Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1914-05-19

ments credited to inspection and
care" The tax receipts were pinned
| to the account.
The larger wrapper contained al I'M
| sealed envelope, across which was
written in faded ink and In an unfa-
miliar dashing, slanting handwriting,
his own name. The envelope con-
tanned creased yellow parchment,
from between whose folds there
dumped and futtered down upon the
floor 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, "it's-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 so 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 if it had been carried for
months in pocketbook
1t will interest readers of this Sec
ton Of Virginia (the paragraph be-
gam to learn, from 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; it had been printed in the year
of the transfer to himself, when no
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 it's 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 lnelan-
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
old house." he unused, with a bad
name. Probably he couldn't sell it,
and maybe nobody would ever live in
it. That would explain why it re-
manned 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-be1room |
humorously 1T holds out an escape
from the noble army of rent-payers. |
When my twenty-eight hundred is
gone, / could live down there 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 |
lhal SlTlke you
He laughed whimsically. He John |
Valiant, of New York, first-nighter at |
its theaters, NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. in its |
club corridors and welcome diner at |
any one of a hundred brilliant glass /
misunderstanding supper tables, en- |
tombed ON the wreck of a 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 CT 1t |
quickly. 1t lay with the superscrip-
ton side down. On it 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 a
strange feeling as if, walking in some
familiar thoroughfare, he had STUN
bled on lichened and sunken tomb
stone
When you read this, my soa, 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 tall q hope) as Il
How l 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
a thing possible-and / am no. bit
wise
John, you will not have forgotten
that you are Valiant. But you are
also a Virginian. VIII you have dis
covered this for yourself? Here is the
deed to the land where 1 and my
father, and his father, and many, many
more Valiants before them wers born
Sometime, perhaps, you will knew why
you are John Valiant of New York In
stead of John Valiant of Iamory
Court can not tell you myself, be-
cause 1t is too true a story, and have
forgotten how to tell any bu. fairy
tales. where everything happens right.
where the Prince marries the beautiful
Princess and they live happily to-
gether ever after.
~ . ~ \