abrupt, energetic exclamation and a sharp glance:--

"If hemp keeps up to what it is now, I am going to put in more."

"Where?" asked the son, quietly. "I don't see that we have any
ground to spare."

"I'll take the woods."

"FATHER!" cried David, wheeling on him.

"I'll take the woods!" repeated his father, with a flash of anger,
of bitterness. "And if I'm not able to hire the hands to clear it,
then I'll rent it. Bailey wants it. He offered twenty-five dollars
an acre. Or I'll sell it," he continued with more anger, more
bitterness. "He'd rather buy it than rent."

"How could we do without the woods?" inquired the son, looking like
one dazed,--"without the timber and the grazing?"

"What will we do without the woods?" cried his father, catching up
the words excitedly. "What will we do without the FARM?"

"What do you mean by all this, father? What is back of it?" cried
David, suddenly aroused by vague fears.

"I mean," exclaimed the father, with a species of satisfaction in
his now plain words, "I mean that Bailey wants to buy the farm. I
mean that he urges me to sell out for my own good! tells me I must
sell out! must move! leave Kentucky! go to Missouri--like other men