The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1886-04-30


Tapped in Sidonian pomp and ease,
Was not nrraycl like one Of these.
The consolidated stars that rain
Far light and silence over earth,
Call anxious Manhood back again
TO the calm glories Of his birth;
From all their cummings sabaoth
They reach down slender palms Of light,
And brck0n toward the Infinite;
Bc!te,l ORR III and Mazzaroth
Lead power to climb their starry height,
And the seven sisters Plciades
Surround him with sweet influences,
While red .Arcturus leads him on,
Anon. his sons IL chosen son.
Providence journal.
THE HOUSE BY THE RIVER.
From Household Words.
Its !slories 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
neutrality-suspicious. more than one such
iron roadway may carry folks on an
upliftcd embankment past its upper
windows; perhaps hundreds of busy
city workers may ut the actual time
OF these words being written, be whirl-
ing past its serene old garden. Radi-
ant nasturtilims fash their scarlet
and crimson and gold up from be-
tween t he autumn-dusted lines and
ycws and hollies; the geranil,ms are
growing leafy, mignonette is growing
seedy-really, the people in the train
have no time to notice them. In a
second they are flying across the river,
AID in another they are above wharv-
es and coal-trucks, without vestige
OF a flower-garden at hand. But in
the old house some serene spirit seems
still to rest.
Mrs. Lane, q widow lady, to whom
the place had come by a strange course
OF events, was such quiet, peaceful,
hammered lady, that one could scarce
ly helpassociating her with the veneer
alton one easily feels for old-world
glorics. With u very slight sprinkline
OF romance, one might set her i'll a
picture of some grand old time, when
lordly folks came to visit the old
house, and when hoops and powder
aye, perhaps farthingales and ruffs--
were parading the pleached alleys o.
the garden.
But she had no ancestral claim or
the place. She had simply inherited
the housefro an eccentric cousin o
her husbands. That husband had
been q prosaic, not wealthy, West In
dia merchant. and the cousin hai
bought the place when, with a whar
lying u little higher up the river, it had
come into the market. No romano,
of history, you see, can be found fol
tho Shore House, and, so far. no TO
nance OF the present.
All clue to its ancient possessor hai
gone. The wharf had been the attrac
ton for John Sale, seeing that he hat
other wharves contiguous, and h,
wanted the house not at all. Hewass
bachelor, and eccentric. and for tiv
years he let the place 70 to rack ant
ruin. Then he had it repaired ant
beautified according to modern fasl,
ion, as a local man interpreted it an,
again he let it stand untenanted.
Now, eccentricities often grow on
of what was once simple romance
and it had been so with this John Sale
A very simple romance indeed hat
come to HIM as avery young man, bu
it had not brought to him the desire,
ending; so when he was old, he wa
known rs q very cranky person.
sane person, assuredly, but still /,
cranky one.
When he died, his will left most q
hisproperty to charities, but a certain
sum and the Shore House went to tn
heirs of u certain Jane Lucas, @
Steveney, Bucks; failing such heir
discoverable within year from tn
testator's death, he willed that tn
share should 60 to his cousin, DAME
Lane of Barbados, or his heirs.
No Jane Lucas could be heard ol
Daniel Lane had died before Johl
Sale, so his family had the house, an,
strangely enough, on runmagin
: amongst Sales papers, as stranger
will do, a letter was found addresse,
to Mrs. Lane.
1t was couched in vague and myste
rious language, but it enjoined hesneve
, to sell the Shore House. Why?
No one could answer. It was no lie
gally worded condition accompanying
! her occupancy, but simply a note. Al
far rs so short q missive could do, i
; limited at evil accruing to here wa
u hiatus, a thickly-ruled, short line
another of the mannerisns of tn
writer, EYES, and to you also if yo,
sell the house."
Mrs. Lane was calm, and gentle, an,
peaceful, but she shuddered for an il,
sCIuL. VI one IIlSt&IllC CNOSe WOrO
touched her like an imprecation.
But if she was calm and quiet sh
was also gifted with common sense
and she said to herself that so fine {
house she was not likely to give away
Selling it was more unlikely, for in TIN
depreciation of property she would
never get for it what would buy he
another hall SO good.
So she and her girls were settled al
the Shore House, with streets of la
borers' dwellings about them. Their,
was vicarage half a mile of, and also
there were two or three doctors-doc
tors must settle, be the neighborhoot
poor or rich one-here is the full list
of the gentry of the locality.
Her relations thought Mrs. Lane
with three manageable daughter
foolish to obey "old Sales" will, bu
she only smiled in her calm way, ant
took her own course without any NOR,
disturbance. After her husband,
death she had come to know colo
Sale" and such affection as the eccen
trio man had for human hind ho oa ".