Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-04-17


Thus. often as nights shadows come,
My eyes are flied with tears.
As visions Of that peaceful home
Rise from the vanished wears.
MILLICENT'S DOVER.
The night was gloomy, and filed with
wild gusts of wind that ,raved about the
turrets OF the castellated mansion and
sang in the wide and dreary halls. 1t
could have no better place than Berkeley
house in which to waken ghostly sounds,
for it was a rumbling and disjointed
building, full of deep bay-windows and
corners that seemed made for the delec-
tation of uneartbly beings.
The old mansion was relic from the
early colonial DAYS, and was said to
represent the character of it's master, who
was noted for his eccentricities, even of
those days of witches and COLLINS grim.
Disappointed in some cherished am
bition or love affair, Simon Berkeley came
to America when great forests still
Swallowed the shores of New England,
and, travelling along the sea.cost, found
hill that looked southwark and over
looked broad sweeps of sea, and there
built him home.
Huge elms rose close to tho massive
stone walls, and where time and disuse
had crumpled the easements the branches
OF these had forced their way into the
silent rooms, and, when the wind shook
them. s'ivered as though fear held them
in firm grasp.
Below there were old orchards. where
in the warm sunlight made golden dyed
shadows in the long summer days, but
which were now full of storm songs
that came ringing up the hill
with "a strange weirdness born from
the sea, for this was just below them, and
its foamy waves came in on the rocky
ledge that held them in check, beating
them with fierce fury that sent the spray
high in air.
The building had great hall that ran
through its main part, and from this two
wings ran away to the east and west,
these containing the apartments that were
intended for family use. They were solid
and of peculiar construction, those in
the west wing having broad. deep
windows, while narrow and strongly
barred easements gave the east wing a
dungeon look that carried one back to
the dark ages.
Simon Berkeley married shortly after
his house was finished, bis bride being a
woman as strange and eccentric as him
self. The result Of this marriage was q
daughter, who, in direct contradiction to
received tenets, was as beautiful and
bright as a June morning, and possessed
soul as lovely as her body.
Tho nathan 1io1 obor<1- nExo~ ~ -
birth of this child, and, with two old SER
wants to supply their needs, the stern and
pitiless man shut himself and his daugh.
ter up on the estate be had purchased and
their manner of existence became a mvs.
terry.
There were many stories told concern
ing Old Simons, as he was called. Peo-
pie said that he was 40 hard and cold
that if no stood near q blooming plant,
the flowers would SILVER and close as
though storm was beating them. There
were rumors concerning harsh words
spoken to the woman he had married,
and more than one whisper said that her
death Was caused by cruel blows from
his hands.
But she passed away and was forgot
ten, and Old Simon lived on in the great
house, with his daughter and the two SER
wants for company.
The girl was named Millicent, and was
very beautiful. This was all the few
neighbors knew. They caught occasion
al glimpses of her golden hair, as she
played in the garden lying south of the
bnilding, and sometimes heard a merry
voice ripping into song among the great
elms that rose about the messy stone
walls.
Years passed, and the girl grew to
womanhood. Then young man came to
the place, stranger to all living thers.
Some said he was lawyer, some though,
him an artist; but where his home was
no one knew, nor did he tell. 1t was
soon noticed that he frtquented the vi.
cinity of Berkeley's house, and once he
was seen talking to Millicent Berkeley in
the wood that lay back OF the home.
Then he suddenly disappeared, and no
one ever saw him again; but the next
autumn some boys, seeking nuts, found
the skeleton of man deep in the silence
of the woods back of the great stone
mansion, and there were some shreds of
Wondering garments lying near, which
were recognized as being similar in color
to those he had worn.
How he had come to his death no one
knew, though Simon Berkeley's name
became strangely linked with the affair,
fnd many said that he knew more of i,
than he cared to tell.
With the disappearance of this strange,
Millicent Berkeley ceased to be seen, and
whittier she had gone no one knew.
A few years after this young child
was seen playing in the garden where
Millicent had played when young, and
this new conner had golden hair and mu
steal voice that were strangely like hers
Ten years after the disappearance Of
Mlllicent, Simon Berklev was found dead
sitting at his writing desk, his gray hail
falling about the lifeless hands on which
his head rested.
His will gave the estate to the boy who
had been seen about the grounds, and
whom he called Wardour Berkeley.
From Simon Berkeley's death to the
time of which this story tells the build.
ing had remained in the possession of The
Berkeleys, son succeeding father as gen.
GRAFTON followed generation.
The estate, however, had dwindle6
from its once grand proportions, though 8
large tract Of land still remained, heavily
encunbered by . mortgage, the result 81
the second Wardour Berkeley's profliga
cy. Theold house and the orchards ant
gardens about it were free, the will of ole
Simon having made them heirlooms ii
the family; but the house, though origi
nally strong and massive, was RroWini
ruined from want of care-the care tina