The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1914-03-04


remained with all It's contents and fur
nishings untoucheO to rest during So
long term of years unoccupied, could
not, Of course, fail to be commented
on, and this circumstance alone has
perhaps tended to keep alive q melan-
choly story which may we'll bo for
gotten"
He read the elaborate, rather stilted
phraseology in the twenty-year-old pa
per with wondering interest. "An
old house." he mused, with a bad
name. Probably he couldn't sell it.,
and maybe nobody would ever live I'M
1t. That would explain why it re-
NAMED so long unoccupied-why there
are no records Of rentals. Probably
the land was starved and run down.
It's an offset to the hall-bedroomi
1dea, at any rate he said to himself!
humorously. 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?I
while you stalk rabbits. How does
that strike your"
lie laughed whimsically. He, Johnl
valiant, OF New York, flrst-nighter at,
ats theaters, hail-fellow-well-met In it's
club corridors and welcome diner att
any one Of hundred brilliant glass;,
Notwithstanding supper tables, en-
Sombed on the wreck Of a Virginia|
plantation, a would-be country gentle.
man, on an automobile and next toI
nothing year!
He bethought himself of the fallen
letter and possessed himself Of It,
quickly. 1t lay with the superscrip-,
lton side down. On it was written, in!
the same hani 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.
lfather-and he had died nearly twenty
years ago! He broke the seal with a.,
lstrange feeling as if, walking in some,
familiar thoroughfare, he had STUN
bled on nchened and sunken tomb,
stone.
When you read this, my son, you
Will have come to mans estate 1t 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 U hopc) as I!
How wonder what you will look like
then! And shall 1.-The real, real /, |.
mean-be peering over your strong
broad shoulder as you read? Who
knows? Wise men have dreamed such
a thing possible-and ! am not q bit
wise
John, you will not have forgotten,
that you are Valiant. But you are
also Virginian. VIII you have dis,
covered this for yourself? Here is the
deed to the land where 1 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
istead Of John Valiant Of Damory
Court. I can not tell you myself, be-
cause 1t is too true q story, and have.
forgotten how to tell any but fairy.
tales, where everything happens right,
where the Prince marries the beautiful
Princess and they live happily to-
gether ever after.
You may never care to live at,
IDamory Court. Maybe the life you,
will know SO well by the time you
read this will have welded you to It,,
self. If 30, we'll and good. Then leave
the old place to your son. But there Isl
such thing as racial habit, and the
call Of blood. And / know there is
such q thing, too, as fate Every
man carries his fate on q RI
band about his neck SO the
Moslem put 1t. 1t was my fate to-
go away, and know now-since dis
tance Is not made by miles alone
that I myself shall never see Damory
Court again. But life is strangei
wheel that goes round and round and
comes back to the same point again
and again. And it may be your fate to-
go back. Then perhaps you will cry
(but, oh, not on the old white bearsI
skin rug-never again with me holding
your small, small handD- Il
'Wishing-Hou Wishing House!
Where are you? i
And this old parchment deed will
answer
Here am, Master; here I amt
"Ah, we are only children, after all,
playing out our plays. have had
many toys, but o John, joint The
ones / treasure most arc all in the
Neyer-Never Land!"
CHAPTER ~.