{"product_id":"2940013762602","title":"A Lantern in her Hand","description":"Cedartown sits beside a great highway which was once a buffalo\u003cbr\u003etrail.  If you start in one direction on the highway--and travel\u003cbr\u003efar enough--you will come to the effete east.  If you start in the\u003cbr\u003eopposite direction--and travel a few hundred miles farther--you\u003cbr\u003ewill come to the distinctive west.  Cedartown is neither effete nor\u003cbr\u003edistinctive, nor is it even particularly pleasing to the passing\u003cbr\u003etourist.  It is beautiful only in the eyes of those who live here\u003cbr\u003eand in the memories of the Nebraska-born whose dwelling in far\u003cbr\u003eplaces has given them moments of homesickness for the low rolling\u003cbr\u003ehills, the swell and dip of the ripening wheat, the fields of\u003cbr\u003esinuously waving corn and the elusively fragrant odor of alfalfa.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere are weeks when drifting snow and sullen sleet hold the\u003cbr\u003eCedartown community in their bitter grasp.  There are times when\u003cbr\u003ehot winds come out of the southwest and parch it with their\u003cbr\u003efeverish breath.  There are periods of monotonous drouth and\u003cbr\u003eperiods of dreary rain; but between these onslaughts there are days\u003cbr\u003eso perfect, so filled with clover odors and the rich, pungent smell\u003cbr\u003eof newly turned loam, so sumac-laden and apple-burdened, that to\u003cbr\u003ethe prairie-born there are no others as lovely by mountain or lake\u003cbr\u003eor sea.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe paved streets of Cedartown lie primly parallel over the\u003cbr\u003eobliterated tracks of the buffalo.  The substantial buildings of\u003cbr\u003eCedartown stand smartly over the dead ashes of Indian campfires.\u003cbr\u003eThere are very few people left now in the community who have seen\u003cbr\u003ethe transition,--who have witnessed the westward trek of the last\u003cbr\u003ebuffalo, the flicker of the last burnt-out ember.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOld Abbie Deal was one of these.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJust outside the corporate limits of Cedartown stands the old Deal\u003cbr\u003ehome.  It was once a farm-house, but the acreage around it has been\u003cbr\u003esold, and Cedartown has grown out to meet it, so that a newcomer\u003cbr\u003ecould not know where the town ceased and the country began.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe house stands well back from the road in a big yard with a long\u003cbr\u003edouble row of cedars connecting the formal parlor entrance and the\u003cbr\u003esmall front gate.  However, in the days when the Deals lived there,\u003cbr\u003escarcely any one used the little gate, or walked up the grassy path\u003cbr\u003ebetween the cedars.  All comers chose to enter by the wide carriage-\u003cbr\u003egate standing hospitably open and beckoning a welcome to the lane\u003cbr\u003eroad which runs past a row of Lombardy poplars to the sitting-room\u003cbr\u003eporch.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe house itself is without distinction.  There were no architects\u003cbr\u003ein the community when the first of its rooms were built.  \"We'll\u003cbr\u003ehave the living-room there and the kitchen here,\" one told old Asy\u003cbr\u003eDrumm.  And old Asy, with few comments and much tobacco-chewing,\u003cbr\u003eplaced the living-room there and the kitchen here.  The result was\u003cbr\u003eweatherproof, sturdy and artless.  When the country was new, homes,\u003cbr\u003elike dresses, were constructed more for wearing qualities than\u003cbr\u003ebeauty.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145905193200,"sku":"2940013762602","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013762602_p0.jpg?v=1763589930","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013762602","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}