Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1914-04-24

were brown with sun and wind, and
the handsome face above 1t had a look
of keenness and energy she had never
surprised before. They passed many
vehicles and there were few whose oc-
cupants did not greet him. In fact,
as he presently remarked, 1t was a
saving of energy to keep his hat of;
and he tossed the Panama into the
rear seat. On the rim of the village
a group raised a cheer to which he
nodded laughingly. and further on q
little old lady on q timid ~vine-colored
porch beside a church: waved a black
mitted hand to him with a sweet old
time gesture. Katharine noted that he
bowed to her with extra care.
That's Miss Matte Sue Mabry," he
said. "the quaintest, dearest thing you
ever saw. She taught my father his
letters"
Where the Red Road stretched level
before them, he threw the throttle
open for a long rush through the
thymy-scented air. The light, late
afternoon breeze drew by them, sweep
ing back Katharine's graceful sinuous
veil and spraying them with odors of
clover and sunny fruit. They passed
orchard clumps bending with young
apples. boundless aisles of green,
young-tasseled corn and shadowy
groves that smelled Of fern and ASST
fras, opening out into more suniighted
vistas overarched by the intense pene-
trable of the June sky.
John Valiant had never seemed to
her so wholly good to see, with his
waving hair ruff1ing tn their fight and
the westering sun shining redly On his
face. Midway of this squirt he looked
at her to say: did you ever know a
more beautiful countryside? See how
the pink-and-yellow of those grain
fields fades into the purple of the hills.
Very few painters have eve captured
a tint like that. It's like raspberries
crushed In curdled milk"
1--WE quite lost my heart to 1t all"
she said, her voice jolting with the
speed of their course. TITS a perfect
pastoral : 70 different from
III terrific city pace. = OF
COuA DC IL 1uu6t DO q tAAAO OuAl al tAL4C6
> seeing the same people al
ways . and without the thea
ter and the opera and the whirl about
one-but . = > the kind OF life
one reads about . > in the nov
els of the South, you know . > =
l suppose one doesn't realize that 1t
actually exists until comes to a
Southern place like this. And the
negro servantsl How odd 1t must be
to have a white-haired old darby in a
brass-buttoned swallow-tail for q but
leri So picturesque! At Judge Chal-
mers' l have a feeling all the time that
I'm walking through a stage re-
hearsal."
The a slackened speed as 1t slid
by a white-washed cabin at whose en-
trance sat a dusky gray-bearded fig
ure. Valiant pointed. do you see
him ?" he asked.
Il see a very ordinary old colored
nan sitting on the doorstep" Katha-
rine replied.
That's Mad Anthony, our local
Mother Shipton. He's a prophet and
soothsayer. Uncle Jefferson-that's
my body-servant-insists that he fore
told my coming to Damory Court If
we had more time you could have
your fortune told"
How ~thrilling!" she commented
with half-humorous irony. :
He pointed to a great white house
set in a grove of trees. THAT is
Beechwood," he told her, the Beverly
homestead. Young Beverley was the
Knight of the Silver Cross. A fine old
place, isn't it? 1t was burned by the
Indians during the French and Indian
War. My Observation-Disclosures
er =" He broke of. But then, those
old things won't interest you"
They interest you a great deal,
don't they?" she asked.
YES" he admitted, "they do. You
see, my ancestors are such new ac-
quaintances, l find them absorbing.
You know when l lived in New
York"
Last month"
He laughed a little-not quite the
laugh she had known in the past.
Yes, but I can hardly believe it: 1
seem to have been here half a lifetime.
To think that a month ago / was a
double-dyed New Yorker"
Its been a strange experience for
you. When you come back to New
York"
He looked at her, oddly she thought.
why should I go back?"
why? Because it's your natural
habitat. Inst itf"
That's the word" he said smiling.
1T was my habitat. This is my home"
She vas silent a moment in sheer
surprise. She had thought Of this
Southern essay as a quickly passing
incident. a colorful chapter whose
page might any day be turned. But
1t was impossible to mistake his mean
ing. Clearly, he was deeply infatuated