The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1880-07-29
A Strange Story.

%
two years ago, l was in company with
my relatives, Judge B and his
daughter, iourneying along the eastern
coast of South Carolina. We had our
own conveyance, capacious, old-fash-
toned coach, and travelled 10y easy stages,
so as not TO fatigue Laura, on whose ac-
count, partly, the journey had been
undertaken. She was subject to sudden
and unaccountable depressions and ex-
element, to fits of absence, and to alb
normal moods of thought, in which she
would speak incoherently, and OCCASION
ally act in manner wholly at variance
with her usual gentle and lovable ma
ture
Latterly she had been seized with
strange restlessness of mood desire
for CHARACTERISTIC her just then unusu-
ally delicate health; and it was in order
to crafty this that her father had de-
cided 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
ancestral residence Of distant relatives
of ours, but whom neither Laura nor
myself had ever seen.
Chow strange she murmurcd.
"Where are we, papa What place is
this p
This is Ulster county, Laura, aud
there is BIaekwater,' pointing in the
direction of the poplars.
"Surely, papa, mHst Lave been here
before. 1t all seems SO familiar. Sa-elv
j remember this place the poplars, the
plain, the BRIDGES there not a bridge
somewhere p
''Not that can perceive, my dear.
There is no water in view.
"You are thinking OF some scene of
which you have read, ana which this
view recalls. l have had such fancies
myself" observed.
ut is not fancy, it is remem-
brance," sad Laura, decidedly. 81 feel
sure t, at | must have seen either this
spot or some other exactly like it-only
there was bridge and willows, and
she stopped with a shudder.
"Weu, what else =
81 don't know-but something hor-
rible. ! don't like this place. wish
we were not going to Blackwarer"
Nonsense |" said her father, impa-
tiently. "Do not be foolish, Laura"
She leaned back in the carriage, look
ing dreamily from the window, till
aroused by hollow end rumbling sound
beneath the wheels. We had entered
the border of the wood, and were now
passing over bridge
"There !" exclaimed Laura, excitedly.
at is the very place-the bridge, the
willows, and those dark, still pools be-
meath the dropping branches"
''The Black water" said Judge B.
at is the name Of the stream, and gives
its title TO the Whiting estate, which
the first settled in this part Of the coun-
try. 1t has been in the family for-let
me see--some six Or seven generations.
We were, you know, originally Whit
ings."
We were very Hospitality received by
Mr.. and Mrs. Whiting yet | noticed
that almost from the moment in which
Laura, her bonnet removed, turned her
face full to the light, Mira Whiting
scarcely removed her eyes from her.
Her husband, too, sometimes looked at
her with very earnest, inquiring ex-
preston.
as Laura like her mother T. asked
the lady, at length
"Not in the least neither does she
resemble any one Of our family that l
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. ~ have never
heard of Whiting ora B with
dark eyes and complexion"
"Humy said the old lady thought
fully; and the subject dropped.
We were shown for the night, Laura
and /, into chamber with numerous
narrow windows. Laura threw open .
sash and looked out into the moonlight
Presently she turned slowly around and
spoke to me.
Same, do you believe that we have
lived life previous to this =
1--WE cannot say that We believe in
such things, Laura, SO uncertain are