[Illustration: Cover art] [Frontispiece: "Wonder ef John haint a comin', Pap?" _Page 8_.] [Illustration: Title page] MILLY: _At Love's Extremes_ A Romance of the Southland _By_ MAURICE THOMPSON Author of "Alice of Old Vincennes" _ILLUSTRATED_ Printed and Bound for the New Amsterdam Book Company, New York City, Anno Domini Mcmi Copyright, 1901 by New Amsterdam Book Company _Milly: At Love's Extremes_ CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. MOUNTAIN DEW CHAPTER II. MILLY CHAPTER III. MR. HAWKINS NOBLE CHAPTER IV. WHITE PLAYS "SEVING UP" CHAPTER V. SOME LIGHT TALK CHAPTER VI. AT THE GATE CHAPTER VII. AN OLD PLANTATION HOUSE CHAPTER VIII. WITH DOG AND GUN CHAPTER IX. LUNCHEON AL FRESCO CHAPTER X. MILLY INQUIRES CHAPTER XI. DALLYING CHAPTER XII. A BIT OF LOVE MAKING CHAPTER XIII. AT THE RUIN CHAPTER XIV. A WHISPER IN THE CABIN CHAPTER XV. A DISCLOSURE CHAPTER XVI. CONVALESCENT CHAPTER XVII. DREAMS AND PLANS CHAPTER XVIII. REALITIES CHAPTER XIX. WHITHER CHAPTER XX. AFTER ALL MILLY: AT LOVE'S EXTREMES CHAPTER I. MOUNTAIN DEW. A man stood on the jutting shoulder of a mountain overlooking a long, narrow valley, whose scattering houses and irregular farm-plats, seen through the clear air of that high region, appeared scarcely a gun-shot distant, when in fact they were miles away. It was early morning; the sun had barely cleared the highest peaks in the east, and the landscape, albeit a mid-winter one, was wonderfully rich in colors. On the oak trees the leaves still clung in heavy brown, green and russet masses; the hickory forests, though leafless, made bits of tender gray along the lower valley-slopes, whilst high up toward the mountain tops, the billowy wilderness of pines, cedars and chestnut trees added their variegated patch-work that gradually rose and shaded off into the blue of distance. In some places where storms, or the needs of man, had removed the oak woods, a dense, frondous mass of young pines had leaped up with a greenness full of a soft yellow glow. The sunshine and the wind of the South were flowing over this scene, and there were fragrant odors and balsamic pungency in every wave.