Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-08-15

think, Chart, that murder could pos
sibly have been committed there?"
81 think" Charley Fontaine absent
| " answered. 'sthat the drainage of the
place must be horribly bad. and we
shall all have malaria unless | tele-
graph to Sutton to send up some drain
tiles at once"
''But the place is full of such deli
cious tall ferns and water lilies" plead
| ed Aunt Valencia
Hang the ferns and water liliesin
| said her nephew. you'll have to con.
tent yourself with indoor ghosts, aunt.
l can't stand low pool like that under
my very window"
Aunt Valencia sighed, but Charley
was inexorable, and within week the
/ plumbers men were at work, hound
/ ing the white, floating mist-Specters
| from their fragrant Businesses with no
more romantic implements than pick
axes and drain-tlles. She and her
nephew had come down to superintend
| the operations one evening, when
| laborer came toward them, touching
his frowsy hat.
Please, zur," said he, .''ere's what
wilIer tree. 1t is yum tort of box"
''The ghostr whispered Aunt Va
lencia, giving her nepbew's arm an
excruciating pinch. open it, Chart
dol See, it's almost rusted through"
! 1t was a box of papers, widowed,
time-stained, saturated through and
through with an earthly smell-old
love-letters addressed to Emily Sea
cliff, afterward Emily Dart, the mother
of Diana; apparently valueless receipts
and memorandums; few manuscript
poems; a soiled glove, and a French
bon-bon case, into which was crumpled
up an oblong piece of legal paper-a
deed of gift from old James Thorpe to
/ Emily Dart, and her heirs, and assigns
forever, of Valleythorpe, and all its
| broad acres.
Charley turned to Aunt Valencia
with wildly scintillating eyes and pale
checks.
Aunt" he said, ''you were right.
1t was ghost, and it has rendered up
! its message from the spirit land. In
one of her troubled brain-its Mrs.
| Dart must have hidden away these pa
pers and forgotten to disclose their
! whereabouts to any living soul. Diana
was right, also. Valleythorpe is hers,
and have no more title to it than
yonder farm boy in the highroad.
s'And Rufus Miner, of whom you
! bought it?" gasped the old lady.
"He had no right to sell what was
not his This deed of gift is dated
seven years later than the will under
which he inherited the place. He will
] r., Io
! of course"
''And that black-eyed, solemn-faced
girl at old Moneypenny's is the heiress
of Vaileythorpe?"
Undoubtedly"
''How delightfully."- romantic!" lisped
! Aunt Valencia.
Diana Dart was feeding the little
/ yellow goslings in the early sunshine
of the morrow morning at the back
kitchen door of the Moneypenny farm
house when Charley Fontaine came
along the winding foot-path. She
looked up with sudden start.
''You have something to tell me, y"
she cried; 81 see it in your eyes"
Yes" said he. "Will you have it
all at once? You are an heiress-
and am to be turned out of Valley
thorpe"
And then he related all the particu-
lars.
''Am to go?" he said, quietly.
Diana's shadowy, black-lashed eyes
| followed the little goslings as they
vanished like balls of downy gold into
the tall southern-wood bushes along
the picket fence.
NO" said she. ''Why should you
goP Valleythorpe is your own?"
mo, Diana; it is yours"
What is mine is yours Also" MUIR
INJURED Diana, in still lower voice,
cliff you will take it.
''Diana-my own darling! But you
would not take it from me-
But" whispered Diana, ''can't you
see that this is quite different?"
And she burst into shower of happy
tears, with her face hidden against his
! breast"
Il do love you," she sobbed, ST do
love you! And 1 have loved you all
along, only-only l was too proud to
own it.
So Mr.. Fontaine staid on at Velley-
thorpe after all, and Aunt Valencia
persists to this day that there was a
! genuine ghost in the laburnum walk.
"And it has never come back, poor
thing" said she; ''because it has de-
livered its message from the other
world"
Because [ have had the swampy
hole thoroughly drained" says Fon-
tame, the iconOclast.
''All the same" chirps Aunt Valen.
cia, ''yOu must own that the whole oc.
currence is delightfully."- romantic