Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1870-04-21
Selfft Story.
Mr.. Smallpiece's Legacy.
by FRANK H. Angler.

When people wanted to get 10 the Of
ice of Mr.. Smailpiece, they we re oollged
TO 90 up very dirty street and through
y dirtier alley, and then under a dark
and gloomy archway into a lit tie open
court, where Mr.. Smallpiece's sign,
square sheet of tin painted white anu
lettere6 in black, revealed the lact tha'
the occupant of the office over whose
door il was nailed, was Simon Snlal-
piece Esq, Attorney and Counseliof al
Law. The Office itself was quite pleas
ant and cheerful when you once got IN
side of it, for its back windows opened
upon a canny little bit of common, green
with soft grass and waving treesin sum-
mer.and spotlessly pure with an expanse
of virgin snow in winter. On many an
afternoon had Mr.. Smallpiece, sitting at
his worm-eaten old desk in the antique
window-space, looked up from his work
and catching sight of a dickey-bird hop
nine about among the rustling leaves
ont side the open window, become lost
in dreamy reverie which led him TO
waste whole hours in following the un-
restrained vagaries of idle thought. In
fact. dreaming was almost the only rec
reation which Mr.tSmallpiece ever had
now. He could remember, and that
easily enough, time when he was not
the chiIdless old man which life had left
him wears ago. There had been a day
when a cheerful home, graeed with the
Iuxuries of life and rendered sacred by
the love of wife and daughter, was not
the least of his worldly possessions and
now his wife lay sleeping under round,
green mound of turf in the churchyard
yonder, while his daughter
Worse even than death" exclaimed
Simon Small piece, clenching his hand
as he thought of her. Worse even than
dead. May my curse go with her."
And then he sat back in his leather
covered chair, biting the end of his PEN
holder savagely, and thought, with bit
terness in his heart, of the day, so long
ago when she had come to him holding
Will Allen by the hand, and then Will,
standing proudly before him in the full
nobility Ofstalwart manhood, had asked
him for Nellie as his wife. Mr.. Small
piece remembered, too, with chuckle
of exultation, how he had shown Will
Allen to the door at once and forbid
him ever entering his house again how
lie had sent Nellie TO her room in flood
of tears, and how he had himself return
ed to Will Allen all the foolish letters
and keepsakes which he had ever had
the audacity to send to Simon Small
pieces daughter. The old lawyer could
not but acknowledge to himself, as he
sat thinking of these things, that he
had made somewhat of a jackass of him
self, after all, for Nellie had Obstinately
refused to marry the wealthy suitor
whom he had selected for her, and had
persisted in her silly attachment for this
lout of countryman, whom she un-
timely ran away with and married. But
Simon Smallpiece had sent his loudest
curses after them, and had never seen
the face of his only child from that day
to this. He never would forgive her, ,and
there was comfort in assuring himself
of that, at all events.
And so oldSimon hadlived alone ever
since, his temper soured against all man.
kind, and his heart, if he ever had one,
which is doubtful, chilled to thing of
stone. He was reputed rich, but few
ever saw the color of his money. No
beggar ever came to him for aims, or if
he did SO once, was very careful to keep
clear of him forever after. His lodgings
in the upper story .he same old build
ing with his office, was miserable and
mean in the extreme. His clOthesswere
threadbare, and his face was pinched
with the hardl lines of avarice and sell
fishness. With no charity for the suf-
fering, with no feeling of kindness for
the unfortunate, with his heart closed
% every appeal from womanly tender
ness or childish innocence, Simon Small
piece avowed himself the enemy of the
world, and passed his life in picking
quarrels with it. This perhaps was one
reason of his success in business-a sue
cess most signally evident in his ability
to "nurse"his suits tenderly and TO pro-
long their litigation in most marvel
louS manner.
One lazy afternoon, Mr.. Smallpiece,
CHANGING to look up from the misty deeps
of a long chancery bill in which he was
just the submerged, caught sight through
the open window, of a little child stand
ing upon the step of a house on the op-
posite side of the common. There was
nothing interesting to Nfr. Smallpiece
in children. Asa general rule be hated
them, but as he happened to glance at
this wee little lady, standing, so plump
and rosy, upon the doorstep, she sudden
ly clapped her chubby hands together
and gave such a joyous little scream of
delight that Simon actually smiled:
Yes, he did, and il was something he
had not done for a very long time. Look
ing in the direction in which the child
was gazing, he saw a man, clad in the
dress of workman, coming across the
common. And this person., when he
came to where the child was staudi ny,
caught her up high above his head with
little laugh, and bringing her down
into his arms again, kissed her. Wheth-
er Mr.. Smallpiece's heart was trifie
more tender than usual just then can
not say, but it seemed 10 him that there
was something i'll the movement of the
workman very pleasing and pretty. He
remembered the time when he was wont
to do the same thing with his own child
himself.
The child, catching giimps of Mr..
Smallpiece's bald head shining brightly
at the open window, said something 10
the man who held her, and the latter
putting her down upon the ground, led
her slowl J across the lawn towards the
attorneys office.
"Whose brat is that ?" said Simon,
when they had approached near enough
for conversation.
''She is not brat replied the man
quietly. "Dosen't she look pretty enough
to be called something better than
that?n
"Hum,n Grunted hTr. Snalipiece.
"Well, child then. Whose is it, Yours?''
she's mine now" replied the man,
"but pmnot her father. She's my broth
er's child, SIR"
''She seems almighty fond of you"
said Simon, seeing that you're not her
natural parent"
''She is fond of me, aint you, Daisy?''
rejoined the workman, stopping down to
pull her yellow curls through his fin
gers.
For answer the child put her little
round arms about his knee and laid her
dimpled cheek close against it.
why don't your brother take care OF
here" asked Mr.. Smallpiece, looking at