The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-04-30
THE HOUSE BY THE RIVER.
From Househo old Words.

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
uplifted embankment past its upper
windows; perhaps hundreds of busy
city workers may at the actual time
ofthese words being written, be whirl-
ing past its serene old garden. Radi-
ant nasturtiums fash their scarlet
and crimson and gold up from be-
tween the 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 a
second they are flying across theriver,
and in another they are above wharv-
es and coal-trucks, without a vestige
OF a f~lower-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 come by a strange course
OF events, was such a quiet, peaceful
hammered lady, that one could scarce
~ helpassociating her with the veneer
alton one easily feels for old-world
glories. With a very slight s~prinkling
OF romance, one might set her in 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-
we're ~parading the pleached alleys of
the garden.
But she had no ancestral claim on
t5aplAee. She had simply inherited
the esdusehom ali eccentric cousin or
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 a little higher upthe river, it had
come into the market. No romance
of history, you see, can be found Tor
the Shore House, and, SO far, no ro-
nance of the present.
ALI clue to its ancient possessOr had
gone. The wharf had been the attrac-
ton for John Sale, seeing that he had
other wharves contiguous, and he
wanted the housen not at all. Hewasa
bachelor, and eccentric. and for five
years he let the place 60 to rack and
ruin. Then he had it repaired and
beautified according TO modern fash
ion, as a local man interpreted it and
again he let it stand untenanted.
Now, e~ccentricities often grow out
of what was once q simple romance,
and II had been so withthis John Sale.
Al very simple indeed had
come to him as a very young man, but
IL 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 a
cranky one.
When he died, his viii left most oil
his property to charities, but a certain
sum and the Shore House went to the
heirs OF a-eertain Jane Lucas, oil
Eteveney, Bucks; failing such heirs
~dSscoverabie within a year from the
testator's death, he willed that the
share should go to his cousin, Daniel
Lane OF Barbadoes, 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 rummagina
amongst Sales papers, as strangers
will do, aletter was found addressed
to Mrs. Lane.
It was couched in vague and mystic
riouslanguage but it enioined her neve
to sell the Shore House. Why2
No one could answer 1t was no lie
gaily worded condition accompanyin,
her occupancy, but simply q note. Al
far as SO short a missiye could do,
binted at evil accruing to- here wa
= hiatus, d th~ickly-ruled, short line
another of the mannerisms Of th
writer, ssYes, and to you also if yoI
sell the house
Mrs. Lane was calm, and gentle, an
peaceful, bat she shuddercd for an II
8tant For one instant those word
toucheS hor ike an lm~precation
But II she was calm and quiet sh
Was also gifted with common sens'