Aunt Jane's Nieces
"Sir," said he, "give an account of yourself."
"Eh?"
"John Merrick, millionaire and impostor, who came into my family under
false pretenses and won our love and friendship when we didn't know
it, give an account of yourself!"
Patsy laughed.
"What are you up to, Daddy?" she demanded. "What has Uncle John been
doing?"
"Deceiving us, my dear."
"Nonsense," said Uncle John, lighting his old briar pipe, "you've been
deceiving yourselves."
"Didn't you convey the impression that you were poor?" demanded the
Major, sternly.
"No."
"Didn't you let Patsy take away your thirty-two dollars and forty-two
cents, thinking it was all you had?"
"Yes."
"Aren't you worth millions and millions of dollars--so many that you
can't count them yourself?"
"Perhaps."
"Then, sir," concluded the Major, mopping the perspiration from his
forehead and sitting down limply in his chair, "what do you mean by
it?"
Patsy stood pale and trembling, her round eyes fixed upon her uncle's
composed face.
"Uncle John!" she faltered.
"Yes, my dear."
"Is it all true? Are you so very rich?"
"Yes, my dear."
"And it's you that gave me this house, and--and everything else--and
got the Major his fine job, and me discharged, and--and--"
"Of course, Patsy. Why not?"
"Oh, Uncle John!"
She threw herself into his arms, sobbing happily as he clasped her
little form to his bosom. And the Major coughed and blew his nose, and
muttered unintelligible words into his handkerchief. Then Patsy sprang
up and rushed upon her father, crying;
"Oh, Daddy! Aren't you glad it's Uncle John?"
"I have still to hear his explanation," said the Major.
Uncle John beamed upon them. Perhaps he had never been so happy before
in all his life.
"I'm willing to explain," he said, lighting his pipe again and
settling himself in his chair. "But my story is a simple one, dear
friends, and not nearly so wonderful as you may imagine. My father had
a big family that kept him poor, and I was a tinsmith with little work
to be had in the village where we lived.
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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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