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THE FLOWERS COLLCCIION
Barney Corrigan’s Legacy—
The Strange Tale of an Old Georgia Home
The Last Affair at Pepper’s Grove j
By LOLLIE BELLE BURTZ.
Written for E7*» Sunnr South
SHALL always think
8
«£
yon with , the mountains,
Mr. John. You seem so
strong and unchangeable
—almost a part of them
somehow; and I feel you
have helped a long way
to bring me back to
health and happiness and
the joy of living.
“Do you remember that
first day after Aunt and
I came when X had crept
out in the sunshine, and
you passed and showed
you passed an showed me the way to
the spring in the hollow where the ferns
were rank and the violets grew?"
Dawson nodded. He remembered well
tin childlike helplessness about her that
tilled his heart with pity and drove away
the diffidence which otherwise would
have held Ills tongue. After that it was
easy enough to talk to her of the moun
tains he loved—to tell her of all she
should see when her strength came hark
and she could go further into the heart
of the hills. He told her of the great
si ac s and majestic silences: of the
trim proud pines standing guard over
the solitude; of the noisy little brook
lulling Its secret of the wilds; and above
.11 of the thin, delicious air which is
elixir to starved and famished lungs.
’ Oh, if I could only get up there T be-
lievo T should get well!” she .said with
an eager sigh.
"You can. and you will." he htid told
her. and she had kept trying and trying
until his words had come true.
Above the bluff was the goal they
sought—a stalely old house with the
vide, airy galleries and Corinthian col-
that marked the home of the
'^n'he 1 vender of seeing suc& a Place
in a mountain forest is enou
lie..eve almost a
. ith it " said the girl.
have faith in the story
Corrigan’s gold being hidden
almost like hunting for it.
• —-m—9• ■•■•••«
By C. B. ROBERTS.
Written for Bhe Suany South
HE Ba isville fair
«**»«.*5£
° “ . , , ~l,*l “To
In the Doorway Stood a
Instead of
Man
With Staying Outstretched Arms.
it seems ea
or Barne;
liero. I f''
Don’t you 1
"I am willing to be satisne
>ld place,” answered ber corn-
following her saze upward to
"the one Dr. Oswald gave
ed with the
already come to me
panion.
lie hou
me."
“YeF
r. faith in his
am and what
Dr Oswald! The old hermit and evo
lutionist who lived here last?”
that was Dr. Oswald. I hate
creed, but I owe wbat
I hope to be to him.
lie and the woods and mountains have
been nr only teachers.”
••But the success you are beginning
gMn is in you. Have I not told you
that it was your will which got hold
of nm and made mo believe In my power
to fight death and get well? You were
so sure of It that I could not doubt.
‘ “While the spell of the heights is upon
ns lefc me see if I can tell of the origin
of the old house as you have told it to
me. T have an especial reason for wish
ing to tell the story well.
"It was built ’way back In the forties
hv one Major Charles Pembroke, a
gallant gentleman, whose love for tne
sweet heart of wild nature caused him
to persevere until, in spite of the obstac
les in the way.
.a 1n«st68-Q Ul IsOitlS
When he married^‘"^nabls resort
abroad or to ■ * beautiful
•>’ ‘"honeymoon; and
each year e thereafter forth, two^weet-
;^.K n wUh f a°Jay Par^and made merry
to their hearts’ contertt
“But death came
sturdy prime, and
broken-hearted widow conld
return to the seen shft
the major in his
his sun set while it
that friend was John Daw-son, your
grandfather But he came too /ate to
learn place of the treasure
which wa to be Ii«s. for when he reached
the maiy n Barney was dead. Then the
war bt/' e " ,he states came on, Mrs.
pembr*,. and the old house was
forgot’
On . at her fee t. his face turned
to tl 1 * 1 ^’ the man had been listening;
hat wa ’\ upon ‘he girl herself.
