Aunt Jane's Nieces
"
"No, my dear."
"Why, you foolish old Uncle! Come in at once. The Major has been
terribly excited over you, and swore you should not be allowed to
wander through the streets without someone to look after you. But what
could we do?"
"I'm all right," declared Uncle John, cordially shaking hands with
Patsy's father. "Have you had a good day?"
"Fine," said the Major. "They'd missed me at the office, and were glad
to have me back. And what do you think? I've got a raise."
"Really?" said Uncle John, seeing it was expected of him.
"For a fact. It's Patsy's doing, I've no doubt. She wheedled the firm
into giving me a vacation, and now they're to pay me twelve a week
instead of ten."
"Is that enough?" asked Uncle John, doubtfully.
"More than enough, sir. I'm getting old, and can't earn as much as a
younger man. But I'm pretty tough, and mean to hold onto that twelve a
week as long as possible."
"What pay do you get, Patsy?" asked Uncle John.
"Almost as much as Daddy. We're dreadfully rich, Uncle John; so you
needn't worry if you don't strike a job yourself all at once."
"Any luck today, sir," asked the Major, tucking a napkin under his
chin and beginning on the soup.
Uncle John shook his head.
"Of course not," said Patsy, quickly. "It's too early, as yet. Don't
hurry, Uncle John. Except that it'll keep you busy, there's no need
for you to work at all."
"You're older than I am," suggested the Major, "and that makes it
harder to break in. But there's no hurry, as Patsy says."
Uncle John did not seem to be worrying over his idleness. He kept on
questioning his brother-in-law and his niece about their labors, and
afterward related to them the sights he had seen in the shop windows.
Of course he could not eat much after the feast he had had at
luncheon, and this disturbed Patsy a little. She insisted he was
tired, and carried her men away to the tenement rooms as soon as
possible, where she installed them at the table to play cribbage until
bed-time.
The next day Uncle John seemed to be busy enough, although of course
Patsy could not know what he was doing.
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There was once a king who was very powerful. He had great influence over the wild beasts and animals. Now the tortoise was looked upon as the wisest of all beasts and men. This king had a son named Ekpenyon, to whom he gave fifty young girls as wives, but the prince did not like any of them. The king was very angry at this, and made a law that if any man had a daughter who was finer than the prince's wives, and who found favour in his son's eyes, the girl herself and her father and mother should be killed.
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