The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-03-13
The TiIe-R0om at DeadWood

The TiIe.Room at Deadwood
For twenty years the old mansion at
Deadwood, with its gables, mullioned
doorways and embayed windows, had
stood unoccupied. Colossal elms swept
over it, rank shrubbery hid its lower
windows, and lush grasses and weeds
swamped the garden, yet still the place
was beautiful. 1t is said to have been
built after a magnificent estate in
Wales; but no one remembered its
origin. 1t stood on a great hillside
overlooking the sea, and sailors and
boatmen going by always looked up at
it as something picturesque and grand.
The mansion stood solitary, yet was
but half mile from the village by the
river crossing the plain beneath, and
when, after this great trial of it's inde-
structiblene SO, human life appeared
there, it was Immediately discovered by
the surprised villagers. Half score
of men had moved their way up the
front door, had set every chimney
smoking from the great fires built be-
low, had hacked and hewed mercilessly
at the overgrowth Of intrusive shrub
berry, and finally a carriage had come
bringing fair young girl with mulat-
to attendant.
"I think it's-it's fearsome like, don't
you, Miss Queenie ?" .' ..
"Nonsense; it's delightfully."- antique
and romantic. Only Pm not going to
live in the dark. Tell the men to cut
down those locusts, Patty; they shut
ont fba o,.,, n ora xror,,, ooko,, I~o..1s
Oh, its going to be lovely here, Patty !
III have those walks leading down to
the gate just blazing with tulips in a
month"
"Wbat will you do for company, Miss
Queenie
"Oh, Guy is coming the first of
May"
It was early in April then. The brave
young heiress of Deadwood took bravely
hold of the work in hand. She called
the sunlight in through curtains of white
lace. She hupg the chamber walls with
rose-colored paper. She spread bright
rugs over the blackwalnut floors and
filled the rooms with graceful bamboo
and softly cushioned furniture. And
when her little dot was quite expended
upon further details of china, books aud
statues, the girl sat down to enjoy the
home she had made.
1t was the first she had ever had; and
already her homeless life rested in it
with feeling of satisfaction which had
been found in no other source.
am glad Guy is poor, because now
[ can give him home with myself, +"
she murmure,l over her wedding clothes,
which she was embroideripg. "He shall
have buggy, aud pick up nice prac
tice at the village; and so we have our
good prospects after ALL"
For the matrimonial prospects OF these
young people of eighteen and twenty
two hai looked doleful, very doleful,
until the woman suddenly rose equal to
the emergency.
"Deaiwood is mine, you say, Mr..
Quillsa" she said to the lawyer.
eyes"
"And it won't sell and won'tle And
I have only five hundred dollars of in d.
terest money in bank stock ?"
"Just so."
"Then I will live at Deadwoo
"Alone2"
"Well, yes. for the present; Patty
and T." with smile, sweet, yet qujzzi-
cal, at the old lawyers dismayed face.
So far all had succeeded better than
she had dreamed possible. She had
made the old mansion habitable and
pleasant; and now if the fallow land
were brought under q mans hand, the
hitherto improbable piece of property
might even yield an income for Miss
Elinor st. Edgar and her husband, Mr..
Quill declared.
But the things everybody expect sell
dom do happen after all, and the things
nobody expected to transpire are always
confronting us. After blithe letter of
invitation from his lady-love, Guy Blon-
del arrived at Deadwood one fine MAY
day, and found .Queenie, as everybody
called her, 30 pale, 80 grave, so almost
speechless, that he was dumbfounded.
Not single smile yet, Queenie
Why, what has come over you2 Have
you seen a ghost ?"
The girl WINGED as if he had struck
her. -...-.-.
"You do not believe in ghosts,
Guy3"
"Certainly not; no sensible person
does. But what has changed you 30,
Queenie? You chill and astonish me,
you have altered SO in few weeks And
1 expected to find you perfectly trium-
phant over your success, and ready to
obey your directions and turn farmer
doctor at once"
"Guy, we can never be married."
"Queenie |"
"Something has happened to change
all my pleasant hopes, Guy something
strange and unexpected, vet none the
less conclusive. Then Queenie told
her story.
"One OF the rooms, Guy, have not
touched or altered-an apartment on
the ground-foor, facing the north.
finished with tile, and so cold, dark and
gloomy that found it quite a hopeless
matter to make it healthy and pleasant.
floor and tiles of such great worth that
/ wonder the old mansion has NOT been
broken into and pillaged Of them.