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Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL
Newspaper Page Text
u u u u w m mams mmjmgmfis UNCLE WILL'S-LEGACY By George Munson. The news of Uncle Will's death was a great shock to me.-I read it in the morning papers. He wasTamong the killed in the accident on the Pacific South-Central Railway. The train had left the tracks while traveling along the bank of the Juby river in Colorado, and five cars had plunged Began to Drone Out the Terms of the Will. beneath the swirling torrent. 'There was no possibility of rescuing any one; the death of all the occupants had been immediate. Uncle Will must have had a pre sentiment of his death, because, an hour before leaving his office on the way West, where he had to attend a conference on some one of those na tional movements in which he was always interested, he had dictated a new will to his stenographer, Miss Clarke. Miss Clarke had typewritten it and two of the clerks had witnessed his signature. The relatives were summoned to meet at the house of Mr. Brewster, the family lawyer. Brewster smiled when he saw me and Marjorie enter. "I wish you luck, my dear fellow," he whispered, before the formalities began. I had always been a prime favorite of Uncle Will. He had left me a good round sum, I was sure. If he had died the year before I should not have been so sure, because he was deeply mortified when Anne Claridge and I broke our engagement. It was Anne who wanted to be free, but of course Uncle Will, in his pig-headed way, had thought I was to blame. He had always been fond of Anne. Even after Anne married Jim Thornton, a month later which ought to have shown Uncle Will where the blame lay he was suspicious of me. "A man who breaks an engage ment to a girl wants a lot of justifica tion," he said to me. I couldn't persuade him that I had wanted to marry Anne. I believe he cut me out of his will about then. However, after I had discovered that Marjorie was the only girl I could ever love, arid had introduced her to Uncle Will, I got back into -his good graces. He was still a little dubious about my constancy, but he confided to me that Marjorie had Anne "skin ned." "And, my dear boy, if you break that girl's heart 111 not leave you a stiver," he said tome, over the wal nuts. How that amused Marjorie and myself! We were to be married the week after Uncle Will's return, and nothing could have separated us. Mr. Brewster began to drone out the terms of the will, and you can be sure everybody pricked up his ears. Uncle Will had left some good round legacies, but I knew there was plenty left At last I heard my name.