The soil,
though at first it might have been, called inhospitable, showed
itself productive. The corn stood tall and strong, and here and
there the brown stalks of the cotton plant itself might have been
seen; proof of the wish of the average Southerner to cultivate that
plant, even in an environment not wholly suitable. All about, upon
the mountain sides, stood a heavy growth of deciduous trees, at
this time of the year lining the slopes in flaming reds and golds.
Beyond the valley's rim, tier on tier, stately and slow, the
mountains rose back for yet a way--mountains rich in their means of
frontier independence, later to be discovered rich also in
minerals, in woods, in all the things required by an advancing
civilization.
Corn, swine and cotton,--these made the wealth of the owner of
Tallwoods' plantation and of the richer lands in the river bottoms
below. These products brought the owner all the wealth he needed.
Here, like a feudal lord, master of all about him, he had lived all
his life and had, as do all created beings, taken on the color and
the savor of the environment about him.
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