Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville

"

West smiled.

"You will have some trouble doing that," he said.

"Why?"

"Wegg and Thompson had transferred their entire stock to me before one

died and the other went mad," was the quiet reply.

"Oh, I see." The lie was so evident that Uncle John did not try to

refute it.

"I am rather busy, Mr. Merrick. Anything more, sir?"

"Not today. Bye and bye, Mr. West."

He marched out again and climbed into his buggy to drive home. The

interview with Bob West had made him uneasy, for the merchant's cold,

crafty nature rendered him an opponent who would stick at nothing to

protect his ill-gotten gains. Uncle John had thought it an easy matter

to force him to disgorge, but West was the one inhabitant of Millville

who had no simplicity in his character. He was as thoroughly imbued with

worldly subtlety and cunning as if he had lived amid the grille of a

city all his life; and Mr. Merrick was by no means sure of his own

ability to unmask the man and force him to make restitution.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE COURT'N OF SKIM CLARK.

By this time the summer was well advanced, and the rich people at the

Wegg farm had ceased to be objects of wonder to the Millville folk. The

girls were still regarded with curious looks when they wandered into the

village on an errand, and Mr. Merrick and Major Doyle inspired a certain

amount of awe; but time had dulled the edge of marvelous invasion and

the city people were now accepted as a matter of course.

Peggy McNutt was still bothering his head over schemes to fleece the

strangers, in blissful ignorance of the fact that one of his neighbors

was planning to get ahead of him.

The Widow Clark was a shrewd woman. She had proven this by becoming one

of the merchants of Millville after her husband's death. The poor man

had left an insurance of five hundred dollars and the little frame

building wherein he had conducted a harness shop. Mrs. Clark couldn't

make and repair harness; so she cleared the straps and scraps and

wax-ends out of the place, painted the interior of the shop bright

yellow, with a blue ceiling, erected some shelves and a counter and

turned part of the insurance money into candy, cigars, stationery, and a

meager stock of paper-covered novels.