The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1914-03-04

remained with all It's contents and fur
ntshings untouched) to rest during sol
long term of years unoccupied could
not, Of course, fail to be commented
on, and this circumstance alone has,
perhaps tended to keep alive a melan-i
choly story which may we'll be for,
gotten"
He read the elaborate, rather stilted,
phraseology in the twenty-year-old pa
per with a wondering interest. "An
old house." he unused, with a bad
name Probably he couldn't sell it,
and maybe nobody would ever live I'M
1t. That would explain why it re-,
mafned so long unoccupied-why there
are no records Of rentals. Probably
the land was starved and run down.
It's an offset to the hall-bedroomj
idea, at any rate" he said to himself
humorously. 1T holds out an escape
from the noble army Of rent-payers.
When my twenty eight hundred Is
gone, could live down there q landed
proprietor, and by the Same mark an
honorary colonel, and raise the cab
bages was talking about-eh, Chum?
while you stalk rabbits How does
that strike you?"
He laughed whimsically. He, john
Valiant, of New York, first-nighter at,
Ats theaters, hail-fellow- well-met In it's
club corridors and welcome diner att
any one Of q hundred brilliant glass;
and d-silver-twinkling supper tables, en-
Sombed on tho wreck Of q Virginia.
plantation, would-be country gentle
man, on an automobile and next to
nothing year!
He bethought himself Of the fallen
letter and possessed himself Of it
quickly. 1t lay with the superscrip-
'ton side down. On it was written, In
the Same hand which had addressed
the other envelopes:
For my son, John Valiant,
Whom he reaches the age Of twenty
ftve.
That, then, had been written by his
father-and he had died nearly twenty
years ago! He broke the seal with a.
lstrange feeling as if, walking in some
familiar thoroughfare, he had stum-
bled on lichened and sunken tomb
stone.
When you read this, my son, you
Will have come to mans estate. 1t is
curious to think that this black, black
ink may be faded to gray and this
white, white paper yellowed, just from
lying waiting SO long. But strangest
of all Is to think that you yourself
whose brown head hardly tops this
desk, will be as tail Il hope) as I!
How l wonder what you will look like
them And shall 1.-The real, real I,
mean-be peering over your strong
broad shoulder as you read? Who
knows? Wise men have dreamed such
thing possible-and am not bit
wise.
John, you will not have forgotten
that you are a Valiant. But you are
also Virginian. viii you have dis
covered this for yourself? Here is the
deed to the land where | and my
father, and his father, and many, many
more Valiants before them were born,
Sometime, perhaps, you will know why
you are John Valiant of New York in
Istead Of John Valiant of Damory.
Court. I can not tell you myself, be-
cause 1t Is too true a story, and have,
forgotten how to tell any but fairy.
tales, where everything happens right,
where the Prince marries the beautiful
Princess and they live happily to-
gether ever after.
You may never care to live at,
lDamory Court. Maybe the life you:
will know so we'll by the time YOU
read this will have welded you to IT,,
self. If SO, we'll and good. Then leave;
the old place to your son. But there Isl
such thing as racial habit, and the
call Of blood. And I know there is
such a thing, too, as fate. Every
man carries his fate on RI
band about his neck SO tho
Moslem put 1t. 1t was my fate to-
go away, and I know now-since dis,
tance Is not made by miles alone
that myself shall never see DamoryI
Court again. But life Is a strangei
wheel that goes round and round and
comes back to the same point again
and again. And 1t may be your fate toI
go back Then perhaps you will cry
(but, oh, not on the old white bear'sI
skin rug-never again with me iioldinst
your small, small handD--
Westinghouse! Wishing. .House!.
Where are you?
And this old parchment deed will
answer
Here am, Master; here amt
"Ah, we are only children, after all,
playing out our plays. have had
many toys, but O John, John! The
zones / treasure most are all in tho
Never~Never Land!"