The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1886-05-07
THE HOUSE BY THE RIVER,
From Household Words,

Its glories were long gone by. They
belonged to the days when the great
folks Of the land saw fit, by the de-
crees OF fashion, to have a Country
house at Chelsea, or at Battersea,
or at Fulham, and so on.
Nowadays these dreams of the
country have been irremediably
quashed by the remorseless will OF
iron roadways. Perhaps-we only
use the vague word because we do not
intend to ~localize our, house too dis
tinctly-perhaps more than one such
iron roadway may carry folks on an
upiifted embankment past its upper
windows; perhaps hundreds OF busy
city workers may at the actual time
OF these words being written, be whirl-
Ing past its serene old garden. Radi-
ant nasturtiums flash their scarlet
and crimson and gold up from be-
tween tne autumn-dusted lines and
yews and hollies; the geraniums are
growing leafy, mignonette is growing
seedy-really, the people in the train
have no time to notice them. In q
second they are flying across the river,
and iii another they are above wharv-
es and coal-trucks, without a vestige
OF a tlower-garden at hand. But in
the old house some serene spirit seems
still to rest.
Mrs. Lane, a widow lady, to whom
the place had comeb by q strange curse
OF events, was such q quiet, peaceful
hammered lady, that one could scarce
~ help a%ssociating her with the veneer
alton one easily feels for old-world
glories. With a very slight sprinkling
OF romance, might set her in a
picture ofsome grand old time, when
lordly folks came to visit the old
house, and when hoops and powder
aye, perhaps farthingales and rufus
were parading the pleached alleys Of
the garden.
But she had no ancestral claim ON
the place. She had simply inherited
the housefrom an eccentric cousin of
her husbands. That husband had
been a prosaic, not wealthy, West In
dia merchant, and the cousin had
bought the place when, with a wharf
lying u little higher up the river, it had
DAWN ,rto +Lo ~,o,1-,4
OF history, you see, a be found for
the Shore House, and, so far. no ro-
nance OF the present.
Allclue to its ancient possessor had
gone. 1.-THE wharf had been the attrac-
ton for John Sale, seeing that he had
other wharves contiguous, and he
wanted the house not at all. Hewasa
bachelor, and eccentric. and for five
years he let the place go to rack and
ruin. Then he had it repaired and
beautiied according to modern fash
ion, as a local man interpreted it and
again he let it stand untenanted.
Now, eccentricities often grow out
of what was one a simple romance,
and it had been SO with this John Sale.
A very simple romance indeed had
come to HIM as avery young man, but
1t had not brought to him the desired
ending; so when he was old, he was
known as a very cranky person. A
sane person, assuredly, but still q
cranky one.
When he died, his will left most of
hisproperty to charities, but a certain
sum and the Shore House went to the
heirs of a certain Jane Lucas, OF
Steveney, Bucks; failing such heirs
d~iscoverable within q year from the
testator's death, he willed that the
share should go to his cousin, Daniel
Lane of Barbados, or his heirs.
No Jane Lucas could be heard Of.
Daniel Lane had died before John
Sale, so his family had the house, and
strangely enough, on rummaging
amongst Sales papers, as strangers
will do, a letter was found addressed
to Mrs. Lane.
1t was couched in vague and mystic
rious language, but it enjoined her never
to sell the Shore House. Why7
No one could answer 1t was no le-
gally worded condition accompanying
her occupancy, but simply a note. AS
far as so short q missive could do, it
limited at evil accruing TO- here was
a hiatus, q thickly-ruled. short line,
another Of the mannerisms of the
writer, eyes, and to you also if you
sell the house"
Mrs. Lane was calm, andgentle, and
peaceful, but she shuddered for an in.
slant. For one instant those words
touched her like an imprecation.
But if she was caln; and quiet she
was also gifted with common sense,
and she said to herself that so fine a
house she was not likely to give away.
Selling it was more unlikely, for in the
depreciation of property she would
lever get for it what would buy her
another half SO good.
So she and her girls were settled at
the Shore House, with streets of Ia
borers' dwellings about them. There
was a vicarage half a mile of, and also,
there were two or three doctors-doc-
tors must settle, be the neighborhood
q poor or rich one-here is the full list
of the gentry Of the locality.
Her relations thought Mrs. Lane,
with three marriageable daughters
foolish to obey "old Sales" will, but
she only smiled in her calm way, and
took her own ourse without any more
disturbance. After her husbands
death she had come to know "old
Sale" and such affection as the eccen-
tricaRan had for human kind he gave
tofafIh.
The, house itself was just the place
you might expect to see if youhad
driven in through old l~odgegates, had
rolled through avenues OF lordly elms,
and over green rulings OF messy turf.
There it was. asquare, red brick house,
with rows OF shining windows framed
in stone, with no porch, but with a
heavily pedimented doorway at whose
side post hung an antique brass han.