Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville
"Yes, miss. He were bos'n on Cap'n Wegg's schooner the 'Lively Kate,'
an' I were livin' with Miss Mary, as come to be Mrs. Wegg arterward."
"Oh, I see. And were you blind then, Nora?"
"No, miss. I went blind arter our great trouble come to us."
"Trouble? Oh, I'm so sorry, dear. What was it?"
The old woman was silent for a time. Then she said:
"I'd better not mention it, I guess. Thomas likes to forgit, an' when I
gets cryin' an' nervous he knows I've been thinkin' 'bout the
old trouble."
Louise was disappointed, but changed the subject adroitly.
"And Miss Mary, who was afterward Mrs. Wegg. Did you love her, Nora?"
"Indeed I did, child."
"What was she like?"
"She were gentle, an' sweet, an' the mos' beautiful creetur in
all--in--in the place where we lived. An' her fambily was that proud an'
aristocratic thet no one could tech 'em with a ten-foot pole."
"I see. Did she love Captain Wegg?"
"Nat'rally, sense she married of him, an' fit all her fambily to do it.
An' the Cap'n were thet proud o' her thet he thought the world lay in
her sweet eyes."
"Oh. I had an idea he didn't treat her well," remarked the girl,
soberly.
"That's wrong," declared Nora, promptly. "Arter the trouble come--fer it
come to the Weggs as well as to Tom an' me--the Cap'n sort o' lost heart
to see his Mary cry day arter day an' never be comforted. He were hard
hit himself, ye see, an' that made it a gloomy house, an' no mistake."
"Do you mean after you moved here, to the farm?"
"Yes, deary."
"I hear Captain Wegg was very fond of Ethel's grandfather," continued
Louise, trying to find an opening to penetrate old Nora's reserve.
"They was good friends always," was the brief reply.
"Did they ever quarrel, Nora?"
"Never that I knows of."
"And what do you suppose became of their money?" asked the girl.
"I don't know, child. Air we gettin' near home?"
"We are quite near, now. I wish you would open your heart to me, and
tell me about that great trouble, Nora. I might be able to comfort you
in some way.
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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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