Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1883-02-21
UNCLE JACOBS WILL,

mother was very proud of them; and
though widow, in Strengthened circum-
stances, she strained her narrow means
to put them at the new seminary, for
she was determined that her girls should
hold their heads as high as Farmer
Prindle's SNOWY daughters, at whatever
cost of pinching and saving.
The ambitious mother might have
found it difficult to carry through her
plans if an OILY brother, several years
her senior, who had run away when a
boy, and who had long ago been given
up for dead, hadn't come back one day,
as suddenly as he hal disappeared, with
no end OF money in his pocket, and still
bachelor.
Uncle Jacob Ransower, in spite of his
grotesque dialect and old fashioned
manners, soon became great favorite
with Jennie AID Lucy. By a sort of
tacit understanding he took up his
home in his sisters house; and from
that time the latter was relieved from
all anxiety on the score Of her
daughters education, Uncle jacob
thenceforward cheerfully paying their
bills, including al the "extras."
The girls came homo finished at last,
and Uncle Jacob was leased into buying
q grand piano with half Gait load OF
fashionable music.
The sisters would have had focks of
beaux, for they were not only remark
ably pretty, but, as everybody knew,
they would one day come into Uncle
Jacobs money; but they held their
heads so very high that there wasn't a
youth in Balky Bottom adventurous
enough to spunk up to them. Even
Hiram Hoppick, who used to be rather
spry III his attentions to Jenny in the
ante seminary days, and Reuben Ruck
man, who used to bask in an occasional
smile of Lucy's in the same blissful
period, hung back now like a brace Of
bashful schoolboys with their fingers in
their mouths.
At last star OF the first magnitude
set the armament of Ba!ky Bottom o
ablaze. 1t was no less a luminary than
Cleophas Brassey. Uncle Jacob, who
had caught from his niec6s q touch OF
the seminariau iliom, pronounced him
"mooch too quote" But the young
ladies' nonconcured. MIR. Brassey, in
their eyes, was perfect Prince Charm.
ing; and when they came to know him
and heard him sing, "A[e hawht is fawh,
fawh away! "a statement with probably
moro truth than poetry in it--Jenny
declared he was nicer than "a, and
Lucy quite agreed with her.
For the first time in their lives was
there any jealousy between the sisters.
For time Mr.. Brassey distributed
his attentions impaltially between tho
two. 1t would have puzzled him,
indeed, to give a reason for prefer.
ence. In point of looks, neither sister
had the advantage, and Uncle Jacobs
money, it was understood, was to 60 to
them in equal portions.
But Cloophas Brassey was of q more
practical turn OF mind than the meta.
physical donkey who starved to death
between two hay stacks, for want of g
phllosophic reason for choosing one
rather than the other Uncle Jacob
was complaining a good deal lately of q
"pnzzln' in his net, and had put him.
self on double rations of medicine as q
remedy. Feeling there was no time to
Lose, MIR. Brassey, in the privacy of his
chamber, christenel his meerschaum
Jenny. and his tobacco. stopper Lucy,
and went over the old juvenile rigma
role by which schooboys decide who's
first to be hare. The last word fell to
Lucy-so Lucy it was.
From that time forth it ceased to be
o question whore Mr.. Brassey's prode
lections lay. 1t was nothing but Lucy
with him now. Poor Jenny felt herself
utterly ignored; and when, from her
obscure corner, she listened to the cruel
chanting of the old story of his truaut
"hawt," she felt that there was mean.
oholy reality in the words she had never
recognized before.
Mr. Brassey would have proposed to
Lucy without delay, bit he was little
dubious on the score of Uncle Jacob.
1t would be just like that obdurate old
Dutchman, if he didn't like the match
to express his disapproval by disin-
heriting clause in his will.
But at last circumstance occurred
that couldn't fail to give Mr.. Brassey
considerable lift in Uncle Jacobs
opinion. Lawyer Hacker, with whom
MIR. B. seemed to have q good deal of
business lately. came in hot haste in
search OF that gentleman, whom he
found on the widows back porch
making himself quite one OF the family
Uncle Jacob, with his corncob pipe
hanking the party.
Il have just received" said the
lawyer TO Mr.. Brassey, breaking in on
the company with the air of one on
pressing business, "an offer OF two
hundred thousand dollars for your
Florida plantation. What answer
shall ] give?'
"Say I've changed my mind and
don't wish to sell, y carelessly replied the
other. turning to resume his tete.a.tete
with Lucy, and Hacker left.
Uncle Jacobs ears had not been idle;
and when in the evening it was dis
closed in the family council that Mr..
Brassey had that afternoon proposed to
Lucy, the old gentleman, instead of
exploding as had been feared, smoked
his pipe in silence, and when that and
the medicine were finished, betook him.
self quietly to bed.
Next morning Uncle Jacob was of
betimes to town. Going straight to
Lawyer Hackers office, he sought and
obtained q private interview.
"How mooch you sharch to wride my
vill?" he asked.
TWENTY-FIVE dollars" replied the
lawyer blandly.
"Doo much" objected Uncle Jacob.
"Shoost shdrike of. der dwventy und
it's pargoir."
Mr.. Hacker expostulated little, but
finally accepted the amendment.
SLOW do YOU wish to leave your
property, Mr.. Ransower?' he inquired,
dipping his pen into the ink and draw
mo toward him II sheet of paper,