Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1904-10-19
Ghe Family Tree

Ndptali Nioih wac 'A|
man in America. He had served
creditably in the war OF 1912, as his
father had in the Revolution and his
grandfather had in the "Old French
war"-all captains who had never
received a scratch or once encoun-
tered the vulgar smell of gunpow-
der.
Family pride was the captains
speciality. How far back he could
trace his kindred nobody exactly
knew, but it was popularity believed
he could, if SO minded, produce sat
isfactory proof that the Craiks had
cruised through the food in their
own private yacht.
The captain hated the new and
worshiped the old. When he went
about it was in an ancient family
gig drawn by an old horse of ap-
proved extraction, now a mere pedl-
gree in harness, but in whose spavins
and windgalls the captain took al
most as much pride as he did in the
family govt,
Captain Craik was rich, moreover
Time and the natural rise of prop
erty had made him so. He would
have scorned the acquisition OF
wealth by any less respectable mode.
Trade he looked upon as plebeian
and vulgar. Speculation was up
startish, and as for petroleum
faugh! ,
His daughter and only child he had
left to die unforgiven and almost in
want for having married a man
without a grandfather. The poor
girl had besought his forgiveness
while her husband lived, but ceased
to do SO after his death, seeming
to look upon such an act as sort
of treason to his memory. Her IN
FAINT son, however, soon left mother
less as we'll as fatherless, was taken
into favor at last for the sake OF
the blood that was in him, and thus
it came that Willard Spence was
brought up in his grandfather's
house in a way BETTING the heir ap-
parent to the handsomest fortune
within fifty miles,
Captain Craik would have greatly
preferred that his grandson, after
finishing at college, should have sat
down in gentlemanly idleness and
quietly awaited his turn at the fam
ily succession. But Willard Spence
had other views. He was far from
sharing his grandfather's notions on
the value Of ancestry, and though
too discreet to openly laugh at them
he felt he was more than likely to
run counter to them some day, as
his poor mother had done, when his
own time to marry came. 1t was
for this reason partly and partly be-
cause he had an ambition to be
something in his own right that
Willard prevailed upon his grand
father to enter him as a student In
the office of Mr.. Stiles, the leading
LAWYER Of the county.
1t was with some reluctance that
the old gentleman yielded. lie en-
tertained not very exalted opinion
of the bar. But then it was a STEP
ping stone to the bench, and though
the family could boast Of three sue
cessive captains there had never
been a chief justice in it. 1t was
this consideration that determined
the captain.
If John Stiles was the driest Of
lawyers, his daughter Mary was the
prettiest and most fascinating Of
girls, and Willard Spence was moi
the man to be slow in finding it out
1t would be the old story over TO re-
count the steps Of their falling II
love and how deeply they fell in.
Willard ventured to hint to MI
grandfather one day, not at th'
state of his feelings, but what nice
intelligent young lady Miss Stiles
was. The old gentleman caught Ike
gunpowder. lie had no excuse fol
putting a summary end to his grand
sons legal studies and packing hin
of on a foreign tour, for the young
man had said nothing to justify
suspicion of his being in love. But
the captain scented danger afar an n,
proceeded to preach such q homil.
on the sin of marrying into families
without lineage and put such a dis
inheriting look on that Willard wa
tain to drop the subject,
If the reader has ever read Black
stone he will remember, and If n
hasn't we will tell him, that in tn
second book there is a folding lea
called "Table of Descents," where
n. The author WusAsAtAA ia ma