San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-03-07

The Virginian removed his arms from
the back of the chair and seated him
self in it. The story probably interested
him as much as it did the other men.
The initial steps of success are always
interesting when success has been
achieved; it is only the chronicle of
failure that is tedious.
when he got back to the hills" pro-
ceeded the narrator, she went on a good
bit farther north before striking into
them again. He nosed around for all
he was worth; but for about week bad
luck held on like burr; then the tide
turned. He was driving the broncho up
a steep, ugly looking spur, on track
that cat could hardly scramble over,
when all at once the beast put his blamed
little hoof on rolling stone, and before
Ned could make decent grab for his
tail, turned heels over head and rolled
like log down into the canyon. 1t
a north hillside in the cherries gray of
a raw November evening. Yet that was
what Ned Anthony was doing.
The fence wound along the hillside in
the zigzag fashion of its kind, leaning
now to the right, now to the left, and
humoring the inequalities on the ground
handsomely. 1t was new fence, ag-
gressively new in contrast to the gray of
the sky and the subdued drabs and
browns of the rocks, the bare branches
and the fallen leaves. The clean split
sides of the chestnut rails shone whitley,
end the stakes which held all secure
where the rails Tapped at the corners
were finished off with workmanlike
caps, made of bits of boards with a
couple of anger holes drilled through
i them, instead of the usual slovenly twist
of wild grapevine. A thrifty looking
fence, stout and ubstantial-evidently
the line fence inclosing the property of
thrifty and substantial man.
The proprietor sat upon it and stared
about him, whistling softly and trim
ming hickory stick cut in the woods
Just back of him. The land, twelve hun
bred acres of it, had formerly been a
portion of the patrimonial estate of the
Beverley family, to whose present rep
resentatives there remained the old fam
lily dwelling and modest surrounding
of three hundred acres at the upper end
of the original tract Mr.. Anthony had
desired to become possessor of the entire
plantation, house and land, just as it
had passed from father to son in the
Beverley line, and to that end had in
structed his lawyer not to stand on an
extra thousand or two, and had learned,
to his surprise and disappointment, that
the tract had been divided, and that the
upper end of the farm, including the
house and lots about it, had been as
signed to Mrs. Hector Beverley in lieu
of her right of dover in the whole.
"It is hers in fee," the lawyer wrote,
being naturally proud of good COM
promise with creditors effected by his
own sagacity, "and hardly think any
offer would induce her to part with it,
as she is deeply attached to the place,
although not born Beverley. | have
secured the major portion of the estate
for you at more advantageous terms
than those suggested by yourself, and
have had the necessary papers recorded
as per direction. The body of land is
fine, but the buildings are inferior-only
a dozen or so cabins and the old over
seer's house. All the home buildings
are on the widows part. However, if
you propose settling in Virginia, you
will of course soon remedy all that"
1.-THE devil 1 willr' muttered the impa-
tent recipient of the epistle from which
the above sentence is quoted. "What in
thunder does he suppose | wanted with
the land without the house? l can have
new houses by the dozen; what l wanted
was the old one. didn't know the old
lady was living still. She must be hard
on to seventy, for she had left the mid
die mile stone well behind twenty years
ago. I'd have liked owning the old
house; though the Lord knows what |
want with it, or the land eitherp
However, he wrote to the lawyer again,
giving the necessary instructions about
fencing and other matters, and intimat-
ing that his business might require his
presence in the east before many months
had passed, and that in that event he
would probably visit Virginia.
The months had passed, bringing with
them the necessity which Mr.. Anthony
had forecast. He had come east and
was now in Virginia. He had arrived
in the village the evening before and es-
tablished himself for the present at the
solitary boarding house Gt could not be
called hotep of the place, which was
kept by new people, who had been resi-
dent in the village only matter of ten
or twelve years and of course were I'M
connected with that bygone time which
to Anthony seemed to move forward and
join hands with the present the moment