Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-08-07
CHAPTER XII.
Damory Court.

"DARs Danny n'S ;, Coo, fd,r SMACK %si Ida Al
looked up. Facing them at an elbow
of the broad road, was an old gate
way of time-nicked stone, claspine
an iron gate that was quaint and
heavy and red with rust. Over it or
either side twin sugar trees flung
their untrammeled strength, and
from it, leading up gentle declivity
ran a curVing avenue of oaks. he
put out his hand.
"Wait moment" he said in a low
voice and as the creaking convey
ance stopped he turned and looked
about him.
Facing the entrance the land fell
away sharply to a miniature valley,
through which rambled a willow
bordered brook. in whose shadows
short horned COWS stood lazily. Be
yond, alternating with fields OF
young grain and verdured pastures
like crushed velvet, rose a sue
cession of tranquil slopes crowned
with trees that here and there
grouped about white colonial
dwelling, with it's outbuildings be-
hind it. Beyond, whittier wound the
Red Road, he could see a drowsy
village, with a spire and a cupolaed
court house; and farther yet yellow
gorge with a wisp of white smoke
curling above it marked the course
of a crawling PARKWAY railway.
Over all the dimming yellow sun
shine and girdling the farther hori-
zon. In masses of purplish blue, the
tumbled battlements of the Blue
Ridge.
His conductor had laboriously de-
scended and now the complaining
they toiled Up the long ascent, the
neglected driveway was a riot of tur-
bulent growth; thistle. white-belled
burdock, ragwecd and dusty mullen
stood waist high.
"Et's moughty fine OF place, sub,
mid dat big revenue OBJ trees" said
Uncle Jefferson. But All reck'n ct
ain got none of de modern CONN.,
vances.'
But Valiant did not answer: his
| gaze was straight before him, fixed
| on the noble old house they were APP
preaching It's wide and columned
| front peered between huge rugged
oaks and slender silver poplars which
| cast cool long shadows across an I'M
kempt lawn laden with ragged mock
orange, lilac and syringa bushes, its
| stately grandeur dimmed but not des-
| troyed by the shameful stains of the
neglected years.
| AS he jumped down he was pos
sessed by an odd sensation of old ac-
duaintance-as il he had seen those
| tall white columns before-an illusory
| half-vision into some shadowy
fourth dimensional landscape that be-
longed to his subconscious self, or
that, glimpsed in some immaterial
dream picture, had left faint-etched
memory. Then, on a sudden, the
vista vibrated and widened the white
columns expanded and shot up into
the clouds, and from every bush
seemed to peer a friendly black saw
age with woolly white hair!
Wishing Housed" he whispered
He looked about him. half expecting
so vivid was the illusion-to see a cir.
Gle of rough huts under the frees anG
a multitude of ebony imps 9ancing II
that secret Never Never Land, the
wondrous fairy damesne of SliS child
hood, with it's amiable fbsrbArians
and it's thickets of coursing2 grimal.
kinsl The hidden country which his
fathers thoughts, sadly recurring
had painted to the little child thai
once he was, in the guise of an end
less wonder-talei HIS eyes mistec
over, and it seemed to him that mo.
ment that his father was very near.
Leaving the negro to unload his
belongings, he traversed an over,
grown path of messed gravel, between
hox-rows frowsled like the names o.
lions gone mad and smothered in ar
accumulation of matted roots anC
debris of rotting foliage, and present
ly, the bulldog at his heels, founC
himself in the rear of the house.
The building, with kitchen, stable.
and negro quarters behind it, hac
been set on the boss of the wooded
knoll. Along half it's side ran a wild,
porch that had once been glass-en
closed. now with panes gone anc
broken and putty-crumbling sashes
Below it lay the piteous remnants q
a formal garden. grouped about al
oval pool from whose centre rearet