The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1880-11-25
A Strange Story.

y
my relatives, Judge B and his
daughter, iourneying along the eastern
coast of South Carolina. We had our
own conveyance, a capacious, old-fash-
toned coach, and travelled by easy stages,
SO as not to fatigue Laura, on whose &C
count, partly, tie journey had been
undertaken. She was subject to sudden
and unaccountable depressions and ex-
element, to fits of absence and to alb
normal moods O. thought, in which she
would speak incohesently, 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-a desire
for change-despite 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
DAYS at an estate called Blackwater, the
ancestral residence of distant relatives
of ours, but whom neither Laura nor
myself had ever seen.
"How STRANGE she murmured.
"Where are we, papa What place is
this p
This is Ulster county, Laura, and
there is Blackwater.' pointing in the
direction of the poplars.
"Surely, papa, must lave been here
before 1t all seems SO familiar Surely
I remember This rlne" ehv l'opiars, the
plain, the bridge--is there not a bridge
somewhere =
"Not that can perceive, my dear.
There is no water in view
"You are thinking Of some scene of
which you have read, and which this
view recalls. / have had such fancies
myself" | observed.
at is not fancy, it is remem-
brance," sad Laura, decidedly. 81 feel
sure Il at I must have seen either this
spot or some other exactly like it-only
there was a bridge and willows, and"
she stopped with shudder.
"Well, what else e
al don't know-but something hor
ribe. l don't like this place. wish
we were not going to Blackwa,er."
Nonsense p 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 Iumbling sound
beneath the wheels. We had entered
the border of the wood, and were now
passing over bridge.
There p exclaimed Laura, excitedly.
at is the very place-the bridge, the
willows, and those dark, still pools be-
meath the dropping branches.
'sThe Blackwater," said Judge B.
at is the name of the stream, and gives
It's 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, Mra 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 y 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 Aock," said
her father, smiling 81 have never
heard of Whiting or B with
dark eyes and complexion"
Alum said the old lady thought
fully: and the subject dropped.
We were shown for the night, Laura
and l, into a chamber with numerous
narrow windows. Laura threw open q
sash and looked out into the moonlight.
Presently she turned slowly around and
spoke to me.
"Anne. do you believe that we have
lived life previous to this :"
eve cannot say that we believe IN
cuch thinCa Iaura 80 uncertain are