New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1886-04-28
THE HOUSE BY THE RIVER

belonged to the days when the great
folks Of the land saw fit, by the de-
crees Of fashion, to have 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
nse 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
mplifted embankment past its upper
windows; perhaps hundreds Of busy
city workers may at the actual time
rof these words being written, be whirl
ing past it's serene old garden. Radi-
ant nasturtiums flash their scarlet
and crimson and gold up from be-
tween the autumn busted lines and
yews and hollies; the geraniums are
growing leafy, nignonette 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 W harry
es and coal-trucks, without vestige
OF fower-garden at hand But in
the old house some serene spirit seems
still to rest.
Mrs. Lane, a widow lady, to whom
che place had come by astrange course
of events, was such a quiet, peaceful
hammered lady, that one could scarce
ly help associating her with the veneer
alton one easily feels for old-world
;glories. With a very slight sprinkling
of romance, one might set her i'll
picture OF some 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 house from 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
dying a little higher up the river, it had
come into the market. No romance
OF history, you see can be found for
the Shore House, and, so far, no ro-
nance Of the present.
All 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 housenot at all. Hewasa
bachelor, and eccentric, and for five
gears he let the place go to rack and
Grta,. Then he bad it repaired and
fbeautified according to modern fash
ION, as local man interpreted it and
again he let it stand untenanted.
Now, eccentricities often grow out
of what was once a simple romance,
and lt5had 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 a
cranky one.
when he died, his will left most of
aals property 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
within a year from the
testator's death, he willed that the
share should 60 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, letter was found addressed
ito Mrs. Lane.
1t was couched in vague and mystic
rious language, BUTT enjoined her never
ITO sell the Shore House. Why?
No one could answer. It was no le-
.gally worded condition accompanying
cher occupancy, but simply note. As
FAR as so short missive could do, it
=hinted at evil accruing to- here was
"a hiatus a thickly-ruled, short line,
another OF the mannerisms OF the
writer, Yes, and to you also if you
,sell the house"
.Mrs. Lane was calm, and gentle, and
peaceful, but she shuddered for an in
sstant. For one instant those words
touched her like an imprecation.
But if she was calm and quiet she
was also gifted with common sense,
land she said to herself that so fine
house she was not likely to give away.
.Seliingit was more unlikely, for in the
depreciation of property she would
NEVER get for it what would buy her
:. another half so good.
So she and her girls were settled at
sthe Shore House, with streets OF la
lborers' dwellings about them. There
was a vicarage hall 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,