Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1914-04-30

gaze returned to the house. yet what
a place it must have been in its time!"
He went slowly back to where his con
ductor sat on the lichened, horse
block.
Yves heah." called Uncle Jefferson
cheerfully. Whit we gwinter do
mex, sub? Reck'n All better go ovah
ter Miss Dandridge's place fer er
crowbah Lawd!" he added, "ef he
ain got de key! Whut yo' think oh
dat now?"
John Valiant was looking closely at
the big key; for there were words,
which he had not noted before en-
graved in the massive fange. Friends
all hours" He smiled. The sentiment
sent a warm current of pleasure to
his fnger-tips. Here was the very
text of hospitality!
A Lilliputian spider-web was
stretched over the preempted keyhole,
and he fetched a grass-stem and poked
out its tiny gray-striped denizen be
fore he inserted the key in the rusted
lock. He turned it with curious
sense Of timidity. All the strength of
his fingers was necessary before the
massive door swung open and the lev
cling sun sent it's late red rays into
the gloomy interior.
He stood in a spacious hall, his nos
trils filed with a curious but not IN
pleasant aromatic odor with which the
place was strongly impregnated. The
hall ran the full length of the build
ing, and in it's center wide, balus-
traded double staircase led to upper
darkness. The floor, where his foot
prints had disturbed the even gray
film of dust, was of fine close par
Quetry and had been generously
strewn everywhere with a mica-like
powder. He stopped and took up a
pinch in his fingers, noting that it
gave forth the curious spicy scent
Dim paintings in furnished frames
hung on the walls. From a niche on
the break of the stairway looked down
the face Of tall Dutch clock, and on
one side protruded a huge bullying
something draped with yellowed
linen sheet. From it's shape he
guessed this to be an elk's head Dust,
undisturbed, lay thickly on everything,
ghostly floating cobwebs crawled
across his face, and a bat fitted out
of a fireplace and vanished squeak
ing over his head. With Uncle JEFF
ferson's help he opened the rear doors
and windows, knocked up the rusted
belts of the shutters and flung them
wide.
But for the dust and cobwebs and
the strange odor, mingled with the
faint musty smell that pervades sun
less interior, the former owner of the
house might have deserted it week
ago On wall-rack lay two walking
sticks and a gold-mounted hunting
crop, and on a great carved chest
below it had been flung an opened
book bound in fooled leather. John
Valiant picked this up curiously. 1t
was Lucille" He noted that here
and there passages were marked with
penciled Iines-some light and femi-
ninety delicate, some heavier, as
though two had been reading it to-
gether, noting their individual prefer
ences.
He laid it back musingly, and open
ing a door, entered the large room it
disclosed. This had been the dining
room. At one end stood crystal
knobbed mahogany sideboard, holding
glass candlesticks in the shape of
Ionic columns-above it a quaint por-
trait of a lady in hoops and love
curls-and at the other end was
huge fireplace with rust-red f1re-dogs
and furnished brass fender. All these,
with the round centipede table and
the Chippendale chairs set in order
AGAINST the walls, we're dimmed and
grayed with a thick powdering of dust.