The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-10-24
A QUEER STORY.
Birds Queer Action Excites Awe.

ulllS, TcmOtc lTOu TallTOduS anu rarely
visited by the stranger from the out
side world except in summer time,
when the vacationist seeks the tonic of
its wind swept hills, has sensation
in supposed spirit manifestation of
the strangest kind that ever disturbed
the peace Of superstitious man.
\ simple bird, wood partridge, by
its phenomenal actions has led half
the people for miles around to believe
that it is ruled by the spirit Of the
dead and the other half to shake their
heads in wonder at chat which they
cannot understand
The bird appears only in the vicini-
ty OF lonely burying ground, the
tiny, private cemetery Of the family
on whose ancestral farm it is located
and where a beautiful girl was laid to
rest few months ago. Those Of the
neighbors who speak their thoughts
openly declare that her soul has been
transmigrated to the humble body Of
the bird that she may come back to
earth and be near her loved ones.
Vina Garland, the young woman
whose sad death is SO much talked
about today, yes Of character dis
tinctly apart from that Of the ordinary
country girl. She was the daughter
of Charles Garland, wcll-to do farm
cr, and though she was physically
frail, she developed tender beauty
that increased as she advanced in
years toward womanhood.
But it was her intellectual attain
ments that made her most remarkable.
From the days when. little tot, she
followed her father to do his work in
the fields, she showed tendency to
observation and study that surprised
her elders, and when later on she took
her books to the little country school
Of her district she early made such
progress as to set her far ahead of her
schoolmates.
AT the age when other girls were
plodding through the intermediate
grades she was teaching, and at the
age Of 18 she was made an assistant
in the staid old Northwood Seminary,
Of which Prof. Loren G. Williams is
principal.
Alas! the career that began with
such promise was but short. Tho du-
ties Of the position so far beyond her
years proved too aTduvus for the young
teacher, and her health, never robust,
gradually declined. She was taken
ill, aud was brought back to the old
home, never to leave it again in life.
All the countryside turned out to
her funeral, and many eyes were wet
with tears as they looked for the last
time on the sweet face that rested so
peacefully in the fower-lined casket.
She was buried as her fathers had been
before her for generations, back in the
little walledin yard that lay with it's
mossy headstones and overhanging
trees on tie hill above her childhoods g
home.
Several weeks had passed after the
young teachers death when the mys-
terious bird made its appearance.
Farmer Garland was st work one day
plying with his team between the farm
house and field that lay G short dis
tance above the cemetery, when he
was astonished, as he was passing the
Spot where his daughter was buried, to
see full grown partridge suddenly
appear in front Of his horses.
At first Mr.. Gurland thought it was
mother bird defending her young,
and remembering how fond his lost
daughter was Of the wild birds that
lived about her home he tried to scare
it away from its dangerous proximity
to the horses hoofs. But the par
fridge seemed utterly devoid IF fear,
and when the driver sprang to the
ground it stopped with strangely ap-
pealing air, as if waiting for him to
come to it. It even allowed him to
push it bodily from the path.
Wondering at it's strange actions Of
which the farmer, in his long expcr-
ience in woodcraft and in country, life
had never heard the like, he mounted
his cart and proceeded on to the field.
The bird followed along beside his
team like dog, and when he started
to return it still kept beside his horses.
But when it arrived back near the
burying ground it left him as sudden
ly as it had first appeared.
Mr.. Garland returned shortly with
second load and again the bird appear
ed and accompanied him to the field
and back as before. All day long it
followed him to and fro, and when