always called mine since I come into a man's estate. And there is none
of it that has ever had a deed writ aginst it since that first Alloway
got it in a grant from Virginy. There is meadow land and corn
hillside, creeks for stock and woodlands for shelter, and the Alloways
before me have fenced it solid and tended it honest, with return
enrichment for every crop. And now it has come to me in my old age to
let it go into the hands of strangers--sold by my own flesh and blood
for a mess of pottage, he not knowing what he did I will believe, God
help me. I'm resting him and the judgment of him in the arms of Mercy,
but my living folks have got to have an earthly shelter. Can you see a
way, child? As I say, my eyes are a-getting dim."

"I can't see any other shelter than the Briars, Uncle Tucker, and
there isn't going to be any other," answered Rose Mary as she stroked
the old hat in her hand. "You know sometimes men run right against a
stone wall when a woman can see a door plainly in front of them both.
She just looks for the door and don't ask to know who is going to open
it from the other side. Our door is there I know--I have been looking
for it for a long time. Right now it looks like a cow gate to me," and
a little reluctant smile came over Rose Mary's grave face as if she
were being forced to give up a cherished secret before she were ready
for the revelation.

"And if the gate sticks, Rose Mary, I believe you'll climb the fence
and pull us all over, whether or no," answered Uncle Tucker with a
slightly comforted expression coming into his eyes. "You're one of the
women who knot a bridle out of a horse's own tail to drive him with.
Have you got this scheme already geared up tight, ready to start?"

"It's only that Mr. Crabtree brought word from town that the big