"Well, that is about what they are asking of you, Mr. Craddock," said
Matthew, his cheeks red with the glow of the blood Uncle Cradd had called
up in his enthusiastic heart. "The new State secretary of agriculture has
asked our firm to undertake negotiations for the purchase of Elmnest, for a
recruiting station for the experts who are to take over the organizing of
the farming interests in the Harpeth Valley, which is the central section
of the State of Harpeth. They offer three hundred dollars an acre for the
whole tract of two hundred acres, despite the fact that some of it is worn
almost to its subsoil. They consider that as valuable, because they wish to
give demonstrations and try experiments in land restoration, though very
little of that is needed here in the valley. It's a pretty big thing, Mr.
Craddock and Father William, sixty thousand dollars will provide all the--"

"Did I understand that this proposition is put to us in the form of a
demand of our Government upon our patriotism?" asked Uncle Cradd in a
booming voice, while father only looked uncertain and ready to say, "With
you, Cradd." I sat speechless for a moment, with a queer pain in my heart
that I did not for the first second understand.

"Well, not exactly that, Mr. Craddock, but something like it in a--"
Matthew was beginning to say in a judicial way.

"That is enough, Matthew Berry, son of the friend of my youth. If the
United States needs Elmnest for national defenses, I am willing to give it
up--indeed insist on presenting it to the Government except for a small
part of the sum mentioned, which is needed for the simple and declining
lives of my brother William, Rufus, and me, and my niece Nancy. Will you so
convey our answer, William?"

"With you, Cradd," came the devoted formula with which father slipped back