The Pickens sentinel. (Pickens, S.C.) 1911-2016, 1914-03-26
CHAPTER vi.
SouthIook.

SOOInlOSN.
Sara Wrandall's house in the coun.
try stood on wooded knoll overlook
ing the sound. It was rather remotely
located, so far as neighbors were con-
cerned. Her father, Sebastian Gooch,
shrewlly foresaw the day when Lard
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 a comnodious sum.
mer home on the choicest point that
his property afforded, named 1t South
look, and transformed that particular
part of his wilderness into million
aires paradise, where he could daWdle
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 lie made waste
of both in his haste to live down
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. It had descended from we'll
worn and time-stained ancestors 70
Redmond Wrandall, and, with otf1ers
of its kind, looked with no little soon
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 a bitter contempt for the
other, though consolation was small
in comparison.
1t was in the wooded by-ways OF this
despised domain that Challis Wran.
dali and Sara, the earthly daughter OF
Midas, met and loved and defed 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, AID with
this string her hands were lied. It
must have occurred to him tgat Chal'
lis was a profigate in more wsys than
one, for he deliberately stipulated IN
his will that Sara was not Il. sell a
foot of the ground until ls;riod OF
twenty years had elapsed. A very
polite way, it would seem, o. making
his inyestmentesafe in the fac;s OF con-
siderable odds.
He lived long enough after :-he max
ing of his will, l am happy % relate,
to find that he had made ne mistake
AS he preceded his son-in-las: into the
great beyond by a scant tn .,e years,
it readily may be seen that b, wrought
too well by far. Seventeen unneces
sary years Of prescription remained
and he had not intended them fol-
Sara alone. He was noi afraid Of
Sara, but for her.
When the will was read md the con-
dition revealed, Challis WYandall took
It in perfect good humor. He had the
grace to proclaim in the bosom OF his
fathers family that the OILS gentleman
was a father.in-law to be lroud 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 wers strapped to
gether snugly and firmly, without 81
much as a town lot prouuding.
So impressed was ChAIlis by the far
sightedness Of his father.in-law that
he forthwith sat him 52wn and macs
a will of his own. He :Fould not have
it said that Sara's fa:ner did a whit
better by her than he would do. He
left everything he possessed to his
wife. but put no string to it, blandly
implying that all danger would De
past when she came i-:to possession
There was a sort of grim humor IN
the way he managed to present him
self to view as the real and ready
source Of peril.
CTo BE coNT1NUED3