Agnes swept him quite as elegant a courtesy. “An’ it please you, kind sir, I will accompany you,” she replied. And then they both laughed. “I thought perhaps you’d miss your swain, the knight of the rueful countenance, and it will seem like old times to me when I used to take my little sister to church,” he said, as he lifted her up. “Oh, have you a little sister?” “Yes, or rather she is quite a big sister now.” “Tell me about her.” He took his place with an easy grace, and as they started off he said, “She’s back there in Virginia, married these two or three years.” “Was that why you left home--because she married?” “Partly that. We were great comrades before that, although it wasn’t altogether pleasant after we had a stepfather who made ducks and drakes of the property our own father left, and as my sister had what was left of her patrimony when she was married, I took what was mine and came away to seek a better fortune than seemed to await me at home. It is not a very romantic story, you see.” “I know something about step relatives,” said Agnes. “My father has some stepbrothers, and that is why he had to leave home. My grandfather Kennedy didn’t make a will, and his sons all came in for a share of the property; and they had had such a lot given to them, too, so it wasn’t fair. Grandfather always meant that father should have the home farm, and they knew it, but they just grabbed all they could get, and that, too, after father had lived there all his life and had helped to make the farm what it was.” “That was pretty mean. Your grandfathers don’t seem to be given to making wills.” “I shall always believe that Grandfather Muirhead made his. I wish I knew more about how Humphrey Muirhead came to have that place.” “How much do you know about it?” “Not very much. Grandfather lived there, and cleared the land, so it is a good farm. One time while grandfather was on a journey farther off, he with his companions fell into the hands of the Indians, and we always supposed he was killed. It was several years ago, and none of the party ever came back. Do you suppose Humphrey Muirhead could have found a will and that he destroyed it?” “It is difficult to say. I should judge that he was not a man of very much principle, and it is quite possible that he would do a thing like that. Do you remember your grandfather Muirhead?” “Oh, yes. He came to see us several times. He was a great one to travel about, and thought nothing of making the journey over the mountains. He told mother about this place the last time he came, and gave her the deeds to keep for him, and he told her the place was to be hers, but that’s all the good it did.” “Well, I wouldn’t grieve over it. In time you will have as good a place as that.” “It will take years, for grandfather had spent so much time and strength on his clearing; it enrages me when I think of it.”