Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1882-09-05

i
costume, was drawing bucketful o.
cold sparkling water.
"Never was mortal so thirsty in all
out for the gourd shell. "Well, Charley
Franklin, have you finished that there
course of divinity lectures yet?"
whats that you've got in your
wagon, Abram ?" said young franklin
general literature"
Abe Seeley, with grin.
Rollins Ancient History eh ?''
said franklin, carelessly taking up q
voiumn. us the set complete ?"
"Every blessed volume," nodded the
rag vendor Don't ye want to trade
for them, Charley franklin, I'll sell 'em
to you cheap"
Young Franklin was a book-lover-
he glanced longingly at the ancient
covers.
"What do you call cheap ?" said he.
And then and there began a diplO-
Bismarck himself might have prOf1ted.
Charley Franklin, being thoroughly
in earnest, was at disadvantage how
ever, and although he secured the
coveted literary treasure, he still felt that
he had been cheated.
While Abram Seeley went rejoicing
on his way. muttering to himself:
"That wasn't such q poor bargain,
that there wasn't"
"Ten thousand dollars Oh, Charley.
ten Thousand dollars !" cried Mary
Meredith. in accents of incredulous de-
light. "You are rich, Charley. You
can 90 on with your divinity lectures
now, and we can be married whenever
we please"
Doesn't it seem exactly like fairy
tale?" said franklin, with q smile. ITO
think that read through four of the
battered old volumes before I came to
the one in which the ten thousand dol
lars were neatly flatted out between the
leaves, touched with the least possible
speck of gum arabic, at the four corners.
to prevent them from falling out"
"WhatW cried aunt Polly. "Ten
thousand dollars? What on earth are
you talking about, Charley Franklin ?"
"About some old volumes that I
bought last September-just before your
husband died you know-out of a rag
wagon" exclaimed Charlie Franklin.
II got them at a bargain, for they were
real antiquities In their way and I'm
trying to get little classical library to-
gether. by degrees, and, gummed be.
tween the leaves of volume five, found
these old bankn0tes."
Mrs. Meredith stared, then grew al~
ternately red and pale.
"You-you didn't tell us the name of
the book" she gasped, instinctively
putting her hand up to her throat
Didn't ?" said Charley. II thought
of course, had mentioned It,"
sit. was history-'Rollin's Ancient
History"
Mrs. Meredith gave grasp at Mary's
arm to keep herself from falling.
"Mary!" she calculated. MARY, it
was the very pile of old books that [
sold myself-uncle Benaiah's books. sit
was uncle Benaiah's boarded fortune
that I flung into the rag wagon that
day."
"What does it matter. aunt Polly"
said Mary, 'if it comes back to the orig
inal owner again?"
"Ot course, it is yours, Charley will
restor it to you at once"
"Of course I SHALL" young Franklin
declared, when matters had been ex-
piained to him. "Do you think could
1Or an instant ToCa1n money Wulcu was
not rightfully my own?"
''But it is yours" said Mrs. Meredith,
recovering herself. "Yours by bona
fee purchase and sale. Let it go. Un
Gle Benaiah's money! 1t has only
blighted my life with hopes unful-
filled, and ambition that never was
satisfied. My poor old husband died,
and never knew that it was his,
and I shall be better off without it
Take it, you and Mary. Make yourself
a home with it, and Heaven grant that
it may be happy one"
And so the young people took her at
her word, and were happy.
But in the prettiest southern angle OF
the little Gothic cottage, which the
young clergyman inhabits, is nook
which is always called
"Aunt Polly's ROOM"
And after life's day of drudgery and
disappointment, the sunset is closing
brightly down upon aunt Polly's heart.
For Mary, her darling, is happy.
And in the reflected sunshine of Ma
ry's brow, aunt Polly finds her own
yvell-spring of peace.