Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1910-05-11

as related to the bringing OF the or
phaned Ardea to Deer Trace Manor,
wrought itself out speedily. as mat
ter of course. At the close Of the war,
Captain Louis, the Majors only son,
had become, like many another hot
hearted young Confederate, q self ex-
patrioted exile. On the eve of his de-
parture for France he had married the
Virginia maiden who had nursed him
alive after Chancellorsville. Major
Caspar had given the bride away-the
war had spared no kinsman OF hers to
stand In this breach-and when the
God-speeds were said. had himkelf
turned back to the weed grown fields
of Deer Trace Manor, embittered and
hostile, swearing never to set foot out
side Of his home acres again while the
Union should stand. -giS
For more than twenty years he kept
this VOW almost literally. A few of the
older negroes, mere handful of the
six score slaves of the old patriarchal
days, cast In their lot with their for
mer, master, and with these the Major
made shift thriftily, farming a little,
stock-raising little, and, unlike most
1t the war-broken plantation owners
clinging tenaciously to every. rood Of
land covered by the original Dabney
title Deeds u
In this cenobitic interval. IL you
wanted Dabney colt or Dabney
COW, you went, or sent, to Deer Trace
Manor on your own initiative. and you
or your deputy, never met the Major.
your business was transacted with
lean, lantern jawed Japheth Pettigrass
the Majors qstock-nnd-fa farm foreman
And although the Dabney stock was
pedigreed. you kept your wits about
you; else Pettigrass got much the bet
ter OF you In the trade. like the shrewd
was. IS a
Ardea was> born In Paris in the
twelfth yearsof the exile; and the vir-
ginia mother pining always for the
home land. died In the fifteenth year
Afterward Captain Louis fought a
long drawn. losing battle, figuring
braYely In his infrequent letters to his
father as o rising miniature painter.
He had his little girl back and forth
between his lodgings and the studio
where he painted pictures that nobody
would buy, and eking out a miserable
existence by giving lessons in English,
when he was happy enough to find a
pupil.
The brave letters imposed on the Nv
;jor, as they were meant to do; and
lArdea, the loyal. happening on one OF
them In her first Deer Trace summer.
read 1t through with childish sobs and
never thereafter opened her lips on the
story of those distressful Paris DAYS.
Later she understood her fathers mo-
tive better: how he would not be a
charge on an old man rich in nothing
but ruin: and the memory OF the
pinched childhood became a thing sa-
cred. s
How the Major. second Rip Van
Wrinkle, found his way to New York,
and to the pier of the incoming French
Line steamer, must always remain a
mystery. But he was there, with tho
fierce old eyes quenched and swim
ming and the passionate Dabney lips
trembling strangely under the great
when the black -frockcd
little wait from the Old World ran
down the landing stage and into his
arms. Small wonder that they chung
to each other. these two at the further.
extremes Of three generations; OF that
the child opened a door in the heart
OF the fierce old partisan which was
locked and doubly barred against all
others.
It was all new and very strange to
a child whose only outlook on life had
been urban and banal. She had never.
seen mountain. and nothing more
nearly. approaching forest thai the
parked groves of the Bots de Bouiogne.
Would 1t be permitted that she should
sometimes walk in the woods of the
first Dabney. she asked, with the quaint
French twisting of the phrases that
she was never able fully to overcome.
1t would certainly be permitted: more.
the Major would make her a deed to
as many Of the forest acres as she
would care to include in her prome-
made.
How the French born child fitted in
to the haphazard household at Deer
Trace Manor, with what struggles she
came through the inevitable attack Of
Inconsistencies. and how Nanny Juliet
and every one else petted and indulg-
ed her, are matters which need not be
dwelt on. But we shall gladly believe
that she, was too sensible. even at the
early and tender age of 10, to be easily
spoiled.
She never forgot summer day soon
after her arrival when she first saw
her grandfather transformed into
frenzied mailman. He was sitting on
the wide portico directing ,Japheth
Pettigrass. who was training the great
crimson rambler rose that ran we'll up
to the caves. Ardea, herself, was on
the lawn, playing with her grandfath-
er's latest gift, a huge. solemn-eyed
Great Dane, SO she did not see the man
who had dismounted- at the gate and
walked up the driveway until he was
his card to her grandfather.
When she did see him, she looked
tdwice at him; not because he was
trigly clad In brown duck and tightly
buttoned service leggings. but because
he wore his beard trimmed to point,
after the manner of the students in the
Latin Quarter. and 80 was reminiscent
OF things freshly forsaken. Her grand
father was on his feet, towering above
the visitor as II he were about to fall
on and crush him.
Bring youth Yankee railroad through
my fields and pastchuhs. sub? Foul
inc pure al-ah OF this peaceful Gyarden
OF Eden with youh dust flingin'. smoke
pot locomotives? Not rod. sub! not a
foot or an inch oven the Dabney lands!
Do make 1T plain to you. suh?"
But Major Dabney-one moment;
this is purely matter of business;
there is nothing personal about IT. Our
company is able and willing to pay lib
orally for its right of way; and you
must remember that the coming of the
railroad will treble and quadruple your
land values. I am only asking you to
consider the matter in business way.
and to name your own price"
Not anotheh word, sub. or you'll
make me lose my tempah! You add
insult to injury, sub. when you offeh
me youth contemplate Yankee gold.
When desiah to sell my birthright
for you'll beggahly mess of pottage. I'll
send black boy in town to infawm
you. suh!" 81
1t is conceivable that the locating en-
gineer of the Great Southwestern Rail
way Company was younger than he
looked; or. at all events, that his ex-
perience hitherto had not brought him
in contact with fire Eating gentlemen
OF the old school. Else he would hard