Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ROBERT GRAHAM. CHAPTER I. Moonlight rests upon Pine Grove. The tall trees, whose number and stateliness give name to the darkly-shaded place, lift up their green tuft-knots to the skies, and the live oaks, with their long sweeping drapery of gray old moss, stretch their druid arms before the white-walled mansion. Beneath the solemn shadows of the oaks and pines, a tall figure walks, pensive and lonely, its outlines alternately silvered by moonlight and darkened by shade; but they may still be recognised as the unrivalled lineaments of Robert Graham. Years passed under the burning sun of an Indian clime have not dimmed the splendour of his manly beauty, or even darkened the whiteness of his marble brow. He has been on a holy mission, and if the face of the prophet shone, after being forty days on the mountain with the God of Israel, it is not strange that one, who had been for three years in daily, hourly intercourse with his Maker, should bear on his countenance the reflection of His excellent glory. Yes! Robert Graham, having returned once more to his native land, sought the home of his boyhood, and the grave of his mother. His last act before embarking for a foreign clime was the erection of a monument to her memory, a twin obelisk to that which marked the spot where the mother of Linda was laid. Thither he now bent his footsteps, through the long dewy grass which overgrew the path in rank luxuriance. Negroes shun the place of graves, believing it thronged with the spirits of the dead; and it may be questioned if the gatewhich led into this enclosure had been opened since Robert closed it on the evening of his departure. The damp weeds clung to his feet, and impeded his steps. A weeping willow, planted by her husband, swept its long branches over the grave of the ...