L r W ° n ; She spoke ’ Dp there
f betwe en them was invisible tic
had
been ever for a couple
of monhs, and everything
had p.ssed off without
any jpa-ticularly untoward
circumsthce. Even the
unfriendiness between
Major jisiah Pipkin and
Colonel Wesley Blood-
worth. yhich had its in
ception during the gala
days, had not developed
any utvasy aspect—that
is, it hid not up to the
juncture when the things presently to
be here, set down took place. The trou
ble grew out of the award to Major
Pipkin of the prize for the fattest hog.
both gentlemen having entered at the
fab’ samples of the animal and vege
table products of the! respective farms,
which were conducted for dr owners
vicariously and as side affairs, for while
liieir fathers before them had followed
rural pursuits, they themselves had not
elected to lead the life of out-and-out
tillers of the ground.
The active concern of Pipkin was the
keeping of a store in Barrsville for the
sale of “all kinds of hardware,” and
Blood worth was chiefly occupied with
his duties as superintendent of t ie one
small line of railway. j
It was necessarily n dost/ decision, for
flic layman in porcine matters could
have detected no different in print of
corpulency between the two animals.
Bad Colonel Bloodworth, fn commenting
irr. the subject around town, made some
Remarks that, reaching Pipkin, did not
xactly please that gentleman. The re-
ult was that they teased to speak.
I lie two had bt rti close friends ever
luce they were wys; they had always
i.een to each ot“Josiah” and ’LM-Vt? ”
_,ii> C-d’Asr W.urairi t ' .'nit
4y
So'r, t> "!Zrnr. f r : ™
tatters selfish. Blood-
* widower of long stand-
possessed a some-
and was easilv
flatly
an i in some
woth, who wa
ing and childl^,.
wint choleric te lper
Sot V? * 3ys,caI <*>»»*«* or both
y.y * m Peafiment, and there was
woi’S’s sptn e !n ° f , t,, ° T ,,ty ° f R!a ° J -
for tlie natural JL^ r" Pk ,OR sub stitute
el
divers local topics, and the Central ho
tel’s lumbering ’bus from the train with
its four passengers--three commercial
travellers and a visiting country attor
ney, come to town to look after some
cases—had just gone by, creaking from
the want of axle grease, when around
the corner, about a block off. abruptly
appeared, walking leisurely down the
street, the squat, portly, slightly-limping
figure of Bloodworth.
Simultaneously with their discovery of
him. he described them, and he would
have passed on quite oblivious, to all
outward semblance, of their existence ex
cept for one of those circumstances, tri
fling in in themselves, which all along in
the history of (he world have been fruit
ful of far-reaching consequences and in
the lives of Individuals have bad an In
fluence analogous: when he had ap
proached to within about 20 feet of the
group lie suddenly slipped upon the fro
zen snow and—very much against his in-
elinatlon and In Spite of exertions In op
position—came down upon the hard for
mation with a jolt which seemed drastic
enough to loosen his vertebrae and draw-
taut every tendon in his anatomy.
Theer was a laugh, quite audible, from
the Pipkin assemblage, and while Blood
worth was on the ground recuperating
the major himself observed—perhaps
wholly jocularly and meaning that only
those Immediately about him should
hear—
“If Wes’ wasn't fatter'n that hog of
his lie wouldn’t have fallen!"
Alas! —for. whatever the intention, the
colonel heard. He would have ignored
the laughter, much as it aggravated his
diseomforture; but the odium of the
coarser insult, as he deemed it to he. was
positively unbearable and enraged him
to that supreme point where he forgot to
do what he always did when anything
went amiss—swear continuously for a
space averaging a quarter of a minute.
From the congested appearance of his
’•mintennnce no one would have been sur
BTisoa.. to, ■ TT 1 '® the very next
stead, picking up 'the W T-i};
variably carried and breathing hard and
seething with Indignation too turbulent
arose—with exceeding
to describe, he
lost he should again descend.
