The daily Alaskan., 1907-02-15
THE PLAYHOUSE
 IN THE COPSE
IOriginal.l l

Loriginall
 Don't you think, Cuthbert, that it would be nice to make our wedding trip to your old home in the country? You could show me all those places that were familiar to you as a boy, the swimming hole, the two beaches you have so often told me about all cut over with names, that little copse with in which you played at housekeeping"
 "YeS, Rosa, dear; quite approve of your plan" Then he sat silent and thoughtful. With woman's quick eye | she detected q sad memory.
 The wedding over. they took a train for the village in which Cuthbert Deane had been born and from which i've years before he had gone to seek his fortune in the city. His widowed mother was living on the old place and being averSe to travel had declined to be present at the ceremony, saying she would be at home to receive the bridal couple. The first day after their ar rival they visited every object Cuth- bert had told his wife about, most of them being very much as he had left them, except that some of them had dwindled. The distance from a win dow in his room to the ground, which used to be very great. now seemed so trifing that he could jump from it without injury: the swimming hole was no bigger than bath tub. AS to the beecheS. he could reach their lower branches.
 But the little cOpse," said Rosa, 'thc inside of which was fitted up for child's houseEeeping-aren't you going to show me that" Cuthbert looked serious and said nothing. Had he not changed his ex- presSion she might have forgotten all about the cOpSe: as it was her curiosity was excited.
 "Wen, is there any reason why l should not see itE''
 Tt Is not on this place: it is ten miles away"
 Cant we drive thereT
 eve could were it not for the rains which have SOftened the road. Besides, the copSe is on the grounds of one who"- He paused.
 'It may have been cut down." she said. seeing that heI not go on. G.N-o ;r Is tbnra still |"
 "How do you know?"
 ~Please, Rosa, don't talk any more about the copse."
 The young wife glanced at her hus- band inquiringly, then turned the sub- ject.
 A few days before their expected de- parture Cuthbert announced that matter of business be wished to attend to while at home would neceSSitate his driving to the county seat. Rosa asked if she could not go with him, but he told her he might be detained over night and there were no suitable ac- commodations for her in the place. He kissed her and, jumping into q buggy, drove down the road. Ten minutes lat CT Rosa jumped into another vehicle and followed him.
 Cuthbert, after driving awhile, drew up on the edge of wood where he ] tethered his horse, then walked toward a house near by in the center of large ! grounds. He did not enter by the gate. but, circling, climbed a fence in the rear and proceeded to clump of tall brush. Going directly to an opening. 1 the location of which he knew exactly, be entered an open space.
 A stranger coming upon such a place might have supposed it to be the grave of an Indian girl child, with her play things to amuse her in the Indians | heaven. There were bedsteads, bureau 1 and enormous dolls; indeed, the place was furnished as if 1t were a little house. The brush intertwined above and a ceiling of straw had been thatCh- ed to turn the rain. In the center of i the space was a grave, but it was the length of an adult. At its head was T stone, on which were the letters: