A Tar-Heel Baron   By: Mabell S. C. Smith (1864-1942)

SECOND EDITION

[Illustration: "OAKWOOD"]

A Tar Heel Baron

by

Mabell Shippie Clarke Pelton

With Illustrations by

Edward Stratton Holloway

Philadelphia & London J. B. Lippincott Company 1903

COPYRIGHT, 1903 BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

Published February, 1903

Electrotyped and Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, U.S.A.

TO

F. A. P.

" One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, Sleep to wake. "

Contents

Chapter Page

I FRIEDRICH VON RITTENHEIM 7 II THE SNARE OF THE FOWLER 22 III A WEAK MAN'S STRENGTH 38 IV "THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR'S WIFE" 47 V A STRONG MAN'S WEAKNESS 61 VI "I WARRANT THERE'S VINEGAR AND PEPPER IN'T!" 74 VII IN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS 85 VIII SYDNEY RIDES AGAINST TIME 105 IX "IT NEEDED ONLY THIS!" 118 X THROUGH THE MIST 132 XI IN THE CORN 146 XII ILLUMINATION 156 XIII RECONCILIATION 171 XIV THE FOURTH OF JULY 179 XV THE GANDER PULLING 193 XVI ON THE BRIDGE 202 XVII OUT OF A CLEAR SKY 216 XVIII BUSINESS PLANS 230 XIX HILDA 242 XX SACRIFICE 255 XXI A POKE PARTY 267 XXII VON RITTENHEIM COLLECTS HIS RENT 285 XXIII THE 'POSSUM HUNT 299 XXIV "FOUGHT THE FIGHT" 312 XXV CARL VON STERNBURG 322 XXVI SURRENDER 335 XXVII DIXIE 348

List of Illustrations

Page

OAKWOOD Frontispiece

A FENCE AT THE TOP OF A SHARP ASCENT 109

TO THE FRENCH BROAD, WHERE FLETCHER'S BRIDGE CROSSES THE RIVER 204

PINK ROSES AND RED SWUNG TO AND FRO IN THE SUNSHINE AS THEY CLIMBED THE DOCTOR'S WHITEWASHED PORCH 242

"IT IS NOT FITTING THAT A VON RITTENHEIM SHOULD LIVE IN A CABIN LIKE THAT" 269

A Tar Heel Baron

I

Friedrich von Rittenheim

The incongruity of his manner of life was patent to all who saw. The mountaineers around him recognized it, but they attributed it to the fact of his being a foreigner. The more cultivated folk realized that a man of the world who bore every mark of good birth and breeding was indeed out of place in the gray jeans of the North Carolina farmer, guiding the plough with his own hand.

At first no one knew just how to take him, even to the calling of his name. Baron Friedrich Johann Ludwig and a half dozen more von Rittenheim was a good deal to compass. The farmers and the negroes finally settled upon "Mr. Baron."