The Red Cloud chief., 1881-12-22
THE YERNEY ANCESTOR.

THE YERNEY ANCESTOR.
The Verney children were very proud
of their great-grandfathcr. IL is not
every boy and girl who knows who his
or her grcat-grandfather was. The Yer
ncy children knew all about the in
d. 'ual who occupied this position in
.amily; and, as | said before, they
We. very proud Of him. Mr.. Verney,
the children's father, took a great in
tercst i'm his family history; and once,
when on a visit to England traced
back his line Of ancestors To the time
of the Norman Conquest. To be sure.
the family name was De Vernaye, but
il is well known that our forefathers
often spelt their names very differently
from the way in which we spell ours.
There was also a break in the line OF
ancestry from 1590tO 1870, during which
period a part of the family was sup
posed TO nave cmigrated To America
A good many English families did
emiSratc To America about this time, and
il the DE Vernayc family were coming
at all, it is probably that they came
then. There was another break from
the period of this suppose emigration
down TO the time of the great grand
father whom the Verncy children knew
all about. But it was so evident in the
mind of Mr.. Vcrncy that these gaps
could be satisfactorily filed up, if he
could only get hold of the proper
records, that the omissions in his line of
ancestors did not trouble him at all.
While in England. he had visited the
old castle of the Guysters, into which
family the DE NernayeS were said 10
have married about the time Mr.. Yer
ncy lost track of them. In this castle
was d mailed figure, seated in a chair,
which figure, Mr.. Vcrncy was positive
from certain marks on the armor. was
intended To represent Sir Leopold DE
Nernaye, who must have been his
ancestor.
Mr.. Verncy would have been very
glad to buy this figure and set it up in
his library at home. because very few.
or none. indeed, of his friends had
mailed figures of their ancestors. But
the idea of having a mailed figure in his
library was so attractive TO Mr.. Verney
that he bought a suit of old armor in
England and took il home with him.
IL was not such handsome armor rs that
worn by the proud Sir Leopold, but it
would do very well, and was far better
in his eyes than the old Continental
uniforms of which some of his neigh
bors were so proud.
This suit of mail he had properly set
up on a pedestal i'm his library, which
o. was handsomely furnished with
old-fashioned chairs, a high clock, and
other furniture that looked as If it had
belonged ut some time TO ancient fami-
lies.
The books had formerly been kept in
the library, but as the bookcases did
not suit the other furniture, they had
been removed TO an upper room.
This figure he showed to his friends
rs a specimen of the kind of armor his
ancestors must nave worn. 1.-The brave
wearer of this mail" he would say.
"had certainly done some hard fight.
ing. and these dents and those breaks
in the mail were probably made when
he couched his lance or drew his sword
in the battles of Hastings and Marston
Moor"
Some of Mr.. Verney's visitors, who
remembered English history. knew that
this individual must have lived a very
long life indeed if he had fought in both
the battles of Hastings and Marston
Moor. but thew were % polite to say
anything about it
In course of time this suit of armor.
and the armed figure of the De Vernayc,
about which their father talked SC
much. became so mixed up in the minds
of the Vcrney children, that they really
supposed that the figure of the mailed
knight in the library represented one oil
their ancestors, and before very long,
some of the younger visitors to the
house actually began to think it was the
great grandfather about whom the Yer
news talked so much.
The nearest neighbors and most init
mate friends of the Verneys were the
Greens. The children of this family
had no idea who their Green great.
grandfather was. Their father was moi
living, and their mother really did moi
know anything about her husbands
grandfather. She believed that he had
lived somewhere out West, but she was
not positive ever about this. She knew
who her OWL grandfather was, but thi:
did not matter. as she herself did no,
actually belong to the Green family,
But in spite of this want of ancestry,
the Green children could run a fast,
and jump as high. and were just a
clever at their lessons. and had as good
manners, rs the Verney boys and girl:
with their family line.
Leopold and Edgarda Verney, who
were about fifteen and sixteen year
old. were very proud of their high de-
scent, and sometimes looked down rath'
er grandlv upon the Greens; where's.
the children of the latter family. es
pecially Tom Green, q tall boy OF sew
enleen, were quite fond of making fur
of the Verneys' family pride.
One afternoon. Tom Green called tc
see Leopold and Edgarda. but finding
they were not at home, he resolved Il
wait a little while for them, and So,
down in the library. While there, il
= struck him it would be a good idea Il
try on the coat of mail which stood II
the room. He had often wished to q
this, for he desired very much 10 XIV
how IN ancient knight had felt<Wheg
clad in his heavy suit of m9i2ls but h
had never cared to ask mission, foz
: he knew the Verneys void not like it
1, But now he thought would be X
Y harm just to try op<6e things, and %,
hastily removing the cuirass and th<
other pieces - mail. and their prop,
and suppQD4, he put them. as weh y
he could upon himself. He tried e
walk Gout. bat they were 80 heavy a
e0W nnonnalv ~Ovo