The Mobridge news. [volume] (Mobridge, Walworth Co., S.D.) 190?-1917, 1914-04-03

miliar dashing. slanting handwriting.
his own name. The envelope con
tanned a creased yellow parchment.
from between whose folds there
dumped and fluttered down upon the
floor a long hattish 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-its a deed made owe
to me lie ovcrran it swiftly. Part
or an old Colony grant a
plantation in Virginia, twelve hun
dred odd acres, given under the hand
OF Il yice-regal governor in the six
teeath century. | had no idea titles
in the United states went back so far
as that His eye fled 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 a pocletbook.
IT viii interest readers of this sec
ton OF Virginia (the paragraph be
gam to learn. from a recent transfer
received for record az the County
Clerks Office. that Damory Court has
passed TO Mr.. John Valiant. minor
He turned the paper over and found
a date; it had been printed in the year
OF the transfer to himself, when ne
vas 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
tfor, as is we'll known. the house has
remained with all its contents and fur
nishings untouched to rest during so
long a term Of years unoccupiCd. could
not, OF course. fail to be commented
on. and this circumstance alone has
perhaps tended 10 keep alive a malan-
choly story which may we'll be for
gotten"
He read the elaborate, rather stiitcd
~phrasoolOSy 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 h~all-bedroom
idea, at any rate he said to himself
h~umorously. 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, flrst-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 a Virginia
plantation, a wCuld-be country gentle
man, on TN automobile and next 10
nothing a year.
He %bethought himself of the fallen
letter and possessed himself Ct ii
quickly. Il lay with the superscrip-
ton side down. On il 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! lie broke the seal with a
strange feeling rs IL, walking in some
familiar t~horoughfare. he had stun
bled on a lichened an1 sunken tomb
stone.
When you read this, my son, you
Will have come to man S estate. ii 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 Il hope as /.
How / wonder what you will look like
then. And shall THE real. real |,
mean-be peering yer your strong
broad shoulder as you read? Who
knows? Wise men have dreamed such
a thing possible-and | am not a bit
wise.
John. you will not have forgotten
hat you are a Valiant. But you are
also a Virginian. win You have dis
covered this for yourself? Here is the
deed to the land where | 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. l can lot tell you myself, be-
u 1t Is too true a story. and | have
forgotten how to tell any but fairy
Gales. where everything happens right,
where the Prince marries the beautiful
Princess and they live happily to-
gether ever after.