Beginning at the gate into the garden, where the tall white palings were
gay with hollyhocks and heavy-headed sunflowers, a grapevine trellis
extended to the farmyard at the end of the lane, whence an overgrown
walk led across tangled meadows to the negro "quarters"--a long,
whitewashed row of almost deserted cabins. Since the close of the war
the "quarters" had fallen partly into disuse and had decayed rapidly,
though some few were still tenanted by the former slaves, who gathered
as of old in the doorways of an evening to strum upon broken-stringed
banjos and to wrap the hair of their small offspring. Beyond this row
there was a slight elevation called "Hickory Hill," where Uncle Ishmael
had lived for more than seventy years; and at the foot of the hill, on
the other side, near "Sweet Gum Spring," there were several neatly
patched log cabins occupied by the house servants, who held in social
contempt the field hands in the neighbouring "quarters." Overlooking the
"Sweet Gum Spring," on a loftier hill, was the family graveyard, which
was walled off from the orchard near by, where the twisted old fruit
trees had long since yielded the larger part of their abundance.

At the front of the Hall the view was vastly different. There the great
blue-grass lawn was thickly studded with ancient elms and maples, whose
shade fell like a blanket upon the velvety sod beneath. The gravelled
walk, beginning at the front steps, was bordered on either side by rows
of closely clipped box, which ended in the long avenue of cedars leading
from the lawn to the distant turnpike. To the right of the house there
were three pointed aspens, which shivered like skeletons in silver,
holding grimly aloof from the vivid pink of the crêpe myrtle at their
feet. Beyond them was the well-house, with a long moss-grown trough
where the horses and the cows came to drink, and across the road began
the cornlands, which stretched in rhythmic undulations to the dark belt
of the pine forest. On the left of the box walk, in a direct line from