Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1906-12-19

"dS orphaned In my infancy and
from my earliest recollection my
grandfather had made me his con-
stant companion. He was an timer
ant 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
l followed him in the pursuance of
MS duties through sun and rain and
winter gale.
repeat this IN order to explain
gust how l regarded my grandfather
IN the light of ! certain hereditament
NE left TO me, his diary, but which
ne expressly forbade me opening
until had passed my twenty-fifth
birthday.
There were many things / Witnessed
and heard in my boyhood for which
l could find no explanation until
broke the seal of this book wherein
the magnitude of my grandfather's
very soul stands revealed. The first
entry in the diary is as follows:
My BELOVED grandson, in this
diary are recorded events writ down
w
comment | leave 1t with thee to judge
whether l 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
hadst come to gladden. thy grand
sipe's heart, that | was journeying to
Blore Health. When night came down
fate led me to the door of a desolate
inn slowly dropping to ruin in the
perpetual shadow of grove OF oak
The aged host greeted me most
cordially, for at his inn guests were
not frequent and therefore the 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, 1t 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
how the opening of a new thorough.
fare had diverted custom to other hos
telries. So when the daughter was
married to a well-todo young farmer
they closed the inn, peTforce and
went and made their home with her
ptff
welded husband rode away to a
neighboring market town and never
returned.
After due time the farm and tene-
ments passed into the possession Of
the next heir-at-law, cousin of the
husband; and the. old couple with
their dowerlesc 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 IL
Lisbeth would only hearken to us and
wed with Carver ballard, the cousin
who succeeded to the estate.
Then Lisbeth. lifting her sorrow
laden eyes to a portrait OF her hus-
band on the wall, said Mother.
thou need'st not grieve for the rich
living at the farm beyond Whitsun-
tide. That day I promise to give my
hand to Carver Hallard an he still de-
sires IT,"
Then a gloomy silence fell like a
funeral pail over us, and VIC sat about
the fire absorbed in our own thoughts
until there came the sound of a quick
step up the pathway and an i'm.
perative knock at the door. and Gar
yer ballard entered. He was a dark
Manufactured, harsh-spoken man
whom any tender young woman might
we'll have stunned.
] cod'1 not understand II then but
IntuitiveH felt that he was a man
with a guilty conscience. Ind I'm the
light OF the recent narration. I fell
to comparing his features with those
of the picture hanging above his head
AS my gaze wandered from one IN
the other there came TO me a sense ~
q presence in the room, a conviction
could neither define nor evade. and
while I strove 60 ana1yze critically
this impression a strange metamor-
phosis seemed to come over M senses
and I felt myself drifting. as II were
into a state Of double consciousness
Still with that sense Of a divided
ego. with the voices about me echoing
vaguely through my brain, THOUGHT
myself riding along a country road.
sunken and SCARED deep with old
cart ruts. a road had never Travelled
before. Under The influence of this
unseen force, / appeared to come 10
where the crumbling shell OF an an
cient oak spanned the path. / reached
into the hollow trunk and drew forth
spade corroded with rust and roll