"X ou all a cowa’c*. sub!” ho vocifer
ated. paying
of
Lever bear to ret
tU ‘ " •“cm was Invisible
she belonged to the
greatest " ap! f^ S p, ac "' her husband had
neither
h
she sent Bar-
}f their great
bear to have
loved so well go to ruin; so
to
u lo me world of
- and culture lying beyond the hills-
Oigot that he was poor and unknown'
had never meant to speak. They
but man and woman there—and he
care for
tine freshness. th r!ftv
md had sav
'ed her
The power of his eyes drew hers hack
wilderness, and
rom the hous
servant*he knew
never meant
of the
lonely life here,
alary his masters widow
gun his
ISTK'i.-'i.-yjnf
told marvelous tales ot hi.
whfch they said he tept JM** < a
about on the hillside..
fore
to tel) you,” he said
but my heart spoke to yours*lie-
„ nothin
have been gre-i t T hende<J - U wo “M«ot
fellow citizens "to T ! ' Urpr,sln * lo their
between them |£ T" ° f SOme
possibility ^r’ ^fiTslion of the
possioiHtj of a n;thing like
Tanged encounter! -j t h fircarn
words, a duel w|>,i d have been consid-
rrrLtrVTV**!* ™ ^ the S
tranti \ notions Df Don Quixote both
■ cause the probation was too 'slight
•>ai because dueling, in the strictest
' ,!KP ’ belonged to t generation past and
prear-
in other
I realized ft. i feel the difference
between us. ] know T
thing in return; but
While nothin
plnci
•After
UUlll
a fife of toll and repress*
. , v „i,l PorrtAV"
cannot ask any-
, . now since i-ou have
learned my secret let me say it once-I
you—with all my heart and soul T
lov
love you
I know
chill* December nltf* old »
he had Hvcd-alone. t _ °^ d ° f v ne
you see only the pre-
he has raised yond
broke family servants - jns
him. but he sent the p ‘ ,a hid-
frlcnd he had made in “^me-
th a t lie might tell him when
sumption of It. that I an Ignorant moun-
taineer should raise my eyes to you. hut
^ 1th it all I am a man.”
“You mlsjudf
she said quickly,
CONTINUED ON FOURTH PAGE.
erurso r befallen during the
ntv nfl I" : ° distinguish it from
" . s P l vdeCissors for some years
previous, neverrh*. ss two months' at?-
erwards—following’ a iittlo moro a,
t lug mere-chance
episode that snrv.fi to recrudesce
i-orman t unpl<asa:tness—came
expected.
It was late in Vo afternoon of a day
tl’al had been cie
weather.
the
the
un
ity
of true winter
Ma.jn: Fpklii for the moment
is standing fn front of his store with
three townsmen
tl r lcs in tn way, uc — • . that he migm- >■'=*• , . . — or inree townsmen idle
f. ropy of his Old southern home aboye the accumulation of^ ^ ... 1
} the crags looking out tipon the vallej. ^ . ..•-.*•+•*•*•* ‘ ‘ I
li *.*•*•*•*•*•*•*•* *•** • * ‘ « ^ Rv
attention to the othe-
men but bristling up to Pipkin, who was
. and of a spare physique, and bran
dishing the stick like a gage of battle in
tile Vicinity of bis former intimate's nose
Having an idiosyncrasy of immediately
repeating some of his utterances be at
once reiterated-if possible, with aug
mented vehemence and before the major
could return n word:
T say you ab a enwa'd, suh!”
Just why be should have chosen that
particular word—vehicle, rather than
some other member of the vocabulary of
invective which might have been more
appropriate under the circumstances to
carry to Pipkin knowledge of his 'dis
pleasure. It is not possible to asseverate
it is probable that be could not on
spur of the moment think of
other epithet which lie fancied
lie as hateful to the
add reseed.
Pipkin, as we have given to understand,
was of a pacific temperament—up to a
certain point—averse fo fighting when it
could bo avoided without sacrifice o'
honor, and he always did his best to
stave off actual hostilities. M’hile he
could not refuse to take notice of this
imputation, he would meet it. he decided
with a response which would prevent
trouble and at the same time enable him
to retire with the integrity of his repu
tation unimpaired. He did not mov« as
he replied, very calmly:
“You can prove, suh, whetiiah I am ah
not!”
