Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville
"There's some good fruit, though," continued Caldwell, "an' the berries
allus paid the taxes an' left a little besides. Ol' Hucks gits along
all right."
"Jest lives, 'n' that's all."
"Well, thet's enough," said the miller. "It's about all any of us do,
ain't it?"
"Do ye take it this 'ere Merrick's goin' to farm, er what?" asked Nib,
speculatively.
"I take it he's plumb crazy," retorted the agent, rubbing the fringe of
hair behind his ears. "One thing's certain boys, I don't do nuthin'
foolish till I see the color of his money."
"Make him send you ten dollars in advance," suggested Seth.
"Make him send fifty," amended the store-keeper. "You can't buy a cow,
an' pigs, an' chickens, an' make repairs on much less."
"By jinks, I will!" cried McNutt, slapping his leg for emphasis. "I'll
strike him fer a cool fifty, an' if the feller don't pay he kin go to
blazes. Them's my sentiments, boys, an' I'll stand by 'em!"
The others regarded him admiringly, so the energetic little man stumped
away to indite his characteristic letter to Major Doyle.
If the first communication had startled the little village, the second
fairly plunged it into a panic of excitement. Peggy's hand trembled as
he held out the five hundred dollar draft and glared from it to his
cronies with a white face.
"Suff'rin' Jehu!" gasped Nick Thorne. "Is it good?"
The paper was passed reverently around, and examined with a succession
of dubious head-shakes.
"Send for Bob West," suggested Cotting. "He's seen more o' that sort o'
money than any of us."
The widow Clarke's boy, who was present, ran breathlessly to fetch the
hardware dealer, who answered the summons when he learned that Peggy
McNutt had received a "check" for five hundred dollars.
West was a tall, lean man with shrewd eyes covered by horn spectacles
and a stubby gray mustache. He was the potentate of the town and reputed
to be worth, at a conservative estimate, in the neighborhood of ten
thousand dollars--"er more, fer that matter; fer Bob ain't tellin' his
business to nobody.
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In a village there lived two men who had the self-same name. Both were named Claus. But one of them owned four horses, and the other owned only one horse; so to distinguish between them people called the man who had four horses Big Claus, and the man who had only one horse Little Claus. Now I'll tell you what happened to these two, for this is a true story.
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