The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1872-06-28
MI j 8 G ell aneou us
HOW I MADE NY FORTUNE.

"Also, to my beloved nephew, 1 will
and bequeath my private escritoire and all
contained therein, in acknowledgment of
his ever-ceasing Kindness"
This was the only part of the will es-
pecially noticed. To be sure, realized,
in a sort of way, that nearly all my forty
or fifty cousins had been in some way re.
membered, but for all that, my thoughts
had been gathering, or some where
else, until my name was mentioned.
And so the old lady was dead 1 re-
membered that had a sort of u sad feel
ing that | had not tried harder to have
made her life happy one. Naturally
fault-tnding, and especially suspicious of
fortune-hunters, had kept at a proper dis
lance, only writing once a year, and calling
as often. l was quite surprised that had
been remembered at all, and even when
my name was mentioned | could hardly
realize it.
But owning thing raises ones curiosi-
ty as to what it is like; so when the rest
were at last satisfied, l looked around for
my property. Up stairs and down stairs |
searched, but no escritoire could be found,
until at last was beginning to think it
was all hoax, when some one suggested
looking in the garnet. So with slow in
different steps l crawled up the queer old
stairs, and the first thing that beheld was
my escritoire; but, sad to relate, more
dilapidated looking affair l never saw.
The knobs were broken of, and the doors
half hanging by a few rusty screws. In
fact, thought that my aunt had insulted
me. But out Of respect to her had 1t tax
en- to my bachelors hail." as called it.
Perhaps, with little fixing, it might be
made to look quite respectable.
So that same afternoon found me, with
hammer and screws, doing my best at it.
But even with all my pains taking, it was
not beautiful, and halftancied my dreary
room looked all the more dreary for my
new possession.
At that time / was book-keeper in q
bank, with a small salary and no prospect
of advancement. Not that I could not
have done anything else, but there seems
to be sort of fascination in bank to one
who has been employed for long time,
which keeps them there even when they
could do better somewhere else.
AS general thing, was quite content
ed. My pay came regularly, and by being
economical kept me quite nicely. OF
course under present circumstances, could
never think of marrying, and the prospect
of always living in those dull rooms alone,
was not very pleasant.
But remember this particular night, all
the blue devils were let loose on me. l
was completely discouraged. think there
are times in the life of every one, when
J they are left to contend alone with all the
| horror of darkness when some imp, bold
er than the others, dares whisper in his
ear
"Your life is q failure. The world
would be better without YOU"
| / endured such thoughts as long as pos
sible, then concluded it would never do,
and looked around for something to help
dispossess myself of my tormentors. My
eve fell on my newly acquired property.
l had never looked it carefully over so l
began to pull out the drawers, and soon
was quite surprised to find how interested
I was. There were few old papers, and
in one drawer l found u package of old
letters, yellow and wrinkled with age. On
the outside of the package was written, in
my aunt's well-known writing, "Lost at
Sea-" So even she had had her story. !
had always wondered why she had never
married, and that Lost at Sea " explain
ell the whole mystery. Putting them back
carefully continued my explorations I'M
Til had concluded that had looked it
all over and was just going to retire when
happened to think that sometimes such
old fashioned affairs had secret springs.
So 1 went over it again, trying with
thumb and fingers every place that might
possibly open, and at last I was rewarded.
Sure enough, there was slide, and back OF
that sort of box from which drew out
paper. I remember felt little asham-
ed to find my hands trembling as opened
the paper. 1 glanced at the date. 1t was
only the week before my aunt had died
The words blurred before my eyes, but
managed to read. 1t seemed to be a con.
tinuation of the will, and read as follows
! "Also to my nephew l will and bequcath