“Oh, by no means.  In the virgin state these lands grew bountiful crops almost continuously for a hundred years or more.  Virginia was famed at home and abroad for her virgin fertility.  Great crops of corn, wheat, and tobacco were grown.  Tobacco was a valuable export crop, and there were many Virginians whose mothers came to America with passage paid for in tobacco.  History records, you may remember, that it was the custom for a time to permit a young man to pay into a general store house a hundred pounds of tobacco,—­and this was later increased to one hundred fifty pounds,—­to be used in payment of passage for young women who were thus enabled to come to America; and there was a very distinct understanding that only those who had come forth with the tobacco were eligible as suitors for the hand of any ‘imported’ maiden.  As a matter of fact some such arrangement as this was almost a necessity,” said Mr. West, as he noted Adelaide’s almost incredulous look.  “Among the first settlers in Virginia, young men greatly predominated; and in the main the people in the home country were themselves in poverty.  Under the hereditary laws of England the father’s estate and title became the possession of his eldest son; and in large measure the other children of the family were thrown absolutely upon their own resources, so that many, even with royal blood in their veins, were very glad to embrace any opportunity offered to seek a new home in this land of virgin richness.

“Of course,” he continued, smilingly and in direct answer to Adelaide’s inquiring look, “those young women were in no sense bound to accept the attention or the offer of any man; but naturally most of them did become the wives of those who were able to offer them a husband’s love and a home with more of life’s comforts perhaps than they had ever known before.  They were at perfect liberty, however, to remain in the enjoyment of single blessedness if they chose, and I doubt not,” he added, with a twinkle in his eyes, “that some of them had no other choice.”

CHAPTER VIII

WESTOVER

With an auger in his hand, by means of which a hole could be quickly bored into the soil to a depth of three or four feet, Percy joined Mr. West for the tramp over the plantation.

In general the estate called Westover consists of undulating upland.  A small stream crosses one corner of the farm bordered by some twenty acres of bottom land which is subject to frequent overflow, and used only for permanent pasture.  Several draws or small valleys are tributary to the stream valley, thus furnishing excellent surface drainage for the entire farm.  In some places the sides of these valleys are quite sloping and subject to moderate erosion when not protected by vegetation.  Above and between these slopes the upland is nearly level.  As they came upon one of these level areas, grown up with small forest trees, Mr. West stopped and said: