Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-12-18
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CHAPTER XIV Continued

1T would take as many for me-
| Valiant laughed little. You who
have always lived her, can scarcely
understand what I am feeling,
imagine. You see, l never knew till
quite recently-my childhood was
largely spent abroad, and I have no
near relatives-that my father was a
| Virginian and that my ancestors al
ways lived here. TO discover this all
at once and to come to this house,
with their portraits on the walls and
their names on the title-pages of these
books" He made a gesture toward
the glass shelves. why, there's a
room upstairs with the very toys they
played with when they were children!
To learn that belong to it ALL that
myself am the last link in such a
chain"
THE ancestral instinct" said the
doctor. "I'm glad to see that 1t
means something still, in these rotten
days"
| "Of course John Valiant continued
every one knows that he has ances-
tors. But I'm beginning to see that
what you call the ancestral instinct
needs locality and a place. In way
it seems to me that an old estate like
this has soul too-a sort of clan or
family soul that reacts on the descend
ant"
Rather Japanesy idea, isn't it?''
observed the major But | know
what you mean. Maybe that's why
old Virginian families hang on to
their land in spite of hell and high
water. They count their forebears
real live people, quite capable of turn
ing over in their graves"
Mine are beginning to seem very
real to me. Though | don't even
know their Christian names yet, can
Judge them by their handiwork. The
men who built Damory Court had a
sense of beauty and of art
And their share of deviltry, too, -
put in the doctor.
! Il suppose so,' admitted his host.
"At this distance | can bear even that.
But good or bad, I'm deeply thankful
that they chose Virginia. Since I've
been laid up. I've been browsing In
the library here
! "A bit out of date now. / reckon,
said the major, "but it used to pass
musters Your grandfather was some
thing Of book-worm. He wrote a
history of the family, didn't he?"
Eyes. I've found it. The Valiants
of Virginia. I'm reading the revolu-
tionary chapters now. 1t never seemed
real before--it,s been only a slice of
impersonal and rather dull history.
But the book has made it come alive.
I'm having the thrill of the globe
trotter the first time he sees the Tow
er of London or the field of Waterloo.
II see more than that stubble-feld out
yonder; I see big wooden stockade
with soldiers in ragged buff and blue
guarding it,"
The major nodded, "Ah, yes" he
|said. ''The Continental prison-camp. y
"And just over the rise there L can
see an old courthouse, and the Vtr-
ginia Assembly boiling under the gol-
den tongue-lashing of lean raw-boned
Patrick Henry. l see a messenger
gallop up and see the members scram-
BILE to their saddles-and then, Tarle-
ton and his red-coats streaming up,
too late
"Well,' commented the doctor deli
berately. call I have to say is, don't
materialize too much to- Mrs. Poly
Clifford when you meet her. She'll
have you lecturing to the Ladies'
Church Guild before you know It,.
She's sailed herself out here already,
understand"
"She called the second day; my first
visitor. I've subscribed to the Guild
The doctor chuckled. Blame curl
osity! That woman's housemaid-
silly. She can spin more street yarn
than any ten in the county. Miss
Matte Sues been here, too she told
me. All, yes,"-looking quizzically at
the tray-T recognize the apple-but-
ter A pot just like that goes to the
white house every Christmas there's
a democrat there. She reminds me
of little drab-gray wren in horn
trimmed spectacles."
"Shes perfectly dear!" said Vail
ant, "from her hoops to the cladanthus
but tied in the corner of her handker-
chief. She must be very old. She
told me she remembered seeing Jeffer-
son at Monticello"
>"Shes growing younger, the doc.
tor said. Sixteen or seventeen years
ago she was very feeble and the
Ladies' Guild agreed to support her
for life on consideration that she will
her house and lot to the church, next
door. Mrs. Poly Clifford refers to her
now, l believe, as a dispensation Of
Providence. Did she bring the apple