, 1880-05-31
A Strange Story.

A Strange Story.
On q fine summer day, some twenty
two years ago, was in company with
my relatives, Judge B and his
daughter, journeying along the eastern
coast of South Carolina. We had our
own conveyance, capacious, old-fash-
ioned coach, and travelled by easy
stages, SO as not to fatigue Laura, on
whose account, partly, the journey had
been undertaken. She was fair, del
icate girl, and had been since her child
hood of peculiarly strange, nervous
temperament. She was subjected to
sudden and unaccountable depressions
and excitements, to fits of absence, and
to abnormal moods of thought, in
which she would speak incoherently,
and occasionally act in a manner wholly
at variance with her usual gentle and
lovable nature. On such occasions it
was common expression in the family,
"Laura is not herself to-day" And
once heard some persons observe that
Laura is like two persons in one
each the opposite of the other" The
expression struck me then, and has Of
ten since recurrcd to me.
Latterly she had been seized with
strange restlessness of mood-a desire
for change her just then deli
cate health; and it was in order to graf
ify this that her father had decided to
take Laura and myself with him to
Charleston, whittier he was called on
business. We we're to stop some days
at an estate called Blackwater, the an
cestral residence of distant relatives of
ours. but whom neither Laura nor N.Y.
self had ever seen.
The day had been clear and sultry,
but toward evening heavy clouds gath
cred in the west, and our driver quick
ened the pace of his lazy steeds through
the dim pine forest, suddenly emerg-
ing from whence we saw stretched be-
fore us wide-extended, fowery plain,
called savanna, bounded at the dis
tance OF few miles by line of wood,
above which rose three tall Lombardy
poplars. Laura bent forward and gazed
earnestly at the scene.
"Hov strange" she murmured.
Where are we papa? What place is
this ?"
"This i. Ulster county, Laura, and
there is Blackwater," pointing in the
direction of tie poplars.
She looked with an absent, bewilder-
ed expression of face.
"Surely, papa, I must have been
here before. It all seems so familiar.
Surely l remember this place; the pop
lars, the plain, the bridge-is there not
a bridge somewhere ?"
"Not that I can perceive, my dear.
there is 10 water in view"
"You are thinking of some scene of
which you have read, and which this
view recalls. I have had such fancies
myself" observed.
1T is not fancy, it is a remembrance.
said Laura, decidedly. II feel sure
that must have seen either this spot
or some other exactly like it-only
there was bridge and willows, and"
she stopped with sbudder.
"Well, what else9"
"I don't know-but something hor
rible. I don't like thi, p'.u.c-l wish
we were not going to Biackwater."
Nonsense!' said her father. impa
tiently. "Don't be childish, Laura. +"
She leaned back in the carriage,
looking dreamily from the window, till
aroused by hollow and rumbling
sound beneath the wheels. We had en-
tered the border of the wood, and were
now passing over bridge.
"Therer' exclaimed Laura, excited
ly. 1t is the very place-the bridge,
the willows. and those dark, still pools
beneath the dropping branches"
"The Blackwater," said Judge B.
"It is the name of the stream, and gives
its title to the Whiting estate, which
was the first settled in this part of the
country. 1t has been in the family for
let me see-some six or seven gener-
ations. We we're, you know, original
ly Writings"
We were very Hospitality received by
Mr.. and Mrs. Whiting; yet I noticed
that almost from the moment in which
Laura, her bonnet removed, turned her
face full to the light, Mrs. Whiting
scarcely removed her eyes from her.
Her husband, too, sometimes looked at
her with very earnest, inquiring ex-
preston.
els Laura like her mother ?" asked
the lady at length.
"Not in the least; neither does she
resemble any one of our family that I
know of. Her mother is, like our own
race, fair, with blue eyes. Laura is
the black sheep in our family flock"
said her father. smiling. 81 have new
or heard of Whiting or a B with
dark eyes and complexion"