Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1905-01-27

IN her day--the old lady was
something Of an oracle, In
fallible. sir, that's the word-absos
lutely infallible In fact, to put 1t
more plainly said the colonel, "she
was always right :
Il have no doubt Of It, sir" / said,
meekly. You see, / was in love with
the coloneTs daughter. and under
those circumstances father is not a
being to be contradicted. More than
that, the colonel was speaking OF a
matter Of family history, and the coli
onel's 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 q wink; "but, between ourselves,
Aunt Janet was probably a mischief
making, interfering old matchmaker.
That a 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 1t when one
belongs to an ancient family. And,
after all, the old lady Is never really
troublesome. Picturesque in q sense,
and always keeps to the upper foors."
''And this" said. pointing to a
massive old silver candlestick on a
aideboard- this Is Great-aunt Janets
candlestick. eh7''
"Yes." said the colonel, froWning at
Il and shaking hia head. perfectly
ridiculous, Of course; but It Il said
that wheneveE there IL any love AFFAIR
on hand the ghost Of the ola lady
walks; that she carries the candle
stick With which for some three
quarters Of q century she lighted her
self % bed, and that II one OF the
lovers meets her at that critical time
abe gives him such advice as lifts
him, 90 to speak"--the colonel made
. movement with hia hands as though
dandling a large-siHed infant awk-
wardly-"Iifts him into the lady's at
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.
mot bad notion" said the col
onel. with 4 chuckle. ''Here, Dora,
our friend here thinks OF trying to
set q dip from Great-aunt Janet to-
night. though what he wants to trou-
bic her for can't for the life Of me
imagine"
II do assure you" / suffered, as
she gave me her hand in saying good
night, II DON'T see what Great-aunt
Janet could have to tell me, and, Of
course, shouldn't think Of doing any
thing"
"Of course not" she replied with
demure eyes looking into mine. s.But
its q pretty idea"
! She kissed her father-ohl adorable
lips pressed for moment against the
stern, white mustache-and went out
OF the room; and / found, quite IN
expectedly, that could not sleep.
/ discovered. too. that had left nv
cigarette case In the smoking room.
and / had a dim notion that cigar
cite might soothe me, and might drive
out Of my head certain vain dreams
and fancies. For who was that I
should think that blue-eyed Dora
should ever care twopence about meq
went down softly through the
darkened house to the smoking room.
and switched on the light there and
looked about for my cigarette case.
j found il, and had just slipped It
into my pocket, when the ramem-
Drance Of what the colonel had said
brought 70 my mind the heavy silver
eandlsaslclx. I glanced toward the
spot where Il had stood. and / saw
to my establishment that It was no
longer thsre IN q hash I glanced