Strangely enough, Pipkin's forbearance
seemed to possess a mollifying attribute
in its effect upon the colonel, who appar
ently cooled off somewhat himself ami
walked away—or maybe it was the ma
jor’s words which nonplussed him and
put him temporarily at a loss. When
lie commenced to turn them over In his
mind and reflected that he had no reason
for believing that they were not intended
to he construed as such a remark is usu
ally construed, it struck him that they
were very significant. Of course, when
in the heat of anger lie had declared ab
solutely against the major’s valor he had
not anticipated getting a reply in terms
which, although tatamount to a chal
lenge from Pipkin, not only devolved
upon himself the burden of proving—
in only one Inferrable way—his accusa
tion but of proving his own bravery, for
both Pipkin and his companions who had
witnessed the altercation, if lie, Blood
worth. took no step, would have ample
ground to believe that he himself h id
shown the white feather in not desiring
to fight. Indeed, he felt that he really
had behaved most craven-like in depart
ing so tamely.
Being aware, however, of the inerraot
fire of the major and that he certainly
would not select any description of duel
ing instrument but one which world
shoot, and knowing his own utter fail
ure as a marksman, he- f"lt xnat :t
would be as if subscribing his own death
wan ant to sending a challerge. But—
there was no other course; he appro*
Dated that, and ihe thought that the
quicker he acted, and thereby - i nvive-1
the impression that he had backed out
under Pipkin's unlntimidatable front, the
tetter.
A few hem’s laLer Colonel Bullwinkio,
his friend, waited upon Major Pipkin
with a cartel. As the epistolary experi
ence of the writer had been restricted al
most wholly to tiie r-’utine correspond
ence Incident to bis railroad position—
••men nc m a o g.v-at number
of years and which the minds of bis
compeers conceived to be one of much
prestige—the note was couched in the
set phrases and embodied the ahridgo-
ineut of official railroad comniun.cn-
110:1s:
Josiah Pipkin. Sir-
tion this
ing to
our c
on
beg to
ad vis
e that
lent foi
* me
to
meel
ton.orn
)\v m
>rn
ing 1
if that
plac
• •
v.il.
von. (
7o!om
■1
Bull
izefi to
mah
:o
■ill
my beh
n! f.
Re
spec
u at 7
i - pper’
but
the
any
would
one to whom it was
• rove.
be agreeable to
winkle i„- author-
arrang-cments on
t-fully.
M' ESI. E Y B J-OCD WORTH.
Whatever friends of eithu- party w, re
permitted to see that missive—far from
being amusing regarded -solely in re
spect of its tenor—must have beer, hu
morously moved by the sharp contra.-d
between is severe formality and ti
previous familiar intercourse subsisting
betwixt the two men.
In suggesting Pepper’s Grove—an iso
lated citurip of woods a mile and a half
out of town which had been originally
a part of the Peppet famiiy estate au.t
which throughout several changing-
ershlps had retained its old name a:
the penplo—Bloodworth was
precedent. While nowadays
during the summer, the hale
of a picnic ground
remembered when its seclusion and ap
posite surroundings caused it to t>.- th»
scene oi more tlmr
13)
uvn-
follC
eyon purpo
•persons still hvh
ngumat
• *!• • v • -t- • # ,... D # .j. # _
Oxenford, ? rseman a
CONTINUED ON EAST PAGE.
»„... # ... #8 ... a ... 4 .
d- • ■**'+ •
O v.se Oxenford's expres
sion. Mary •was choice.
She had always loved
what was serene and pure
and dainty since the davs
when she wore socks and
a big frilled hat and ac
companied “Honest John"
Petrie in his daily spin
over Macomb’s Dam. Hon
est John was not above
stopping at various road
houses for various whis
kies, and he loudly boast-
leave the child out-
ghe was not
of ihe sporting at John crlp-
est John had dr, us plunging.
