Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1914-04-10

the naDlL OF your dnCestoTS anu count
Damory Court home"
Valiant smiled slowly. 81 don't
dream of anything else" he said. MY
life. as | map it out. seems to begin
here. The rest doesn't count-only
the years when I was little and had
my father"
The major carefully adjusted his
eyeglasses. His head was turned
away. "Ah, yes" he said.
The last twenty years." continued
the other, from my present view
point, are valuable mainly for con-
trast."
"As a consistent regimen of pate
de foie gras," said Shirley quizzically.
makes one value bread and butter"
He shook his head at her. "As star
walton makes one appreciate plenty.
The next twenty years are to be here.
But they hold side-trips. too. Now
and then there's a jaunt back to the
city"
Contrast again?" she asked inter
,estedty.
Eyes and no. Yes, because nc one
who has ever known hat blazing
changing life can really understand the
peace and blessedness of a place like
this. No, because there are something's
which are to be found only there.
There are the galleries and the opera.
/ need a breath of them both"
And. semi-occasional longer flights,
too" the major reflected. "a look-see
abroad once In a blue Don Why
not?"
Eyes. For mental photographs-im-
pressions one can't get from between
~book-covers. There's an old cloister
garden l know in Italy and a particu-
lar river-bank In Japan in the cherry
blossom season, and a tiny island with
a Greek castle on it In the Aegean.
Little colored memories for me to
bring away to dream over. But al
ways I come back here to Damory
Court. For this is-home!"
They walked beneath the pergola
to the lake, where Shirley gave a cry
of delight at sight of its feathered
population. Where did you get them
lTUu she asked.
Washington. In crates"
THAT explains It," she exclaimed.
Zone day last week the little darkies
In the village all insisted a circus was
coming. They must have seen these
being hauled here. They watched the
whole afternoon for the elephants"
Poor youngsters!" he said. TITS
a shame to fool them. But I've had
all the circus I want getting the live
stock installed"
'They won't suffer-" said the major.
hickey Snyder'll get them up a three
ringed show at the drop of a hat and
drop it herself. Besides, there's tourn-
ament day coming, and they can live
on that. / see you've dredged out
some of the lilies"
..Yes. l take my dip here every
morning."
I'VE used to have a diving-board
when we were little shavers." pursued
the major. 81 remember once. your
father"
He cleared his throat and stopped
dead.
Please" said John Valiant, II
like to hear about him."
1T was only that I struck my head
on a rock on the bottom and-stayed
down. The others were frightened,
but he-he dove down again and again
till he brought me out. It was a mar
row squeak, | reckon"
A silence fell. Looking at the tall
muscular form beside her, Shirley had
a sudden vision of a determined little
body cleaving the dark water, over
and over, now rising painting for
breath, now plunging again, never CIV
ing up. And she told herself that the
son was the same sort. That hard
set of the jaw, those firm lips, would
know no finching. He might suffer,
but he would be strong.
Half unconsciously she spoke her
thought aloud: "You look like your
father, do you not?"
Eyes," he replied, there's a strong
likeness. I have a photograph which
I'll show you sometime. But how did
you known"
Perhaps I only guessed" she said
in some confusion. To cover this she
stopped by the pebbly marge and held
out her hand to the bronze ducks that
pushed and gobbled about her fingers.
What have you named them?" she
asked.
Nothing. You christen them"
very well. The light one shall
be Peezletree and the dark n Pilgar-
lie. I got the names from John Jasper
The was Virginia's famous negro
preacher. I once heard him hold forth
when he read from one of the Psalms
the n about the harp and the
psaltery-and he called it peezletree."
Valiant's laugh rang out over the
lake-to be answered by a sudden
sharp screech from the terrace, where
the peacock strutted, a blaze of span
gled purple and gold. They turned to
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