Gilpin observer., 1914-03-19

B,
his own name. The envelope con-
tanned creased yellow parchment.
from between whose folds there
clumped and fiuttered down upon the
floor a long fiattish object wrapped
in a paper. a newspaper clipping and
a letter.
Puzzled he unfolded the cracking
thing in his hands. why" he said
half aloud, "its-it's deed made over
to me-" He overran it swiftly. Part
of an old Colony grant
plantation in Virginia. twelve hun
dred odd acres. given under the hand
of vice-regal governor in the six
teenth century. / had no idea titles
in the United States went back 80 far
as that!" His eye fed to the end.
1T was my fathers! What could he
have wanted of an estate In Virginia?
1t must have come into his hands in
the course of business"
He picked up the newspaper clip
ping. 1t was worn and broken in the
folds as II 1t had been carried for
months In a pocketbook.
1T will interest readers of this sec
ton of Virginia (the paragraph be-
gam to learn, from a recent transfer
received for record at the County
Clerks office, that Damory Court has
passed to Mr.. John Valiant, minor"
He turned the paper over and found
date; 1t had been printed in the year
of the transfer to himself, when he
was six years old-the year his father
had died.
John Valiant. minor. the son OF
the former owner.
There are few indeed who do not
recall the tragedy with which In the
public mind the estate Is connected.
The fact, moreover, that this old home
stead has been left in its present state
(for. as is well known, the house has
remained with all its contents and fur
nishings untouched) to rest during SO
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-
choly story which may well be for
gotten
He read the elaborate, rather stilted
phraseology in the twenty-year-old pa
per with a wondering interest. An
I old house," he mused. with q bad
name. Probably he couldn't sell 1t,
and maybe nobody would ever live in
It, That would explain why 1t re-
mained SO long unoccupied-why there
are no records OF rentals. Probably
the land was starved and run down.
Its an offset to the hall-bedroom
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 a 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
its theaters. hail-fellow-well-met in its
club corridors and welcome diner at
any one of a hundred brilliant glass
MISUNDERSTANDING supper tables. en-
tombed on the wreck of q Virginia
plantation. q would-be couptry gentle
man, on an automobile and next to
nothing a year!
He bethought himself OF the fallen
letter and possessed himself CT It
quickly 1t lay with the superscrip-
tion side down. On 1t was written. In
the same hand which had addressed
the other envelope:
For my son, John Valiant,
When he reaches the age Of twenty
five.
That, then, had been written by his
father-and he had died nearly twenty
years ago! He broke the seal with q
strange feeling as II. walking in some
familiar thoroughfare. he had stum-
bled on a lichened anc 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 30 long. But strangest
Of all is to think that you yourself
whose brown head hardly tops this
desk. will be as tall Il hope az l!
How I wonder what you will look like
then! And shall 1.-The real. real l.
mean-be peering over your strong
broad shoulder as you read? Who
knows? Wise men have dreamed such
thing possible-and l am not a bit
wise.
John. you will not have forgotten
that you are Valiant. But you are
also Virginian. WIN you have dis
covered this for yourself? Here In the
deed to the land where I 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.
stead OF John Valiant OF Damory
Court. can not tell you myself. be-
cause It is too true . story. and have
forgotten how to tell any but fairy
tales. where everything happens right,