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Show 4 CONTENTS. orrAPTER • t Roel.>uck. XXI.-Busllwhacluug a - " XXII. -V eugcaucc. XXIII.-Baxtcr. XXIV.-A1l.>ert Palmer's Love. XXV.-1\'lark :Marlin. XXVI. -The Journey. - XXVII.-Doctor Dick. XXVIII.-Ilngh Fit:tlmgh. XXIX.-\Vashiugton. x.Xl X... . - Frederic Fairfax. XXXI. -Tl10 EuLl. - PAGE 233 2-13 251 2GO 270 281 201 207 30G 31G 323 , . .,, ROEBUCIC., CHAPTER I. TIIE FAIRFAXES OF ROEBUCK. ... RoEBUCK ·was one of the finest estates in the country. Its acres were reckoned by thousands, and the slaves UJ)On it \Vere nu1nbered by hundreds. It has been equally admired for beauty and fertility. Before it was laid waste by the ravages of invasion, taste, skill and industry in improving, cultivating and adorning it had brought the effects of art to rival the luxuriant beauty of nature. In front of the plant:1tion Deer RiYer sweeps with gentle curves-a pretty strean1, scarcely entitled to the appellation of a river. From the n1argin of the stream spreads out a \vide and fertile bot.ton1 to a bluff about fifty feet high, and from the bluff a table of undulating land extends to the foot of. a l1ill called Elk H.idge. Several brooks, flo,ving from the ridge to the river, cut the plateau \Vith ravines and dells, and supply the fields ·with w·ater. The native forest, covering many hundred acres together, and scattered here and there in small groves, contributes to the various beauties of the landscape and to the more substantial uses of the plantation. Upon the table land, a furlong f1·om the bluff, and surmounting a gentle eminence, stands (stood. • .... |