The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1895-01-29
MISS LANIER
By MARTHA MoULLooH WILLIAMS.
Copyright, 1884, by the A,thor.l
Confined.

he began, stop ed short, took turn
e the room rat ,do sQual ly i'll front
u the painter AID said, ha { apologet-
ic,lIy. "lI I'm bac.;in a. the wrong
tree, IleAe excuse nae, Mister -;
but, Se Sc, things arc tits way: I've
equitable rights here that l CANT git,
except one way-that is, marry my
cousin. This place is all hers. Entail
ed, ye know, ty her grandfather that
was my mother uncle. Tbar's just only
us two left of the old stock, an in the
course of nature the propertyd come
to me. When tho war begun, with the
niggers an money an all, it was worth
q million dollars-all Darragh 's-then
Just 10 years old. Major Lanier was her
guardian-had a pile of money of his
own too He was the first man in the
county to enlist as q soldier. Soon as
there was a company he armed and
equipped 'em at his own expense. On
top of that he put all his an Darragh's
| money in the cotton loan. Oh, he amt
one that ever did things by halves, l
tell We"
Evidently not" Tanning said, set
| ting his teeth hard. The other went on;
| An, as if that warn't enough, after the
| Yankees come in these parts, through
lawyer here, he mortgaged Darraghs-
mount-every acre-an sent the money
to England to buy quinine an gun
powder for his men, sick an well. He's
fighter from way back, let me tell ye.
Enlisted for the war, and staid al
ways where the fight was hottest. Moth
in ever fetched him till the last month
of the shindy. In some of them fights
before Petersburg he got so shot an cut
to pieces that nobody thought he'd live
q week. But somehow he did pull
through, more's the pity, l can't help
sayin. Darragh an old Isaac managed
somehow to get him home. OF all his
fortune nothin was left but the plate
an furniture an books-he had fine
ones if he didn't read. Carpets an
blankets an linen had mostly gone to
the soldiers an the hospitals. Here he
has been ever since, blind, helpless, as
you see him, but saved from every care
You don't need to be told that what
ever is is for him. The other two do
without. Now, for twenty odd years a
woman who by rights ought to roll in
gold has had never decent frock an
barely enough to eat, has pieced an
patched, an turned an contrived, sold
all that was salable outside her father S
room-plate, furniture, books curios-
Nh spent whatever they fetched in keepin
fair weather for him.
"Of course the mortgage WASH t
worth the paper it was written on I'M
less she'd sign it after comm of age.
But, bless you, nobody could make her
see that she wasn't bound by her ia
Tiers doin. In her eyes he could never
do wrong. She went straight to the
bank that held it an said: You shall
have the land. Only let M live on it
till my father dies. They ere mighty
willin to that. The major, hey thout hit,
,ouldn't live a year, but for all that
they made Darral-h promise not to work
Or develop the land, oxcer what old
Isaac could tend. He's just bout made
bread an hitkcn feed ovely yea, with
,Aoai L JNer to wint / old Sultan,
tie najor's warhorse, who lives on q:
fstonishingly as his master. You We seer
him no doubt in the yard all summer;
He brought the major out through tn,
hottest sort Of fire, when he was so hurt
they thought him dead thar in the sad
die. So Darragh would go hungry her
self sooner than stint his corn. She has
taken good pains the major shall MOI
know what she has given up. He wa.
awfully cut up, thinkin he had beg
cared her. So she makes him believe
the land is hers, free an clear, an
that she simply won't sell her coal an
iron rights because she has already more
money than she knows what to do with.
Believin that, he wants her always tc
wear silk, dress for dinner, an all that.
/ reckon, though, you know all about
that-poor old man! So he has the fee
of silk about her, he believes her fine
as fiddle. It's the same way about old
Isaac. He is supposed to be valet al
butler, with dozen servants under him,
when really what time he can spare
from waitin on old Eppy, his wife.
who is cook, he is out in the field, work
in for dear life.
Now, just look at things The place
is worth two fortunes still Coal in one
hill, iron in another, wood, water,
limestone all about. Five thousand acres
in it tool Amt it more than shame
that the rightful owner an heir should
be choseled ont of it in this fashion,
All for within too. Ever since / came
of age I've been at Darragh to let me
open the case an fight those bank
sharks. She jest won't hear of it. Says
she gave her word Of honor for her ia
theirs debt, an that's worth more than
a hundred million, let alone one or
two"
flaming half turned away to say:
Hmm! / suppose, then, there is no
record of her promise?"
mot a scratch. That's one reason
she's SO set. Says them people trusted
her, an she amt goin back ON 'em. Eff
once l could get her to marry me, they d
dance to different tuner
'Ah! You are-fond of herr"
'Oh, yes! In q way. She's q right
good sort; but, man alive, just look at
it! I'm heir to this property of she don't
fool it away or--marry you"
HAS she had no other CHANGER
"More'n You could shake a stick at.
We amt the only ones-not by Jug
full. Fact is, she could have took her
pick of the country long ago, eff she'd
ever left the major long enough to talk
to man. One time she did have right
smart notion of a Teller. forget his
name, but he was a soldier, one that
helped do somethin for the major when
he was SO bad off. can just remember
him. He cana to see her of an On for
three-fo'-years when l was a brit
We always said Darragh loved him a
heap. l reckon twas the uajor-the
keor of him, you Lnow-tha5 KEEP 'em
apart. Anyway lo went off somewhere