The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1914-09-09
Chapter XXXI Continued.)

slopluS driveway or DamOry court. 1t
seemed to stare at him from thou
sand reproachful eyes. The bachelor
red squirrel from his tree:-crotch
looked down at him askance. The
redbirds, flashing through the hedges,
nuttered dsconsolatcly. Fire. Cracker,
the peacock, was shrieking from the
upper lawn and the strident discord
seemed to mock his mood
The great house had become home
to him; he told himself that he would
make no other. The few things he had
brought-his books and trophies-had
grown to be a part Of it, and they
should remain. The ak should not be
laid to the walnut grove. AS his fa.
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 for the horse and the
COWS and for old Sukey. and some
acres had already been cleared for
planting. And there would be the
swans, tho ducks and chickens, the
peafowl and the fish
a letter had come TO him that morn.
ing. The corporation had resumed
business with credit unimpaircd Pub.
nc opinion was more than friendly
now A place waited for him there,
ana one Of added honor, in IA concern
that had vigorously cleanScd itself and
already looked forward to a new ca.
recr OF prosperity. But he thought of
this with lr;
no longer called. There were still
wide unpcopled spaces somewhere
where mans hand and brain were no
less needed, and there was work there
that would help him to boar, if not for.
get.
He paced up and down the porch un.
der the great gray columns, his steps
spiritless and tagging. The Virginia
crccper, trailing over it's end waved
to and fro With a sound like q sigh.
How long would ii be before the lawn
was once moro unkcmpt and draggled?
Before burdock and thistle, mullen
and Spanishnccdle would return to
smother the clover? Before Damory
court, on which he had spent such
loving labor, would lie again as it lay
Sht'1 pi'Nihooi "ilcil nc lid IdlllSN
thither on Uncle Jefferson's crazy
hack? Before there would be for him,
In some far-away corner Of the world,
only Wishing House and the Never.
Never Land?
In the hall he stood moment be.
fore the fireplace, his eyes on its
carven motto, II clinge:" the phrase
was like spear-thrust. He began to
wander restlessly through the house,
up and down, like 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 tho console
and in tho library 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 tho 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 polished chair-back or
touching an ornament or frame on
the wall: into The IIlarium with it's
records Of childish study and play
The dolls stood now on dress. parade
in glass cases, and prints in bright
colors, dear to httle people, we're 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 O nine
patch calico quilt with little squares
Two diminutive darkies were sprawled
on the ground looking up at her with
round serious eyes. while wary ban.
tam pecked industriously about their
bare legs.
"En den whut de roostah say,
Aunt Daph?'
"OT roostah he hollah to all he
wifes, Oo-Ooo! Oo--ooo! Young
Mars come! Young Mars come!
Young Mars come!' En dey all mighty
skeered, case Mars John he cert'n'y
fond OBJ fried chick'n. But de big tub.
key gobblcr he don bleeve ct tall. |
btfuI-doubtful-do doubtful he say
lax dat. Den dc drake he peep eroun'
de cornah. en- he say, Hash! Eaish! ,