Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from scans of public domain material produced by Microsoft for their Live Search Books site.)
_Author of "Uncle Remus," "The Making of a Statesman," etc._
CHAPTER THREE _The Return of Two Warriors_
CHAPTER FIVE _The Story of Margaret Gaither_
CHAPTER SEVEN _Silas Tomlin Goes A-Calling_
CHAPTER EIGHT _The Political Machine Begins Its Work_
CHAPTER THIRTEEN _The Union League Organises_
CHAPTER FOURTEEN _Nan and Her Young Lady Friends_
CHAPTER FIFTEEN _Silas Tomlin Scents Trouble_
CHAPTER SIXTEEN _Silas Tomlin Finds Trouble_
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN _Rhody Has Something to Say_
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN _The Knights of the White Camellia_
CHAPTER NINETEEN _Major Tomlin Perdue Arrives_
CHAPTER TWENTY _Gabriel at the Big Poplar_
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE _Bridalbin Follows Gabriel_
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO _The Fate of Mr. Hotchkiss_
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE _Mr. Sanders Searches for Evidence_
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR _Captain Falconer Makes Suggestions_
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE _Mr. Sanders's Riddle_
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX _Cephas Has His Troubles_
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN _Mr. Sanders Visits Some of His Old Friends_
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE _Bridalbin Finds His Daughter_
CHAPTER THIRTY _Miss Polly Has Some News_
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE _Mr. Sanders Receives a Message_
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO _Malvern Has a Holiday_
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE _Gabriel as an Orator_
"Cephas! here is a letter for you, and it is from Shady Dale! I know you will be happy now."
For several years Sophia had listened calmly to my glowing descriptions of Shady Dale and the people there. She was patient, but I could see by the way she sometimes raised her eyebrows that she was a trifle suspicious of my judgment, and that she thought my opinions were unduly coloured by my feelings. Once she went so far as to suggest that I was all the time looking at the home people through the eyes of boyhood--eyes that do not always see accurately. She had said, moreover, that if I were to return to Shady Dale, I would find that the friends of my boyhood were in no way different from the people I meet every day. This was absurd, of course--or, rather, it would have been absurd for any one else to make the suggestion; for at that particular time, Sophia was a trifle jealous of Shady Dale and its people. Nevertheless, she was really patient. You know how exasperating a man can be when he has a hobby. Well, my hobby was Shady Dale, and I was not ashamed of it. The man or woman who cannot display as much of the homing instinct as a cat or a pigeon is a creature to be pitied or despised. Sophia herself was a tramp, as she often said. She was born in a little suburban town in New York State, but never lived there long enough to know what home was. She went to Albany, then to Canada, and finally to Georgia; so that the only real home she ever knew is the one she made herself--out of the raw material, as one might say.