Middletown transcript., 1916-06-10
Copyright BY the Century Company


From behind her came a modified
echo, "Pleath do. Couthin Alan" Alan
smiled and laid down his book. "All
right" he laughed.
Maple House was a rambling abode
that had grown and spread like the
giant naples that sheltered it. In what
age the captain had demanded wing
or some bygone Nance a nursery for
her children was chronicled in the an
nails Of the house itself, to be revealed
only to the searching. architectural
eye. The key to the rambling struc-
ture lay in the thick-walled dining
room, the parlor, one bedroom and the
kitchen.
From the nucleus of these four
rooms Maple House had grown. i'm
posed and superimposed, until it over
flowed the arbitrary bourne Of kitch-
ems and front doors and like some
mounded vine rippled off on all sides.
in vast living room, sunny nurseries
and broken fringe of broad verandas.
There were hooks that were satisfied
anu uCIu btlNA AlOAl Aul NhN AOeAN
ment and there were outstanding cor
ners that jutted boldly out over the
slOping lawns and threatened further
raid.
Inside, the paths of daily life ran
clearly enough through the maze, but
on their tanks hung many a somber
den for ambush or retreat. Cavernous
closets, shadowy corners, numbered at
tics uT1d half forgotten interStices OF
discarded space opened dark gorges to
the intrepid. and threatened the nerv-
Gus and unwary with what they might
bring forth. The gods of childhOOd's
games themselves could not have
builded a better scene for that most
palpitating Of sports. hide and seek
on rainy day.
Alan soon entered into the spirit Of
the game. He found himself recOllecr-
ing things about Maple House that he
had more than half forgotten: strange
byways under the roof: vacant cham
Der. turned into a trunk room because
one by one 1t had been robbed Of its
windows; and lastly the little attic
that had been, as 1t were, left behind
a wall
Through this dreamland Of a hun
dred children fitted the brood Of the
day, marshaled rather breathlessly by
Glen and Alan. Anxious whispers,
the scurrying of lightly shod feet. then
sudden silence but for the hutelike
counting of some Juvenile 1t. were fol-
lowed by sudden screams and a wild
race for the goal. Maple House had
never countenanced the effete and d.
Iuted sport Of Spy; it was all for
hide and seek, where you had to hold
your man when found or beat him
to the goal.
Great was the excitement when the
littlest 1t of all caught Cousin Alan
by a tackle around the ankle that
spoke a volume Of promise for the
littlest It's academic career and
brought a glow of achievement to his
perspiring face. Alan was placed at
the newell at the foot Of the great stair
case and duly admonlshed in treble
voices not to look. The treble voices
rained excited instructions on him. car
ried away by youths confidence in its
ability to teach its grandmother how
to suck eggs. Alan started to count
slowly in sonorous tones. With a last
shrek and the patter of many feet the
trebles faded away into silence.
Alan crept stealthily up the stairs.
Out Of the corner of his eye be caught
sight of the twitching jumpers of the
littlest. who was too fat to quite fit the
retreat he had chosen. But Alan did
not quite see until it was too late. The
littlest exploded the vast breath be
had been holding In and plunged head
long down the stairs. AS he rolled by
fho Dawnl hn SfIIcE 0uf sturdy apTn