The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1914-08-27

ther had done, he would leave behind |
him the life he had lived there, and |
the old court should be once more |
closed and deserted. Uncle Jefferson |
and Aunt Daphne might live on in the |
cabin back Of the kitchens. There |
was pasturage Tor the horse and the |
cows and for old Sukey. and some
acres had already been cleared for
planting. And there would be the
swans, the ducks and chickens, the
peafowl and the fish.
A letter had come to him that morn
ing. The corporation had resumed
business with credit unimpaired. Pub
lie opinion was more than friendly
now. A place waited for him there,
and one Of added honor, in concern
that had vigorously cleansed itself and
already looked forward to a new ca
reer OF prosperity. But he thought Of
this now with no thrill. The old life
no longer called. There were still
wide unpeopled spaces somewhere
where mans hand and brain we're no
less needed, and there was work there
that would help him to bear. If not for
get.
He paced up and down the porch un-
der the great gray columns, his steps
spiritless and tagging. The Virginia
creeper, trailing over its end, waved
to and fro with sound like a sigh.
How long would it be before the lawn
was once more unkempt and draggled?
| D~A@ H.kI ,n,,nA a.,
and Spanish-needle would return to
smother the clover? Before Damory
court, on which he had spent such
loving labor, would lie again as it lay
that afternoon when he had ratified
thither on Uncle Jefferson's crazy
hack? Before there would be for him,
in some fareaway corner Of the world,
only Westinghouse and the Never
Never Land?
In the hall he stood a moment be-
fore the fireplace, his eyes on its
carven motto, Il clinge:" the phrase
was like spear-thrust He began to
wander restlessly through the house,
up and down, like a prowling animal.
The dining-room looked austere and
chill-only the little lady in hoops and
love-curls who had been his great
grandmother smiled wistfully down
from her gilt frame above the console
and in the library a melancholy
deeper than that of yesterdays trag-
edy seemed to hang, through which
Devil-John, drawing closer the leash
of his leaping hound, glared sardon-
ically at him from his one cold eye.
: The shutters of the parlor were
closed, but he threw them open and
let the rich light pierce the yellow
gloom, glinting from the figures in
the cabinet and weaving a thousand
tiny rainbows in the prisms of the
great chandelier.
He went upstairs, into the bedrooms
one by one, now and then passing his
hand over a polished chair-back or
touching an ornament or a frame on
the wall: into The Hilar;um with its
records of childish study and play.
The dolls stood now on dress parade
irN glass cases, and prints in bright
colors, dear to little people, were on
the walls. He opened the shutters
here, too, and stood some time on the
threshold before he turned and went
heavily downstairs.
Through the rear door he could see
the kitchens, and Aunt Daphne sitting
under the trumpet-vine piecing nine
patch calico quilt with little squares
of orange and red and green cloth.
Two diminutive darkies were sprawled
I on the ground looking up at her with
round serious eyes, while a wary ban
tam pecked industriously about their
bare legs.
"En den whut de roostah say.
D Aunt Daph?''
"Or roostah he hollah to all he
, wifes, Oo-ooo! Oo-ooo! Young
!. Mars come!-Young Mars come!
Young Mars comeh En- dey all mighty
l skeered, 'case Mars John he cert'n'y
fond OBJ fried chick'n. But de big tub
> key gobbler he don b'leeve ct tall.
q Doubtful doubtful-doubtful! he say
t LAX dat. Den de drake he peep eroun'
8 de cornah en- he say, 'Haish! Hash!
Haish!' Fo' he done seed Mars John
comm, sho' nun. But ct too late by
e den, TO- Aunt Daph she done grab
I Mis- Pullet, en- Mars John he gwine.
+ ter eat huh dis berry evenin' To- he
r suppah. Now you chillun runs erlong
4 home ter yo' mammies, en- don yo
Q pick none OBJ dem green apples on de
}. way, neidah."
:, 1t was not till after dark had come
9 that Valiant said goodby to the gar
q den. He loved it best under the star.
light. He sat long hour under the
e pergola overlooking the lake. where
d he could dimly see the green rocks
d and the white froth of the water bub
d bling and chuckling down over their
y rounded outlines to the shrouded level
9 below. The moon lifted finally and
l. scared through the sky, blowing out