Aunt Jane's Nieces Out West
He leaned back in his chair
with a sigh of content and said:
"Bless the hen that laid that egg! No dainty was ever more delicious. And
now," he added, rising, "let us go and inquire the address of a good
undertaker. I have made my will, and I'd like to be cremated--it's so
much nicer than the old-fashioned burial, don't you think?"
"I'll attend to all that, if you wish," she replied, trying to repress a
shudder as she followed him from the room. "Do you smoke?"
"I used to, but the doctor forbade it; so I gave it up entirely."
"Go over to that stand and buy a cigar. Then you may sit beside Beth and
me and smoke it."
The girl did not wholly approve of smoking and had often chided Uncle
John and her father and Arthur Weldon for indulging in the habit; but
this advice to young Jones was given in desperation, because all the men
of her family stoutly affirmed that a cigar after a meal assisted
digestion. She resumed her former seat beside Beth, and her cousin
quickly read the anxiety on her face.
"What did you do, Patricia?"
"I fed him."
"Did he really eat?"
"Like a starved cat."
"Hm-m-m," said Beth. "What next, I wonder?"
Patsy wondered, too, the cold shivers chasing one another up and down her
back. The boy was coming toward them, coolly puffing a cigar. He did not
seem to totter quite so much as before, but he was glad to sink into an
easy chair.
"How do you feel?" asked Beth, regarding him curiously.
"Like one of those criminals who are pampered with all the good things
of life before being led to the scaffold."
"Any pains?"
He shook his head.
"Not yet. I've asked the clerk, whenever I signal him, to send someone to
carry me to my room. If I'm not able to say good-bye to you, please
accept now my thanks for all your kindness to a stranger. You see, I'm
not sure whether I'll have a sudden seizure or the pains will come on
gradually."
"What pains?" demanded Patsy.
"I can't explain them. Don't you believe something is bound to happen?"
he inquired, nervously removing the ash from his cigar.
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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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