A Kentucky Chronicle
by John Thompson Gray (9781116894028)

A Kentucky Chronicle (Book)

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: CHAPTER II REGINALD THOHNTON "This man began to build and was not able to finish." Among the Virginian emigrants to The Falls was Reginald Thornton, a stately, kindly gentleman of the old school. He had served as a captain of a troop of horse in the war for independence, and, like many others, had encumbered by mortgages his large estate in land and slaves. Before this he had acquired in the neighborhood of The Falls a large body of rich land, a survey of five thousand acres. He was one of those sanguine men who live in the future, who, while they often miscarry by a too hopeful view of that future, yet possessed of an abiding faith in their own forecast, are apt, in a new country, to be amply compensated in the end. It is they that lay the foundations of great works that require years to complete, project the great highways of commerce, set out the stately avenues and orchards, and "Plant the slow olive for a race unborn." Of a temperament quite opposite to this was his wife, always despondent and distrustful of the future, and ever expecting the worst. It used to be related of her, that whenever any of their children were missing, she always ran first to look down into the well; while of him it was said, that when kept in doors by stormy weather, a thing very irksome to his active, hopeful temper, he would exclaim with every increase of the sound of rain upon the roof, "Ah there's a clearing-up shower." As somewhat further indicating his character, for which this chronicler has but scant material, it may be related that once, whileon a visit in town, when his young son Robert burst into his chamber, and with boyish enthusiasm called out, "Father, please come down quickly and see Mr. Jack Sprigg, a man that would rather flght than eat," he replied, "I thank you, s...

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