The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1916-05-05
By GEORGE AGNEW CHAMBERLAIN
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 q 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 1t over
flowed the arbitrary bourne of kitch-
ems and front doors and like some
mounded vine rippled of on all sides.
In vast living room, sunny nurseries
and broken fringe of broad verandas
There were hooks that We're satisfied
and held back from further encroach-
ment and there were outstanding cor
ners that jutted boldly out over the
sloping lawns and threatened a further
raid
Inside, the paths of daily life ran
clearly enough through the maze, but
on their hanks hung many somber
d.. for ambush or retreat. Cavernous
closets. shadowy corners, numbered at
tics and 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 recollect-
ing things about Maple House that he
had more than half forgotten; strange
byways under the roof; a vacant cham
Der. turned into trunk room because
one by one 1t had been robbed Of It's
windows; and lastly the little attic
that had been, as ii were, left behind.
wall.
Through this dreamland of 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 fiutelike
counting of some juvenile 1t, were fol-
lowed by sudden screams and a wild
race for the goal. Maple House had
never countenaneed the effete and di-
luted 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 tackle around the ankle that
spoke volume of promise for the
littlest It's academic career and
brought Il glow of achievement to his
perspiring face. Alan was placed at
the newell at the foot of the great stair
case and duly admonfshed in treble
rained excited instructions OH 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 last
shrek and the patter of many feet the
trebles faded away into silence.
Alan crept stealthiIy up the stairs,
Out OF the corner of his eye he caught
sight of the twitching jumpers of the
littest, who was too fat to quite fit the
retreat he had chosen. But Alan did
not quite see until it was too late The
littIest exploded the vast breath be
had been holding in and plunged head
long down the stairs. As he rolled by
the newell be stuck ont a sturdy arm