Show HIS WANDERING OVER PENITENT RETURNS BERT ZABRISKIE WELCOMED BY HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS AT MONTVILLE N J long absence seemingly only had made hearts grow fonder share of his fathers estate waiting for him with a welcome from the granddaughter he had never seen N J the rov ing fever f ever had got into bert M zabriskie Zabris kle s blood and it made him fidget he ile dreamed of the wide stretching prairies and the valleys lying snug and warm at his home here became pitifully nar row he thought of the lofty peaks of the and the wooded ridge back of boonton blonton shrunk to an ant hill he pictured the distant great wa reaching down a thousand miles to the sea and the prattle of the rockaway river winding in and out among the swales above the old mill sounded like childish mockery these were symptoms AH all the thirty odd years of bis his life bert zabriskie Zabris kle had lived in one neigh boyhood there he had married there two daughters had been born but the fever reached its height as all fevers must and he struck out he t take his family with him other men have struck out that way and montville gossiped oth cr or towns have done that too and this ends chapter one except to gay say that some of our best doctors have been trying for years to find some sort ol 01 blood purifier that aou would ld allay the roving fever in country bred boys and they haven t hit the right thing yet dosing doesn doean t seem to do it any good descendant of patriots when nhen george washington father of his country and consequently of new jersey was in camp at morris town heights and his soldiers were ull of patriotism but otherwise empty times being hard a squad of conti rentals were sent down the rockaway river to pick up supplies by fair means it if possible but to get era em even at that early day a zabriskie kept the mill he stood at the grain topper hopper you may tell general washington he be said as the incident Is banded hande d down that so long as water runs and wheels turn and millstones grind do dc all I 1 can to relieve the distress of the fighters tor for liberty this shows the kind of people the Zabris kles were however one gray bearded zabriskie after another slipped into the flour dusty last was albert james zabriskie father of the rover over and of two daughters both married by bard hard work long hours and inci dental thrift this miller zabriskie had aready become well todo to do as jersey olli olk measure savings when an came to him to mate make some big easy money deal that meant wealth jersey city was down in the way river country to establish a water system and bull a great reservoir za briskie loaned the water rights on the river and jerse city had to see him first there s more money in water rights than there Is in grinding neigh boyhood corn zabriskie Zabris kle drove a harp bargain and became rich a just the time of his I 1 te fe when he mantea wanted to knock off work for good it looked then as if it he would live out his years in contentment but you neier never can tell bout such things son bert took the eyer ever and struck out months passed and nothing was heard from him one day lawyer nelson S kitchell was summoned opposite the mill he found the old man rather poorly and anxious to have hia his worldly affairs set bet in order tor for he felt that his end sas as fast approaching A will had been drawn dividing the tha estate into three parts but as the rovers whereabouts was unknown a was added providing that bert s ha e should be held in trust by the ad until his young daugh ler ter hould reach the age of 24 it if tie tte absent son should return bafo before re that time he could claim his share shar e it if not the two to granddaughters were to divide it done ath W th earthly abl troubles this provision being set forth in detail to his liking the miller scratch ed his name to the document and wit nesses appended theirs there being no further call to the grist bin and enforced idleness having added its burden to the weight of his four times twenty years the miller fell into a rapid decline a aj d in mid january four ears bears ago crape flut at the door of the homestead and the death hush room was in the spare the rover did not return for the fu lie ile sent no word his ills whereabouts remained unknown to mont ville years had piled up since he had struck out rhe fhe old mail mans s will became operative and this brings the second tn it its chapter r V 4 4 0 0 0 0 P 0 J the count up of the millers miller s pr arb erty showed that apart from the ft tul ful acreage the homestead and taa t century old mill he had gilt edged holdings that put the estate in the hundred thousand class which Is go ing some for montville Al a town not giving to money boasting estate duly divided in the orderly way of probate law mrs cora van duyne and mrs ellza eliza beth ball the immediate women momen heirs to the miller millers s estate got their con sid erable shares and the court of chancery in and for morris county upon application directed the execl tors to apply the income of the rover 8 share of the estate to the amainte nance of the stay at home wife and mother and daughters the latter now having grown out of shoe top frocks and passed from the braid braid down the back period into the early stage of young womanhood upon the settlement ot of the estate mrs van duyne and her husband the latter s health requiring a change removed from Al montville straight across the country to pasadena cal where they settled long lost brother found one day last winter while motoring about in the new country mrs van duyne visited los angeles she was driving her car along one of the avenues toward the suburbs when a arol ley crossing at an angle halted her the motorman capped and coated in blue turned his head in her diorec tion she recognized him at once the motorman was her long missing brother As soon as possible she arranged to meet him it was ras a reunion with out formality and what a lot of things there was to tell the death of the good old fath er just as he had rounded out his eightieth year and of how bow up to the very last he had had only the kindest thoughts tor for the absent son of the will and the codicil thereto which safeguarded the one third share of his own loyal wife and the daughters and of the marriage of one to as likely a chap as there Is in the valley and of the new baby with eyes like its mother others s and just learning to toddle of the fire which had reduced the old homestead to ashes all these things and more there were to tell in a rec ord of the years that had come and gone since he had r struck out rover arranges to go home there was some telegraphing and some letter writing on the part of the sister and some hesitation on the part of the rover all of which was quite natural and as matters of the sort are bound to be settled if only they are helped along in the right way bert zabriskie finally decided to return bronzed from life in the open with hair just a little thin at the temples but otherwise looking much as he be did when the fever attached attacked him bert zabriskie arrived back in montville back to the valley which was no long er pitifully narrow to the sight of the wooded ridge which has resumed its normal and to the river which now prattles a welcome how quickly the news jumped from farm to farm and from town to town why in less than a week everybody for miles around knew about it and pretty everybody said he was mighty glad berdd got back for he lie was a lot better than some folks that had talked about him old friends drove around to see him and say hello bello and get a line on what the tar far west was like as tar far as he had been some acted just as it if they were on the cerge of the fidgets too tor for when a rover returns to his native others begin to dream of the far hy all glad to see him the welcome that was was bert kie s was as sincere as he could wish when he reached the turn in the road where the river sings its way down to the mill they were mere all out to meet him wife and daughter and the baby too and he was passed from one to the other and there were smiles of joy and tears of joy tor for they go together on such occasions and handsh hands akings halings and embraces and of course there was a recon clit atlon the details of which need not be gone into that matter being no body s business outside of the family and some stories of adventure and a good dinner after a period which did not sug bug gest there was mas a consul tation with nith the lawyers and the terms of 0 f the codicil to father s will providing that the son should inherit his share if he returned before the younger daughter reached her twenty fourth birthday birtha ay everything is all fine and dandy daughters birthday is some weeks off folks around here had a lot of things to say when I 1 went that were not true said zabriskie Zabris kle td a caller a lot of things that were just made up that Is as true aa as gospel gossips never keep strictly to facts anywhere and jersey gossips are no except exceptions io |