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The Mettle of the Pasture, by James Lane Allen
The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Mettle of the Pasture, by James Lane Allen
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Title: The Mettle of the Pasture
Author: James Lane Allen
Release Date: June 1, 2004 [eBook #12482]
Language: English
Character set encoding: US-ASCII
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE METTLE OF THE PASTURE***
E-text prepared by Al Haines
THE METTLE OF THE PASTURE
BY
JAMES LANE ALLEN
Author of "The Choir Invisible," "A Kentucky Cardinal," etc., etc.
New York, 1903
To My Sister
PART FIRST
I
She did not wish any supper and she sank forgetfully back into the stately oak chair. One of her hands lay palm upward on her white lap; in the other, which drooped over the arm of the chair, she clasped a young rose dark red amid its leaves--an inverted torch of love.
Old-fashioned glass doors behind her reached from a high ceiling to the floor; they had been thrown open and the curtains looped apart. Stone steps outside led downward to the turf in the rear of the house. This turf covered a lawn unroughened by plant or weed; but over it at majestic intervals grew clumps of gray pines and dim-blue, ever wintry firs. Beyond lawn and evergreens a flower garden bloomed; and beyond the high fence enclosing this, tree-tops and house-tops of the town could be seen; and beyond these--away in th