When she w^d Mary of the
pl?d himself f.n dress. She
and want of ^styles that he*
Incubus of f-rd was smitten
took to tl* this new aspect
soul loveiy
with pair/ time. Mary.” he
jfcnsii
Mary went to the Normal
of her. ^nsideration of her
“You’y' 1 °thes are all right,
said, trf e s well In ’em ’■
appear* 11 ^ of Oxenford and.
You 1' unrese r'’ed anproba-
Maf 1 to confide a great
plea 0,1 d was down on his
ed that he could
side to hold the lines,
afraid, by God!
Oxenford’s first glimpse of her
in front of one of these road houses^
was little of her visible except
two smalt.
was
Ther
l-,c-r gorgeou
bat. and tlie
tlor” 411 ' af iald lie was a
,.e loved to study things,
j, to be able to do some-
,-'lf. something nice. She
io the Normal School
o be a teacher.
*oke.d soberly at her. He
fferent Ideas for her, but
John, and
School.
When Mary graduated, Oxenford sent
her the biggest floral horseshoe money
could buy. Mary was appalled when
she beheld it towering on her desk, but
her white-gowned classmates fortunately
did not understand Its significance, and
thought her a whimsical little thing
If Honest John had had his way, Mary
would not have been wearing that unas
suming little white dress. Mary’s father!
How was he to tel! her that he had
slopped for Honest John, and found him
in no condition to come to Mary’s com
mencement.
Mary found Oxenford. when the as
sembly broke up. leaning against a door
way. big and silent, In an unusuallv gor
geous waistcoat. She had left a -imun
of classmates and classmates’ brothers
to him. and i.:_
V\ liy, it don’t amount to anything” he
said; “perhaps eight or nine hundred.”
*t was a worthy lie, but it was no use
Mary looked at him with bitter reproach
I know of twenty-five hundred he
owed you myself,” she said, "because he
wn Writers
‘.3r , . 1 J J I , te,I . yOU . What 1 «•»» «*«>.” Said She rfl-onncr? dowl 1 L ‘ .7. ‘ T
Oxenford. brightening. “I’ll take a half
interest in him and run him that way ”
‘Oh. no.” objected Mary. “I couldn’t
do that.
told me
“He paid It,
lenly.
“I ain’t out
“Five thou*,
protested Oxenford sul-
nor gw*-uu “ Honest John’s stand for a little.
— ». » *.r. ».
grassy circle. ^ ^ to stand, nted him to put in a word with
"‘Honesfjohn'onen "rove out _ to •*._ Hottest _ John Igugl^d .?
Oxenford’s father, to whom he ^as Tt bis little girl should meditate
to
. rockicssly successful pKbts was absurd, something to
< r on the turf. Sometimes h© brr ' ^ th roars of Homeric laueb-
She was 6 and young Oxf
but she suited him f' | ,I . m a Up-on the quiet.” said
carry 1 falling Into the vernacular In her
c jstfness. “Tell him you’re on the in-
consciouf and J’ou w I’m
- ,, lhM lus* 1 won’t give it up.”
ultra gorgeous ^xenford put it that
Kent sweet in spite of tne ci
cry with which Honest John
her, so she kept her odd iaiu. M 'jea‘J|i«»
alltv aloof from the
Mary,
nearly 20,
even then. He used
see the colts. She nevei
to
stuck on it.
way to Honest
, and accepted his stum
bling explanation about her father with
a quivering mouth’. ’ WlUl
It was not the last hurt Honest John
was to cause her. for he plunged -
eck esslj, sinking lower and lower, until
; a ™»et through his heal]
to . a flt of drunken melancholia.
, ter J P was aI1 over - Mary saw Oxen
ford. She put aside his sympathy with
a hardness quite unusual in her. *
They say he owes you any amount of
money. OxTe.” she said, her eves fill.,
"" 'f’ “ 1 want t0 »o over It with you
I want to square everything.” J
Oxenford looked at her hopelessly
power to square, and inwardlv h-, Mal ' y t ;
Ztip^ t0nK,,PS that bad 1 gh-en fier
a thou’. Honest. Mary!”
