Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1906-12-13


him are quite distinct and mature.
/ was orphaned in my infancy and
from my earliest recollection my
grandfather had made me his con-
stant companion. He was an timer
aaat preacher of western England-his
circuit calling him from walled Ches-
ter On the west to the novels of the
charcoal burners in mid-England;
and during the years of his itinerancy
Il followed him in the pursuance OF
his duties through sun and rain and
winter gale.
I repeat this in order to explain
Just how l regarded my grandfather
IN the light of certain hereditament
ne left to me, his diary, but which
he expressly forbade me opening
until | had passed my twenty-ffth
birthday.
There were many things l witnessed
aud heard in my boyhood for which
Z could find no explanation until
broke the seal of this book wherein
the magnitude of my grandfathers
very soul stands revealed. The first
entry in the diary is as follows:
My beloved grandson. in this
diary are recorded events writ down
for thy especial ediflcation Without
comment | leave it with thee to judge
whether | have been the victim of
terrible mind disorder, or whether l
am gifted with perceptions beyond
the usual ken of man.
1t was in the first years of my
study of the occult, long before thou
aadst come TO gladden. thy grand
sire's heart, that | was journeying to
Blore Health. When night came down
Sate led me to the door Of a desolate
Inn slowly dropping to r:ih in the
perpetual shadow of a grove of oak.
The aged host greeted me most
cordially for at his inn guests were
not frequent and therefore + = more
welcome. In the parlor back of the
denuded bar | found his old wife and
his daughter, the only other persons
about the place, moving silently here
and there preparing the evening meal
The daughter was young and tall and
straight and strong and her hands
were coarsened with outdoor work
for, il appeared, she was now the
,burden-bearer of the family
After the supper was cleared away,
the aged parents entertained me with
"reminiscences of a past glory, of
when the inn was new and the great
tide Of travel used to pass its door.
Then in saddened tones they told of
bow the opening of a new thorough
fare had diverted custom to other hos
Salries So when the daughter was
married to a well-to-do young farmer
they closed the inn, perforce. and
went and made their home with her.
But one ill-fated day the newly
welded husband rode away to a
Heighboring market town and never
returned.
After due time the farm and tene-
rnents passed into the possession of
the next heir-at-law, cousin of the
husband; and the cid couple with
their dowerless daughter returned to
the deserted inn, now racked and
wrecked with storm and long neglect.
Thou canst see the gables of the
farm over yon above the trees" said
the mother, "and we might be living
there now mid comfort and plenty if
IAisheth would only hearken to us and
wed with Carver Hallard, the cousin
vito succeeded to the estate.
Then Lisbeth, lifting her sorrow
Gaden eyes to a portrait of her hus-
hand on the wall, said: Mother,
fttoa need'st not grieve for the rich
Giving at the farm beyond Whitsun
tide. That day | promise to give my
hand to Carver Hallard an he still de-
.Bires It."
Then gloomy silence fell like a
funeral pail over us, and we sat about
the fire absorbed in our own thoughts
RIntii there came the sound of a quick
stsp mp the pathway and an i'm.
peTative knock at the door, and Gar
Yer Hailard entered. He was a dark,
hardfeatured, harsh-spoken man
whom any tender young woman might
well have stunned.
I could not understand it then but
j intuitively felt that he was a man
with a guilty conscience. And in the
AIght of the recent narration, I fell
$o comparing his features with those
of the picture hanging above his head.
.as my gaze wandered from one to
Tire other there came to me a sense of
n presence in the room conviction 7
coaid neither define nor evade; and
while / strove to ana1yZe critically
2hiS impression strange metamor.
phpSis seemed to come over my senses
and l felt myself drifting, as it were
into a state of double consciousness.
Stin with that sense of divided
ego, with the voices about me echoing
vaguely through my brain, l thought
myself riding along a country road
sunken and scared deep with old
cart ruts, road | had never travelled
Before. Under the influence of this
siRseen force, / appeared to come to
where the crumbling shell of an an.
.Gienf oak spanned the path. reached