The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1882-09-22

-ldFU a. ISdff. IN Our C0htt1fnt-
THE WIDOW wIcKETTS WINDOWS.
MIR. Tibbctts was riding slowly along
the road thinking for, once. in way
what brief life this was and how
quickly we left it behind us. / He had
just been making old Mr.. Parkman' s
Will, anI it was doubtful if old Mr..
Parkman would live until night. The
pompous. buStling. dictatory man was
dying. and the world would get along
well enough without him, as it would
without any of us.
One person would grieye for him, and
that the very one who would be benefited
by his death. Years ago Mr.. Parkman
had picked up in the streets of New
York, on n cold winter night, a poor
little Italian boy, who had been sefftb
his padrone ito scrape the violin on a
bleak corner. Mr.. Palkman had found
that the little fellow was iil-treated, and
had taken legal measures to release and
adopt him, and this boy, now grown to
be seventeen years old, was the old
mans great pride and comfort.
Il want TO give everything to-Ludo-
vico. he had said to the lawyer. ..He
deserves it. and | love him. Ny nephew,
Ralph Werner. would pounce upon every
thing if left no viii. Mol should
make one even if had never found this
boy. | shoald leave all to some charity,
Ralph is 4 bru.e-rich, greedy con-
temptible. Ludovico. will carry out my
ideas and 10 good with his money!
So the viii was written, and it was
now in the LAWYERS breast pocket to be
carried to his Office and locked UP in a
certain box
Il may live for years. said the old
man, land Ralph would make no bones
ofdestr6ying the will. He's bad fell
Iowa very bad fellow.''
But at the door Mr.. Parkman's man
had told him that the doctor had said his
masters hours were numbered; that he
would not see the next sun rise. No
wonder Mr.. T'ibbetts felt that this was
an uncertain sort of world.
But the boys down in the hollow be-
side the road on which his horse slowly
trotted, who were making the most of a
holiday and fire-crackers and other |
-;stnTowucry play things. such as one |
might fancy Satan had invented for his
offspring, were troubled with no grave |
thoughts or solemn emotions. The black
figure of the lawyer, long and lean, seat
ed on his quiet old horse, instead of
awakening awe in their small bosoms, |
aroused them to deeds of mischief Sud-
denly an invention resembling bomb |
shell, though smaller and less destruc-
tive, hurled through the air, hit Mr.. |
Tibbetts in the small of the back. and |
exploded. Mr.. Tibbets started; the horse |
reared, and in n moment more Mr.. Tib- |
belts was on his back in the hollow, the |
horse mile away up the road and the |
will sticking in the solitary gooseberry-
bush that decorated the Widow Wickett's !
front door yard.
Now the Widow Wicket was one of I
those people who are always wretehedly |
poor, no matter what is done for them,
and though she had more given her than |
any other person in the town, She always /
had broken panes of glass in her window /
and was always patching them up with i
pasteboard. tin pans and straw-hats.
Toddling out shortly after tho acci-
dent, of which she heard nothing, being
down cellar at the time, she found fine
piece of stiff parchment sticking in her
bush, and rs it'was Just the size of two
panes of glass. appropriated il at once,
fastening it well on With many tacks
As she could not read writing, the names
upon the sheet never struck her eve, and
as for the red tape. she. used that for
shoe string immediately. ,-sT
Meanwhile. down at the hotel to which
he had been carried, Mr.. Tibbetts came
to himself, found he was not greatly in
jured, expressed his opinion of boys in
general, and waited for ms clothes.
which were being brushed for him.
''And, by the way" cried Mr.. TIb-
belts, suddenly, ''bring me the .docu-
ment in the waistcoat pocket, William.
It's very valuable"
William could not turn pale; he was
the color of charcoal but he stared at
Mr.. Tbbetts eEoss
an pocketbook, an penknife, an card
case, an handkerchief, is all dere was
in de pocketsr' he said. a. Dere wasn't
"a paper--a parchment y explained
Mr.. Tbbetts.
''Sartinly. is aware what a docky-
ment am, sah," replied William, with
proper dignity g but dar wasn't none,
sah-n f
Vain search was made on the road, in
the hollow-everywhere The will was
gone. Sore as he was from his fall, Mr.
Iibbetts had himself driven back to the
Parkman mansion. He arrived there
before the sunset, but old Mi. Parkman
was already dead and all rewards that
were offered failed to bring the will to I,
light. The Widow Wicket never read j
the newspapers Il
The law had its course The nephew
came into the property. The two old /
who had been well provided
for by their master, sought other situa- ).
lions. Ludovico was left. without o
penny but he bad a good eiucation,