Produced by Darleen Dove, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net OLDFIELD A KENTUCKY TALE OF THE LAST CENTURY BY NANCY HUSTON BANKS New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 1902 _All rights reserved_ COPYRIGHT, 1902, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped May, 1902. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass. U.S.A. To My Father CONTENTS I. THE LITTLE SISTERS II. THE OLDFIELD PEOPLE III. PHASES OF VILLAGE LIFE IV. THE CHILD OF MISS JUDY'S HEART V. AN UNCONSCIOUS PHILOSOPHER VI. LYNN GORDON VII. THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA VIII. AT OLD LADY GORDON'S IX. A ROMANTIC REGION X. RELIGION IN OLDFIELD XI. BODY OR SOUL XII. MISS JUDY'S LITTLE WAYS XIII. THE DANCING LESSON XIV. MAKING PEACE XV. SIDNEY DOES HER DUTY XVI. THE SHOCK AND THE FRIGHT XVII. LOVE'S AWAKENING XVIII. AN EMBARRASSING ACCIDENT XIX. INVOKING THE LAW XX. THE CONFLICT BETWEEN FAITH AND LOVE XXI. WHAT OLDFIELD THOUGHT AND SAID XXII. THE UPAS TREE XXIII. THE BEGINNING OF THE END XXIV. OLD LADY GORDON'S ANGER XXV. THE REVELATION OF THE TRUTH XXVI. THE TRAGEDY XXVII. THE LAST ARTFULNESS OF MISS JUDY OLDFIELD I THE LITTLE SISTERS The old white curtain was slightly too short. Its quaint border of little cotton snowballs swung clear of the window ledge, letting in the sunbeams. The flood of light streaming far across the faded carpet reached the high bed, and awakened Miss Judy earlier than usual on that bright March morning, in the Pennyroyal Region of Kentucky, a half century ago. Miss Judy was always awake early, and usually arose while her sister lay still fast asleep on the other side of the big bed. She had learned, however, to creep so softly from beneath the covers, and to climb so quietly down the bed's steep incline, that Miss Sophia was hardly ever in the least disturbed. Moreover, Miss Judy always kept a split-bottomed chair standing near her pillow at night. This served not only as a stand for the candlestick and matches,--so that the candle need not be blown out before Miss Sophia was comfortably cuddled down and Miss Judy was in bed,--but it also furnished a dignified and comparatively easy means of ascending the bed's heights. On descending, Miss Judy had but to step decorously from the mound of feathers to the chair and to drop delicately from the chair to the floor.