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6 The Conjure Women 

lect. The vines-here partly supported by decayed and broken-down trellises, there twining themselves among he branches of the slender saplings which had sprung up among them-grew in wild and unpruned luxuriance, and the few scattered grapes they bore were the undisputed prey of the first comer. The site was admirably adapted to grape raising ; the soil, with a little attention, could not have been better ; and with the native grape, the luscious scuppernong, as my main reliance in the beginning, I felt sure that I could introduce and cultivate successfully a number of other varieties. 

One day I went over with my wife to shower her the place. We drove out of the town over a long wooden bridge that spanned a spreading mill-pond, passed the long white washed fence surrounding the country fair-ground, and struck into a road so sandy that the horse's feet