The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-04-24

For twenty years the old mansion al
Desdwood, with its gables, muliioned
doorways and embayed windows, had
stood unoecupied. Colossal elms swept
over it, rank shrubbery hid its lower
windows, and lush grasses and weeds
swampeI the garden, yet still the place
w&s beautiful. 1t is said TO have been
built after magnificent estate in Wales
but no one remembered its origin. 1t
stood on great hillside overlooking the
sea, and sailors and boatmen going by
always looked up at it as something pic
turesque and grand.
The mansion stood solitary, yet was
but hali a mile from the village by the
river crossing the plain beneath, and
when, after this great trial of IFS indie
structibleness human life appeared there,
it was Immediately discovered by the
surprised villagers. Half score Of men
had moved their wsy up the front door,
had set every chimney smoking from the
great fires built below, had hacked and
hewed mercilessly at the overgrowth of
intrusive shrubbery, and finally car
riage had come bringing lair young
girl with a mulatto attendant.
81 think it's-it's fearsOme like, don't
you, Miss Queenle?"
Nonsense; it's delightfully."- antique
and romantic. Only Pm not going to
live in the dark. Tell the men to cut
down these locusts, Patty; they shut out
the sun and are wOrm>eaten beside. Oh,
It'll going 10 be lovely here Psttyl Pll
have those walks leading down to the
gate just blazing with tulips in a
month"
"What will you do for company, Miss
QueenieY
"Oh, Guy is coming the first of May"
1t was early in April then. The brave
young heires5 of Deadwood took boldly
hold of the work in hand. She called
sunlight in through curtains of white
lace. She hung the chamber walls with
rose-colored paper. She spread bright
rugs over the black walnut 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 and
statues, the girl sat down to enjoy the
home she hsd made.
1t was the first she had ever had and
already her homeless lite rested in it
with feeling OF satisfaction which had
been found in no other source.
81 am glad Guy is poor, because now
/ can give him home with myself"
she murmured over her wedding clothes
which she Was embroidering. "He shall
have buggy, and 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 had looked dOleul, very doleful,
until the woman suddenly rose equal to
the emergency.
"Deadwood is mine, you say, Mr..
Quills?" she ssid to the lawyer.
" Yes"
"And it won't sell and it won't let.
And have only five hundred dollars of
interest money in bank stock ?"
"Just so"
"Then will live at Deadwood."
"Alone ?"
swell, yes, for the present; Patty
and |, with a smile, sweet, yet quizzl-
cal, at the old lawyers dismayed face.
So far all hsd 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 mans hand, the hitherto unprof-
liable piece of property might even yield
an income for Miss Eiinor st. Edgar and
her husband. Mr.. Quill declared.
But tie things everybody expects sell
dom do hsppen after all, and the'things
nobody expected to trsnspire are always
confronting us. Alter blithe letter or
Invitation from his lsdy-love, Guy Blon-
del arrived at Deadwood one fine May
day, and found Queenie, as everybody
called her, so pale, so grave, so almost
speechiess, that he was dumbfounded.
Net q single smile yet, Queenie
Why, what has come over you? Have
you seen 6 ghost? ?"
The girl winked as il he had struck
her.
"You do not believe in ghosts Guy T'
Ger ainly not; no sensible person
Goes. But Whist hes changed you 50,
Oueenie? You chill and astonish me
YOU hsve altered so in few weeks And
I expected to find you perfectly tri-
umphsnt over your success and ready TO
obey your directions and turn farmer
doctor at once"
Guy, we never will be married"
"Queenie
Something has happened to change
all my pleasant hopes, Guy-something
strange and unexpected, yet none the
less conclusive" Then Queenie told
her story.
"One Of the rooms, Guy, have moi
touched or sltered-an apartment or
the ground floor, facing the north, fin
ished with tile, and SO cold, dark and
gloomy that I found it quite hopeless
matter to make it healthy and pleasant
Yet it is handsome room, with inlaid
floor and tiles of such great worth that
] wonder the old mansion has not beer