Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-12-11
II hll a
VIRGlNllA
Copyright The BobbsMerril Company.

his hands together and laughed aloud.
Back to the soil!" he said. John
Valiant, farmer The miracle Of 1t is
that it sounds good to me. l want to
raise my own grub and till my own
soil. l want to be my own man! And
I'm beginning to see my way. Crops
will have to wait for another season,
but there's water and pasture for
cattle now. There's timber-lots of it
On that hillside, too. ! must look
into that"
He filled his pipe and climbed the
staircase to the upper floor Here
the lower hall was duplicated. He
proceeded slowly and carefully with
the dusty task of window opening.
There were many bedrooms with great
four posted. canopied beds and old
fashioned carved furniture Of ma
hogany and curly-maple, and in one he
found a great cedar-lined chest filled
with bed linen and napery. In these
rooms were more evidences of decay.
They showed in faded hues, streaked
and discolored f1nishings, yellow mil
dew beneath the glass Of framed en-
cravings and unsightly stains on
walls and floors from leaks in the
roof. On a dainty dressing-table had
been left a pin-cushion; it's stuffing
was strewn in tiny trickling trail to
a mouse-hole in the Dashboard. The
bedroom he mentally chose for his
own was the plainest Of all, and was
above the library, fronting the vaga-
bond garden. 1t had a great black
desk with many glass-knobbed draw
ers and a book-rack. The volumes this
contained were mostly Of the historical
sort; a history Of the Middle Planta.
ton, Meare's Old Churches, and at
the end parchment-bound tome in
scribed The Valiants of Virginia.
He fingered longest in a room over
whose door was painted The Hilarium.
1t had evidently been nursery and
schoolroom. Here on the walls were
many shelves wound over with net
works of cobwebs, and piled with the
oldest assemblage Of toys; wooden
and splintered soldiers that had once
been bravely painted. dolls in various
states Of worn-outness-One rag doll
in a calico dress with shoe-button
eyes and string of bright glass
beads round her neck--a wooden box
of marbles, tattered boxing-glove.
There were school-books, too, thumbed
and dog-eared, from first reader to
Caesars Gallo Wars. with names Of
small Valiants scrawled on their fly
leaves. He carefully relocked the
door of this room: he wanted to dust
those toys and books with his own
hands.
In the upper hall again he leaned
from the window, shifting the far-fung
scent of orchards and peach-blown
fence-rows. The soft whirring sound
of birds wing went past, almost
brushing his startled face, and the
old oaks seemed to stretch their bent
limbs with a faithful brute-like yawn
of pleasure. In the room below he
could hear the vigorous sound Of Aunt
Daphne's harddriven broom and the
sound flooded the echoing space with
a comfortable commotion.
The present task was one after
Aunt Daphne's own heart. A small
mountain of dust was growing on the
terrace. and as beneath brush and rag
the colors Of wall and parquetry stood
forth, her face became one shiny ex-
panse of ebony satisfaction. When
the bulldog, returning from his 1aunt,
out-strfpping Uncle Jefferson, bounced
in to prance against her she smote
him Justify with her scrubbing7brush.
"Git outer heah, yo' good-fo':nuthin'
wife rapscallyun- Gwine trapse yo'
muddy feet all ovah dis yeah floor,
whut All jes' scrubbed tell yo' mar
stab kin eat of'n et?" She broke off
to listen to Uncle Jefferson's voice out
side, directed toward the upper win
dow.
dat yo', sub? Vas, sub, dis me.
Well sub All take OF Sukey out de
Red Road. en- All hitch huh ter yo' ma
en- she done balk. Won't
go nohow whit, sub? Beat huh
ovah de haid?' Vas, sub, done hit
huh in de haid six times wild de whip
han'l. en- she look me in de eye en-
ain said err word. :. 'Twis, huh
tail?' Me, sub? No-suh-ree, sub.
Mars Quarles' boy one time he twis'
huh tail en- dey SEN him ter de
horspit1. 'Daid,' subj" NO, sub. ain
daid. but te mos bust him wide open.
Set fab undah huh?' Vas, sub,
done set fab undah huh. Mos burn
up ue IlHIubSS, eli all uoiiC NV Sooh.
Well. sub, All ies' gwineter say
no use waitin' TO- Sukey ter change
huh min, so All put some fence-rails
undah huh en- jock huh up en- come
home. En- Abs gwine out after suppah
en- Sukey be all right den, sub, All
reck'n. Vas, sub
Aunt Daphne plunged out with fire
in her eye. but the laugh that came
from above was reassuring. Never
mind, Uncle Jefferson, Miss Sukey's
whims shall be regarded
Chum, bouncing up the stairs like an
animated bundle of springs, met his
master coming down. "O1d man"
said the latter, IT don't mind telling
you that I'm beginning to be taken
with this place. But it's in a bad
way, and it's going to be put in shape.
It's a large order, and we'll have to
work like horses. Don't you bother
Aunt Daph You just come with your
Uncle Dudley. He's going to take
look over the grounds"
He went to his trunk and fished out
a soft shirt on which he knotted a
loose tie, exchanged his Panama for
a SLOUGH hat, and whistling the bar
carole from Tales Of Hoffman,, went
gaily out 81 feel tremendously alive