The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1914-04-15
imysalf you think9g

70 C9fCuy KIN, S8lu Aunt Dapnn0.
,"Ry'y 'ybody do. De chick'ns done peck
TO deyselves en- de yuddah things-yo'
ony gotter courage 'em en- dey jes'
grows"
Valiant ate his dessert with @
thoughtful smile wrinkling his brow.
AS he pushed back his chair he smote
his hands together and laughed aloud.
Back to the soil!" he said.l John
valiant, farmer! The miracle Of 1t is
that 1t sounds good to me. 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 cat
tie now. There's timber-lots of it
on that hillside, too. must look into
that"
He filed his pipe and climbed tho
staircase to the upper floor. There
were many bedrooms with great four
posted, canopied beds and old-fash-
toned carved furniture of mahogany
and curly-maple, and In one he found
"a great cedar-lined chest filled with
Ibed-linen and napery. In these rooms
were moro evidences Of decay. The
bedroom he mentally chose for his
iown was the plainest Of all, and was
above the library, fronting the vaga-
bond garden. 1t had great black
desk with many glass-knobbed draw
ers and a book-rack
He fingered longest In room
whose door was painted The Hilarium.
1t had evidently been a 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. There
were schoolbooks, 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 tho window, shifting the far
flung scent Of orchards and peach
blown fencerows. The soft whirring
sound Of birds wing went past, al
most brushing his startled face, and
tho old oaks seemed to stretch their
bent limbs with faithful brute-like
yawn Of pleasure. In the room below
he could hear the vigorous sound Of
Aunt Daphne's hard driven broom and
the sound flooded the echong space
with comfortable commotion.
He went to his trunk and fished out
soft shirt on which he knotted q
loose tie, exchanged his Panama for
a slouch hat, and whistling the bar
carole from Tales Of Hoffman,, went
gaily out. Il feel tremendously alive
today" he conflded to tho dog, as he
tramped through the lush grass. "If
that fountain with my own fair hands,
don't have f1t. I'm liable to do any
thing"
His eye swept up and down the
slope. There probably isn't a finer
site for house In the whole South"
he told himself. "The living-rooms
front south and west. Well get
scrumptious sunsets from that back
porch. And on the other side there's
the view clear to tho Blue Ridge"
He skirted the lake. only to grub
many Of them-and straighten tho
.rim-and weed tho pebble margin to
give those green rocks a show. I'll
build little wharf below them to dive
from, and-yes, III stock 1t with
spotted trout"
lie was but few hundred yards
from the house. yet the silence was SO
deep that there might have been no
habitation within fifty miles. All at
once ho stopped short; there was q
sudden movement in tho thicket be-
yond--thc sound Of light fast footballs.
as Of some one running away.
He made a lungo for tho dog, but
with q growl Chum tore himself from
the restraining grasp and dashed into
the bushes. "a child, no doubt" he
thought as he plunged in pursuit, "and
that lubberly brute will scare it half
to DEATH"
He pulled up with an exclamation.
In a narrow woodpath little way
from him, partly hidden by wind
fall, stood a girl, her skirt transfixed
with wickedly Jagged sapling. He
saw instantly how 1t had happened;
tho windfall had blocked tho way, and
she had sprung clear over 1t, not
noting tho screened smear, which now
held her as effectually as any railroad
spike.
In another moment Valiant had
reached her and met her face, flushed,
half defiant, her eyes blue gleam OF
smoldering anger as she desperately,
almost savagely, thrust wild tendrils
nf aamnnnlnrad hair hnnaath tha