"
The house was a substantial building of three rooms, a lean-to kitchen,
and a porch overlooking the river. The log barn, with "Prince," a gentle
old horse, and "Bess," a mild-mannered, brindle cow, completed the
modest establishment. About thirty acres of the land were cleared and
under cultivation of a sort. The remaining acreage was in timber.
The price, under the kindly and expert supervision of Tom Warden, was
fifteen dollars an acre. But Auntie Sue always laughingly insisted that
she really paid fifty cents an acre for the land and fourteen dollars
and a half an acre for the sunsets.
The tillable land, except for the garden, she "let out on shares,"
always under the friendly guardianship of neighbor Tom; while Tom's boys
cared for the little garden in season, and saw to it that the woodpile
was always ample and ready for the stove. And, in addition to these
fixed and regular homely services, there were many offerings of helpful
hands whenever other needs arose; for, as time passed, there came to be
in all the Elbow Rock district scarce a man, young or old, who did not
now and then honor himself by doing some little job for Auntie Sue;
while the women and girls, in the same neighborly spirit, brought from
their own humble households many tokens of their loving thoughtfulness.
And never did one visit that little log house by the river without
the consciousness of something received from the silvery-haired old
teacher--a something intangible, perhaps, which they could not have
expressed in words, but which, nevertheless, enriched the lives of
those simple mountain people with a very real joy and a very tangible
happiness.
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