Happy friendship beamed all over Bollup’s handsome face, and Ralph felt he was once more with his own kind. The short drive proved to be over three miles in length on a hot, dusty road, through a country where no houses except negro shanties were to be seen. But the happy young men did not mind this, having much to talk about. Finally Bollup turned to the left down a lane, and was soon in a grove of beautiful cedar trees, whose overtowering branches completely embowered the lane they were in. “Our place commences here,” said Bollup with satisfied pride. “How do you like it?”
“Like it? I love it,” cried Ralph; “it’s beautiful. Aren’t these woods gorgeous? But where’s your house?”
“Oh, half a mile down; we won’t see it till we are close to it. Here’s where I was brought up, Os; it’s the dearest spot on earth to me. And here’s where my grandfather and his grandfather’s grandfathers for two hundred years back, lived and died. There! You can see the house now; we are just coming in view of it.”
“No wonder it is the dearest place on earth to you, Bollup. What a beautiful place to live in!”
The house was built of brick on the simple colonial lines, with great thick walls and wings on each side. It was the typical old Southern homestead. The lawns were large and beautifully kept and surrounded by heavy woods. At the back was the beautiful James River.
Bollup’s father and mother, and his two sisters, Gladys and Dorothy, were awaiting them, and gave Ralph a real heartfelt Virginia welcome.
“I’m glad to meet you, sir,” said Colonel Bollup, a Virginian of obsolescent type. “Tom’s friends are my friends, sir, and I bid you welcome to our home, sir. This is Mrs. Bollup, Tom’s mother, and these young ladies are his sisters. Now, sir, you will probably want to remove the dust of travel and wash up a bit, and, Tom, suppose you go and pick some mint; select only the small, tender, upper branches; we’ll introduce Mr. Osborn to a real mint julep, something basely imitated all over the land, sir, all over the land, but never successfully.”
Kindly greetings were showered on Ralph by Mrs. Bollup; she was glad to meet one of her boy’s friends. Ralph liked them all immediately; he was instantly attracted by the frank, blue-eyed, beautiful Gladys who was about eighteen years old; she was tall and slender and good to look at. Dorothy was six years younger and was evidently much interested in her brother’s friend.
Ralph was led into a cool, spacious room. Great content entered his heart as he looked out on the broad James. “I wish I could always live in a place like this,” he reflected. “How beautiful such a life would be!”
He was soon down-stairs, thoroughly refreshed, and there awaiting him was the family. “Here, sir,” said Colonel Bollup, “here is the real mint julep I was talking about.”