Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1915-05-19
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seemed 70 stare at him from q thou
sand reproachful eyes. The bachelor
red squirrel from his tree-crotch
looked down at him askance. The
redbirds, flashing through the hedges,
duttered discOnsolately. Fire-Cracker,
the peacock, was shrieking from the
upper lawn and the strident discord
seemed to mock his mood.
The great house had become home
20 him; he told himself that he would
make no other. The few things he had
brought-his books and trophies-had
grown to be part of it, and they
should remain. The ak should not be
laid to the walnut grove. AS his ia
Their had done, he would leave behind
him the life he had lived there, and
the old court should be once more
closed and deserted. Uncle Jefferson
and Aunt Daphne might live on in the
cabin back of the kitchens. There
was pasturage for the horse and the
cows and for old Sukey, and some
acres had already been cleared for
planting. And there would be the
swans, the ducks and chickens, the
peafowl and the fish.
A letter had come to him that morn
ing. The corporation had resumed
business with credit unimpaired. Pub
lie opinion was more than friendly
now. A place waited for him there,
and one of added honor, in a concern
that had vigorously cleansed itself and
already looked forward to a new ca
reer of prosperity. But he thought of
this now with no thrill. The old life
no longer called. There were still
wide unpeopled spaces somewhere
where mans hand and brain were no
less needed, and there was work there
that would help him to bear, if not for
get.
He paced up and down the porch I'm.
der the great gray columns, his steps
spiritless and tagging. The Virginia
Creeper, trailing over its end, waved
to and fro with a sound like a sigh.
How long would it be before the lawn
was once more unkempt and draggled?
Before burdOck and thistle, MULLEN
and Spanish-needle would return to
smother the clover? Before Damory
court, on which he had spent such
loving labor, would lie again as it lay
that afternoon when he had ratified
thither on Uncle Jefferson's crazy
hack? Before there would be for him,
in some far-away corner of the world,
only Westinghouse and the Never
Never Land?
In the hall he stood a moment be-
l. &C.
carven motto, Il clinge:" the phrase
was like a spear-thrust He began to
wander restlessly through the house,
up and down, like a prowling animal.
The dining-room looked austere and
chiII-only the little lady in hoops and
1ove-curls who had been his great
grandmother smiled wistfully down
from her gilt frame above the console
and in the library a melancholy
deeper than that of yesterdays trag
edy seemed to hang, through which
DevilJohn, drawing closer the leash
of his leaping hound, glared sardOn-
ically at him from his one cold eye.
The shutters of the parlor were
closed, but he threw them open and
let the rich light pierce the yellow
gloom, glinting from the figures in
the cabinet and weaving a thousand
tiny rainbows in the prisms of the
great chandelier.
He went upstairs, into the bedrooms
one by one, now and then passing his
hand over a polished chair-back or
touching an ornament or a frame on
the wall: into The Hilarium with its
records of childish study and play.
The dolls stood now on ress-parade
in glass cases, and prints in bright
colors, dear to little people, were on
the walls. He opened the shutters
here, too, and stood some time on the
threshold before he turned and went
heavily downstairs.
Through the rear door he could see
the kitchens, ard Aunt Daphne sitting
under the trumpet-vine piecing a nine
patch calico quilt with little squares
of orange and red and green cloth.
Two diminutive darkies were sprawled
on the ground looking up at her with
round serious eyes, while a wary ban
tam pecked industriously about their
bare legs.
EN- den whut de roostah say,
Aunt Daph?"
"OT roostah he hollah to all he
wifes, Oo-ooo! Oo-ooo! Young
Mars come!-Young Mars come!
Young Mars comet En- dey ali mighty
Bkeered, case Mars John he cert'n'y
fond OBJ fried chick'n. But de big tub
key gobbler he don bleeve ct tall.
doubtful doubtfuI-doubtfulI he say,
lax dat Den de drake he peep eroun'
de cornah, en- he say, Hash! Hash!
Haish!' Fo' he done seed Mars John
comm, sho' huff. But ct too late by
den, TO Aunt Daph she done grab
Mis- Pullet, en- Mars John he gwine- |
ter eat huh dis berry evenin' TO ne
suppah. Now you chillun runs erlong
home ter yO' mammies, en- dom yo'
pick none OBJ dem green apples on de
way, neidah."
II was not till after dark had come