Aunt Jane's Nieces
"
Beth did not reply.
"And Will's dead, and out of his troubles, I hope," continued Uncle
John, reflectively. "He wrote me once that his wife had nearly driven
him crazy. Perhaps she murdered him in his sleep--eh, Louise?"
"Sir," said Louise, much offended, "you are speaking of my mother."
"Ah, yes. It's the same one your father spoke of," he answered,
unmoved. "But that's neither here nor there. The fact is, I've found
two nieces," looking shrewdly from one face into the other, "and I
seem to be in luck, for you're quite pretty and ladylike, my dears."
"Thank you," said Louise, rather coldly. "You're a competent judge,
sir, I suppose."
"Tolerable," he responded, with a chuckle. "So good a judge that I've
kep' single all my life."
"Where did you come from?" asked the girl.
"From out on the coast," tossing his grizzled head toward the west.
"What brought you back here, after all these years?"
"Family affection, I guess. Wanted to find out what folks yet belonged
to me."
An awkward silence followed this, during which Uncle John relighted
his pipe and Beth sat in moody silence. Louise drew a pattern in the
gravel with the end of her parasol. This new uncle, she reflected,
might become an intolerable bore, if she encouraged his frank
familiarity.
"Now that you are here," she said, presently, "what are you going to
do?"
"Nothing, my dear."
"Have you any money?"
He looked at her with a droll expression.
"Might have expected that question, my dear," said he; "but it's
rather hard to answer. If I say no, you'll be afraid I'll want to
borrow a little spendin' money, now an' then; and if I say yes, you'll
take me for a Rockyfeller."
"Not exactly," smiled Louise.
"Well, then, if I figure close I won't have to borrow," he responded,
gravely. "And here's Jane, my sister, just rolling in wealth that she
don't know what to do with. And she's invited me to stay a while. So
let's call the money question settled, my dear."
Another silence ensued. Louise had satisfied her curiosity concerning
her new uncle, and Beth had never had any.
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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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