Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville
When McNutt was handed his letter by the postmaster and storekeeper he
stared at its contents in a bewildered way that roused the loungers to
amused laughter.
"What's up, Peggy?" called Nick Thorne from his seat on the counter.
"Somebody gone off'n me hooks an' left ye a fortun'?"
"Peggy" was one of McNutt's most popular nicknames, acquired because he
wore a short length of pine where his absent foot should have been.
"Not quite," was the agent's slow reply; "but here's the blamedest
funniest communicate a man ever got! It's from some critter that knows
the man what bought the Wegg farm."
"Let's hear it," remarked Cotting, the store-keeper, a fat individual
with a bald head, who was counting matches from a shelf into the public
match-box. He allowed "the boys" just twenty free matches a day.
So the agent read the letter in an uncertain halting voice, and when he
had finished it the little group stared at one another for a time in
thoughtful silence.
"Wall, I'll be plunked," finally exclaimed the blacksmith. "Looks like
the feller's rich, don't it?"
"Ef he's rich, what the tarnation blazes is he comin' here for?"
demanded Nib Corkins, the dandy of the town. "I was over t' Huntingdon
las' year, 'n' seen how the rich folks live. Boys, this h'ain't no place
for a man with money."
"That depends," responded Cotting, gravely. "I'm sure we'd all be better
off if we had a few real bloods here to squander their substance."
"Well, here's a perposal to squander, all right," said McNutt. "But the
question is, Does he know what he's runnin' up agin', and what it'll
cost to do all the idiotic things as he says?"
"Prob'ly not," answered the storekeeper.
"It's the best built farm house 'round thest parts," announced the
miller, who had been silent until now. "Old Wegg were a sea-cap'n once,
an' rich. He dumped a lot o' money inter that place, an' never got it
out agin', nuther."
"'Course not. Sixty acres o' cobble-stone don't pay much divvydends,
that I ever hearn tell on," replied Seth.
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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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