After tea, Berkeley and Royall lit their pipes and strolled out toward the stables, leaving Jim and Pocahontas alone together on the porch.  The girl leaned back in her chair silently, not trying to make conversation any more, and Jim sat on the steps at her feet, letting his eyes follow wistfully the slope of the lawn, and the flow of the river.  Presently, without turning his head, he asked her to walk with him down to the old willows by the riverside, for a farewell look on the scene so dear to him, and Pocahontas rose instantly and slipped her hand within his proffered arm.

Down by the river, where the lawn bent softly to the wooing of the water, stood two ancient willows of unusual size:  they were gnarled with age, but vigorous and long limbed.  The story ran that once a Pocahontas Mason, the lady of the manor here, had lovers twain—­twin brothers who being also Masons were her distant cousins.  One she loved, and one she did not, but both loved her, and being passionate men both swore that they would have her, come what might; and cause any man that came between, most bloodily to rue it.  Between the brothers there arose quarrels, and ill feeling, which afflicted the lady, who was a good woman, and averse to breaking the peace of families.  That brothers—­twin-brothers, should be scowling venomously at each other because of her, appeared a grievous thing, and she set herself to mend it.  By marrying the man she loved, she could end the affair at once, but his brother would never forgive him, and before love had maddened them the men had been friends as well as brothers.  She gauged their characters thoughtfully, and hit upon a plan—­which, at the expense of some self-sacrifice, would arrange the matter peacefully.  Bidding both lovers attend her one day, she brought them to this spot, and cutting two willow wands of exactly the same length and thickness she stuck them deep into the moist soil, and announced her decision.  They would wait three years, she said, and at the end of that time the man whose tree had grown the strongest, should come and claim his answer.  She would attend to both willows herself, giving to each the same care, and treating them with equal fairness.  Then she made the men shake hands in amity once more, and swear to abide by her decision.

The story further tells that both willows flourished finely, but that in the last year the true love’s tree outstripped its mate, as was right and proper.  As the lady had anticipated, when the term of probation expired only one of the twins appeared to claim an answer to his suit.  And in the pocket of the constant man, when he kissed his own true love, lay a letter, from across the seas, full of brotherly affection and congratulation.

This little story was a favorite with Pocahontas, and she was fond of relating how her great-great-grandmother by a little wit and generous self-sacrifice, averted a feud between brothers, and kept family peace unbroken.