The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1904-08-19

In ner day-tne OLD lazy was
something of an oracle. In
fallible, sir, that's the word-abso-
lutely infallible. In fact, to put it
more plainly" said the colonel, "she
was always right"
Il have no doubt of it, sir" l said,
meekly. You see, l was in love with
the colonels daughter, and under
those circumstances a father is not a
being to be contradicted. More than
that, the colonel was speaking of a
matter of family history, and the col
onels family goes back to the time a
little before William the Norman
made up his mind to come over to
England.
Her particular powers. my dear
boy" went on the colonel, "lay with
the romantic. I've heard it said that
all the lovers from all the country
round used to come to her in their
troubles and get good advice. That's
what they say" added the colonel.
With a wink; but, between ourselves,
Aunt Janet was probably a mischief
making, interfering old matchmaker.
That is shown by the fact that she
still troubles this earth when she
should be reposing respectfully some
where else. One has to put up with
this sort of thing, you know'-the
colonel frowned and coughed and set
tied his neck into his shirt collar
zone must put up with it when one
belongs to an ancient family. And,
after all, the old lady is never really
troublesome. Picturesque in a sense,
and always keeps to the upper floors"
And this" l said, pointing to
massive old silver candlestick on a
sideboard-"this is Great-aunt Janets
candlestick, eh?'
YES" said the colonel, frowning at
1t and shaking his head. Perfectly
ridiculous, of course; but it Is said
that whenever there is any love affair
on hand the ghost of the old lady
walks; that she carries the candle
stick with which for some three
quarters of a century she lighted her
self to bed, and that If one of the
lovers meets her at that critical time
she gives him such advice as lifts
him, so to speak"-the colonel made
movement with his hands as though
dandling a large-sized infant awk-
wardly-"lifts him into the lady's af-
fections, or vice versa. But she is
always accompanied by the candle
stick"
1T might be worth trying" / said.
half to myself, and just at that mo-
ment the door of the smoking room
opened and she came in
Not a bad notion" said the col
onel, with a chuckle. Here, Dora.
our friend here thinks of trying to
get a tip from Great-aunt Janet to-
night though what he wants to trou-
BILE her for l can't for the life of me
imagine"
Il do assure you" l suffered, as
she gave me her hand in saying good
night, Il don't see what Great-aunt
Janet could have to tell me- and, of
course, l shouldn't think of doing any
thing"
"Of course not" she replied with
demure eyes looking into mine. But
it's a pretty idea"
She kissed her father-oh. adorable
lips pressed for a moment against the
stern, white mustache-and went out
of the room; and found, quite I'M
expectedly. that l could not sleep.
| discovered, too. that l had left my
cigarette case in the smoking room.
and l had dim notion that a cigar
cite might sootbe me, and might drive
out of my head certain vain dreams
and fancies. For who was / that l
should think that blue-eyed Dora
should ever care twopence about me ?
/ went down softly through tie
darkened house to the smoking room.
and switched on the light there and
looked about for my cigarette case.
found 1t, and had just slipped II
into my pocket. when the remem-
brance of what the colonel had said
brought to my mind the heavy silver
candlestick. / glanced toward the
spot where II had stood, and l saw
to my establishment that 1t was no
longer there. In fash ! glanced