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 the cleared land in the rear of the house, the tops of the pines and oaks were still red and golden green where the sun's rays glinted from them. Long yellowish rays of sunbeams reached far up into the sky, like some monster searchlights at play with the world. From far over the fields came the chattering of sparrows at their angelus service. Off in a copse of woods a mocking bird was rendering an evening concert with a robin accompaniment. Gradually from the farm houses that dotted the horizon at varying distances there arose straight into the sky from their single chimneys, climbing into the air, towering, ambitious pillars of smoke. From a farm house could be heard the bleat of a sheep answered by the hunger call of a calf or the deep bay of a bloodhound in the distance. Bennet was entranced.

"What a wonderful place!" he exclaimed enthusiastically.

"It is right smart country," answered Mrs. Gorton as she watched the expression of admiration grow. "If you stay here long, you'll never leave," she added.

"I don't wonder they sing of the 'sunny south, exclaimed Bennet. "It is a delightful country."

"Yes, we're famous for beauty. Pretty horses, pretty women."

"A land to be enchanted in! A land of beauty!" Bennet was still under the spell.

"It is enchanted—and a princess over there—(nodding in the general direction of the Lauriston's lands) is