Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1914-05-15
CHAPTER vi.

Southlook.
Sara Wrandall's house in the eeun-
try stood on wooded knoll overlook
ing the sound. 1t was rather remotely
located, so far as neighbors were con-
cerned. Her father, Sebastian Gooch,
shrewdly foresaw the day when land
in this particular section of the sub
urban world would return dollars for
pennies, and wisely bought thousands
of acres: woodland, meadowland,
beachland and hills, inserted between
the environs of New York city and
the rich towns up the coast Years
afterward he built commodious sum-
mer home on the choicest point that
his property afforded, named it South
look, and transformed that particular
part of his wilderness into a million
aires paradise, where he could dawdler
and putter to his hearts content,
where he could spend his time and his
money with prodigality that came so.
late in life to him that he made waste
of both in his haste to live down a,
rather parsimonious past.
Two miles and half away, in the,
heart of scattered colony of purse
proud New Workers, was the country
home of the Wrandalls, an imposing
place and older by far than South
look. 1t had descended from we'll
worn and time-stained ancestors to-
Redmond Wrandall, and, with others.
of it's kind, looked with no little scorn,
upon the modern, mushroom struc-
lures that sprouted from the seeds OF
trade. There was no friendship be-
tween the old and the new. Each had
recourse to bitter contempt for the.
other, though consolation was small
in comparison.
1t was in the wooded by-ways of thtn.
despised domain that Challis Wran-
dali and Sara, the earthly daughter OF
Midas, met and loved and defied all
things supernal, for matches are'
made in heaven. Their marriage did
not open the gates of Nineveh. Sebas-
tian Gooch's paradise was more COM
pletely ostracised than it was before,
the disaster. The Wrandalls spoke Of
it as a disaster.
Clearly the old merchant was not
over-pleased with his daughters
choice, a conclusion permanently es-
tablished by the alteration he made
in his will year or two after the mar
riage. True, he left the vast estate to
his beloved daughter Sara, but he fast
ened a stout string to it, and with
this string her hands were tied. It
must have occurred to him that Chal-
lis was a prof1igate in more ways than
one, for he deliberately stipulated ILL
his will that Sara was not to sell a
foot of the ground until period Of
twenty years had elapsed. A very
polite way, it would seem, of making
his investment safe in the face of con-
siderable odds.
He lived long enough after the max
ing of his will l am happy to relate,
to find that he had made no mistake.
AS he preceded his son-in-law into the
great beyond by scant three years,
it readily may be seen that he wrought
too we'll by far. Seventeen unneces-
sary years of prescription remained.
and he had not intended them for
Sara alone. He was not afraid OF
Sara, but for her.
When the will was read and the con-
dition revealed, Challis Wrandall took
it in perfect good humor. He had the
grace to proclaim in the bosom Of his
fathers family that the old gentleman
was father-in-law to be proud of. "a
canny old boy" he had announced
with his most engaging smile, quite
free from rancor or resentment. Chal-
lis was well acquainted with himself.
And SO the acres were strapped to-
gether snugly and firmly, without so
much as town lot protruding.
So impressed was Challis by the far
eightedness of his father-in-law that
he forthwith sat him down and made
will of his own. He would not have
1t said that Sara's father did a whit
better by her than he would do. Iie
left everything he possessed to his
wife, but put no string to it, blandly
implying that all danger would be
past when she came into possession.
There was a sort Of grim humor In
the way he managed to present him
sell to view as the real and ready
source of peril.
GRO BE coNT1NUED3