..v . nl0re likely.” said Mary
You ve so t t o take the horse. Oxl«.”‘
hat horse?” growled Oxenford. He
was at a loss for the next move, If Marv
insisted on considering herself in his
• ebt. The bigness of mind that lifted
mm out of commonness made It impos
sible for him to force his love on her
when she was handicapped by this ugty
egacy. He knew she was fond of him
but Ins large humility i fi d him to see
nothing in this but the survival of her
old childish fondness for the great fel
low who had carried her about, her check
against his stiff red curls.
’’The western horse. He's
old.” Mary explained.
Oxenford misunderstood her and flush
ed uncomfortably.
" l for S°t you were so down on racing,”
said he. "Of course you wouldn’t want to
be dragged Into it.”
"It isn’t that.’
mns
still
two-year-
“Dad lost thou
sands on him, but he’s overtrained. 1
think lie’s a good one.”
“I’ll take him and train him for you ”
said Oxenford, beginning to get inter
ested.
"You are to take him and keep him ”
said Mary, fiercely. “I never want to
see or hear of a horse again. I hate
racing and every filing connected with
Oxenford winced. He found it easy to
forgive her outburst, but it cut him
"I’ve tried to se]i him, but tliev ‘sav
he s r.o good.” said Mary, forlornly ••>
eafi’t get anything for him.”
Mary explained re
morsefully. “Only I want to square
lungs, Oxle. and you may lose on this
, Henry Graves says Flittormouse
will never be anything but an old selling-
plater.”
‘Selling-plater himself!” said Oxenford
hotly. ‘"Tried to get the horse from you
f0P abo , ut three hundred, didn't he?”
‘i es. ’ Mary confessed.
VVe II show Graves a thing or two,”
Oxenford said grimly, "If yq U want to
Ktve me half of Flittermousc.”
(< Mar> sat in thought for some minutes.
“I don’t see any other way out,” she
said.
’All right, partner,” said Oxenford
cheerfully. ”We'II pull enough out of our
tirst race to make us square.**
But Fllttermouse lost his first race.
Mary, that sedate and dainty little lady,
buist forth from her school room when
the last of the wicked small boys she
had been keeping in had clumped out.
Rosy and hatless, she fell upon the
newsboy who was shrieking the sporting
extra under her school room window-.
*!‘ ush ?d[ the paper between her hands
. nd tossed It aside after one glance down
he column. She and Oxenford were
Heavy losers.
° PP ° d down 0,1 one of the tinv
desks and sat for an hour or more blank
ly staring at the wall. Between her and,
ft 11 her Oxie had been well robbed.
And now she had forced him into rim-
a third-rate horse for her. She was
fitting there when the janitor came
In and began to raise the dust with a
huge brush. Mary rose, stiff and sick and
rold. She scribbled a little no te to Oxen-
‘°rd. but at the postbox withhold her
n ?! n a.
’’He’ll be around tonight to tell me It’s
a his fault, she told herself, w-ith for
lorn humor.
Oxenford did ii
and
urn up at 8 o’clock, big
grave and troubled. lie knew- pre
cisely now Mary was going t
_ „ take it,
and he was prepared for the fight of bis
life. Mary kept him waiting some time
She had taken a flat with two girls she
knew. They were nice girls. One was big
and brown and handsome, a stenographer
to some important political man; the
other a kindergartner, a wisp of a ’crea
ture, elfish and humorous. They came
in and entertained Oxenford. but tile good
opinion they had previously entertained
of him died. It is not easy to make small
talk with a big man w-ho watches the
door and scowls. Finally Mary made her
appearance and they escaped gladlv She
took her seat by the table, with a busi
ness-like air, and looked across it at
Oxenford.
“Hard luck, wasn't it?” she said eheor-
fullj, though her small features were dis
figured with much crying. “I’ve been
trying to figure out our losses, and I
CONTINUED ON LAST PAGE