The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1883-12-27
THE MISER'S INHERITANCE.

Miss Sammis was the only daughter
of the person so inevitably called Old
Sammis, in his native town, that no one
called him by any other name, and un-
til his will was read, the fact that he
had been christened Octavius Cicero
Sammis was actually unknown to many.
However, he had actually not lived
as many years as some who had not
been thought of yet as more than mid
dle-aged.
1t was his manner, his long nose, and
sharp chin, the wrinkles in his fore
head, and the sparse greyish hair that
gave him the reputation of age, and his
vices had not been those of young men,
even at five-and-twenty.
A prudent, saving boy, he had gone
on to be stingy young fellow and
miserly elderly man.
His long, straight brown coat, his
shabby stove-pipe hat, his wrinkled
boots, and the trowsers, which, always
too long and full for him, fell over them
in many wrinkles, seemed always to be
the same, and lie had worn one glove
for five years, having lost its mate three
years after its purchase.
When his poor wife was i'll the doe
tor had ordered wine and beef-tea, but
he had demonstrated:
''Beef-tea uses up so much meat. and
wine is very dear-and bad habit al
so, my love. Don't you think you could
take a nice little piece of fried pork and
some old cider instead?"
The poor woman had answered that
L D..A "a =.
tried a week even Old Sammis said
that something must be done.
He bought the wine and the beef,
but before the tea was made she was
past swallowing.
Her daughter came home from her
uncle's then and cried over what the
neighbors told her, but did not say to
her father what she intended to say;
for in going down stairs to hide, in the
cellar, the bottle of wine his wife had
left as full as when it came into the
house, Old Sammis tripped and fell,
the bottle broke and cut his arm, and
erysipelas set in, of which he died, and
the girl who had washed dishes in her
uncle's kitchen to save her keep, found
herself worth half a million.
She was a small, thin girl; she stoop-
ed a good deal, and her nose and chin
nearly met; but she was neat and prim,
and as soon as the power was hers she
furnished the old house decently and
hired a servant.
She might have cut dash and be-
come a fashionable woman, but the
thought did not occur to her.
She felt happy when she thought of
the money that belonged to her, and
she could not bear to part with much
of it. She was not even able to bring
herself to the point of buying a black
silk dress for her aunt, who needed one
sadly.
Two or three hundred dollars would
have filled trunk over which those
poor little shabby cousins would have
danced with joy; but she could not
do it.
She could not have denied anyone
food and medicine, or fire, or light, or
anything needful under her own roof,
as her father had denied her mother,
for she was only twenty-one and a wo-
man; but she had the old mans blood
in her veins, and the miser's craving
lurked in her soul.
So the interest of her money was
slowly added to the principal. and she
grew richer slowly but surely.
However, she was not yet miser,
and when certain things in the way of
table-linen were wanted, she went down
to the city to buy them, and to make a
call or two as well, and was hurrying
up Broadway from the ferry, when just
as she passed Trinity Church a man
touched her on the arm, and said:
beg your pardon, lady, but haven't t
you lost twenty-dollar gold piece?'
Now Miss Sammis knew well enough
that she had no gold whatever with her
but she hesitated before saying no.
I'm not sure. ] must look, she
said, feeling for her portemOnnaie,
II think | seen it drop Outln your
pocket when you took out your hand
kerchief," said the man.
Satin got the better of Miss Sammis.
"Then | must have lost it, she said.
Eyes, lady; and it's honest of me to
pick it up for you, ain t it, when | might
"a kept it?'' said the young man, hold
ing out the money. ''And you hadn't
oughter begrudge me dollar to get a
meals victuals with, had you, jest as a
reward for honesty and to encourage
me?" whined the young man.
well, no, | think | ought to give
you something" said the miser's da,Igh-
ter. Il was thinking of quarter,
but-''-she looked into her purse, and
slowly took out q dollar bill ''but
theren' she added with thrill of gen
erosity. ''Therer'
The young man seized the money,
said Thanks to you," and vanished
around a corner; and Miss Sammis,
with the Joy of one who has drawn Il
prize in the lottery, hurried to the shop
where she intended to purchase her
table linen, made her selections, and
offered the twenty-dollar gold piece.
Cash carried it away in basket, and
in five minutes more request that she
would "step into the office, was made
by suave floor-walker, and she found
herself under arrest on charge OF hay
ing tried to pass counterfeit coin.
"But I'm Miss Sammis, of Honey
town." explained the poor girl amidst
her sobs. I'm rich. 1t is Impossible
to suspect me. "
..If you could remember where you
got the money" said the policeman, as
he put her into q cab, ''it would be pet
ter for you. We are looking out fol
these very gold pieces, and women are
getting rid of them, and that makes Il
bad, you see. -
And SO they drove away from the lit
tie crowd that had gathered about the
carriage, and Miss Sammis soon tounc
herself in the presence of justice O.
the peace.
The shopkeeper made his charge
but she had collected her senses. She
oave her address, the name of her pas
Tor, of her lawyer-inhuential persons
1t is mQrtlfying to be charged wit!