgans were flocking up the front walk. When they came to the steps the Jaguar descended and held out his clerically befrocked arms so that the gurgler from Mark's shoulder and the giggler from Nell's arms both fell into his embrace at one time. "You young marplots, you!" he said as the g

n have all gone to a wedding, so we have fed 'em and are now starting out for a razoo, and we don't care whether it lasts until midnight or not. Young Charlotte, you hug one side of your Aunt Charlotte and let Jimmy get his innings on the o

for everything. Things don't go right without you. I had a terrible time with-that is, you haven't seen baby yet. Give

hed his shoulders in Nell's direction. "Don't you know enough to let well enough alone? If t

there we are going to be as bad as anybody out there is," announced small Charlotte with determined c

e put his arm around Charlotte and drew h

o prayer meeting. Some of the Settlement women bring their babies and I know mine will be as good. Char

the Reverend Mr. Goodloe looked straight into my eyes and laughed, perfect compreh

re coming by here for me to go out to the Club to dance a few hours," was my answer to the shot as I ca

ld never in the world-" Nel

marplots. "A pair of perfectly good chaperons are hard to get, and to thi

bed in the parsonage until the fun is over, and agree to deliver the

those muffins, even if you haven't had any of Mammy's for six months, and, since the chicken fry is off, go home to get suppers and ready for psa

d mind laid bare and I knew that he knew that I was ready to fight him to the last ditch in the battle for possession of the souls of my friends. I would fight for their independence of thought and sincerity of life, and he would fight to lead them off into a far country in quest of what I considered a tradition, a shibboleth, "a potent agent for intoxication" of the rea

to my window and again beat against my heart. The parson was singing with the rest of them, but his voice seemed to lift theirs and bear them aloft on the strong, wide wings that went soaring away into the night, even up t

and here's where I run, both physically and mentally," I said to myself as I ran

my pleasure was partly due to the wild spirits of the religiou

illy, as he held me closer and slid two steps to the right and then back to get me o

day?" I asked him, but my demand made no appa

e white pillars. After they had seen me safely started, they glided away and I stood on the steps and watched Nell and Mark reclaim their family from a tall dark figure that carried out

ssippi. Behind the Poplars roll the fields and meadows of the Home Farm, which has given food and sustenance to the Poplars' brood since the days of the redskins, when it was cleared by the first Powers and his servants, with muskets ready to fire into the surrounding forests. To the left of the Poplars and beyond the chapel lies the Settlement, in which those lacking in worldly goods have lived for generations in a kind of semi-poverty, which is about the only poverty known in the Harpeth Valley. Lately, the Settlement has taken unto itself a measure of prosperity, beca

through Nickols' sunken garden to the two oldest of all the poplars that now seemed to be standing sentinel to prevent any raid from me on the little stone meeting house over the lilac hedge. "You dear ol

glad that I was leaning against the strength o

owards the gate and beside her walked the parson with his arm supporting hers. She was sobbing the hard, dry sobs that any woman knows are those of despair, and which

and sin no more, even though those sins be as scarlet." And as he spoke his voice was that

ake the child and I'll die for all anybody in Goodloets ever knows. Lend me the money; I'll send it back!" The girl's voice was hard and defiant and she turned and faced the minister as if at bay. "G

ut I will have to have a few days to provide a place of safety for you in

child and damn me again. I won't wait. I'm weak and I dasn't. Give

You must go back home now, and it will be best not to tell anyone where you are going until you no longer fea

gh to be good. I'll work and I'll pray, but hide me until I do get strong." And the hard, dry

f Him," were the words that she carried away with her

ny. Gregory Goodloe was not more than six feet away from me on the other side of the budding, fragrant hedge, and in the moonlight I could see the beautiful strength of his golden head and stron

face to the star

ne with whom he walked in the cool of the mid

fear was gone, and comforted I went back through my budding garden and arrived at the front door just

I risked it and run up here with it after I heard them ottermobiles go by. I'm courting Mrs. Jennie Hick

not understand. I have never in my life been the least bit afraid of anything, except something within my own body, from the hideous pain of my green-apple days to the pain I had felt as I talked beside the piano with Nickols in New York, a thousand miles away;

n fell away from his throat and showed the knotting of the great cords that ran down into his shoulders, and his dark eyes glittered under their heavy, black brows, while his mouth was twisted and white. Then, as I looked, something happ

n was a hoe, while under his arm he carried a roll that looke

wilted by the frost just as they are ready to burst bud? Our honor is involved with Graveson, who brought the seeds all the way from Guernsey through the trenches of France and trusted them to me for propagation. Why, they represent a man's

rousers, and that his bare heels and ankles declared themselves above and at the back of his slippers, when my eyes were drawn to my father's face and rested there. My heart stood still while I watched it change. All the pain and appetit

r's apparel beside a trunk in the back hall which Dabney had not carried up on account of its weight and which he was requiring his wife to unpack piece

ce out into the garden. Nothing was spared me, for from the window I could see him and the marauding Jagua

way as swiftly as they had come through the garden, leaving father standing under the rose vine

gerator, though the bottle's place was in the sideboard, and closed the door carefully. Then he paused again and said under his breath, "You, Jud

down in my depths and I also tiptoed up t

es of hallowed tradition, and was called by Mammy, in deep suspicion, "ha'nt light") I discovered clutche

he world and the flesh and think the third memb

pped between the scented sheets and drew a corner of the ro