The Springdale news., 1889-09-06
UNCLE JACOBS RUSE.
A Change in His w ill Produces a
 Happy Effect.

JO put bHtlil dt tllS HCN ocllllHdIy.
 The ambitious mother might have found it difficult to carry through her plans if an only brother, several years her scnlor, who had run away when boy, and who had long ago been given up for dead, hadn't come back ono day as suddenly as he had disappeared, with no end of money in his pocket, still bachelor.
 Uncle Jacob Ransower, in spite of his grotesque dialect and old-fashioned manners, soon became great favor ite with Jenny and Lucy. By 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 daugh- ters education. Uncle Jacob thence forward cheerfully paying their bills, including all the extras"
 The girls came home finished at last, and Uncle Jacob was teased into buying a grand piano, with half cart load of fashionable music.
 s-Ihe sisters would have had flocks of uciu2, for they were not only remark ably pretty, but, as every body knew, they would one day come into Uncle Jacobs money; but they held their heads so cery 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 in his attentions to Jenny in the ante-seminary days, and Reuben Ruck- man, who used to bask in an occa- sional smile of Lucy's in the same blissful period, hung back now like a brace of bashful school-boys with their fingers in their mouths.
 At last a star of the first magnitude set the Armament of Balky Bottom all ablaze. It was no less a luminary than Mr. Cleophas Brassey. Uncle Jacob, who had caught from his nieces a touch of the seminarian idiom, pro- nounced him ''mooch too quoite :" But the ladies nonconcurred. Mr. Brassey, in their eyes, was perfect Prince Charming; and when they came to know him, and heard him sing: Me hawt is fawh, fawh awa7n' "a statement with probably more truth than poetry in it-Jenny declared he was nicer than a-a-, and Lucy quite agreed with her.
 For the first time in their lives was there any jealousy between the sisters.
 For time MT. Brassey distributed his attentions impartially between the two. It would have puzzled him, in- deed, to give a reason for a prefer ence. In point Of looks, neither sister had the advantage, and Uncle Jacob $ money, it was understood, was to go to them in equal portions
 1,bis. .l s.sEn.sey stn. 2 was was $.-roFa 9 !, ~ To osVo uit0'bt mihr s9s~ the meta donkey that starved to death between two haystacks, for want of philosophical reason for choosing the one rather than the other. Uncle Jacob was complaining good deal lately of 'puzzin' in his het, and had put himself on double rations Of blackstrap as remedy. Feeling there was no time to lose, Mr. Brassey, in the privacy of his chamber, christened his meerschaumJ Jenny and his tobacco stopper Lucy, and went over the old juvenile rigmarole by which school boys 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 a question where Mir. Brassey's pre- affections lay It was nothing but Lucy with him now.
 Mr. Brassey would have proposed to Lucy without delay, but he was little dubious on the score of Uncle Jacob. It would be just like that ob- stinate old Dutchman, if he didn't like the match, to express his disapproval by a disinheriting clause in his will.
 But at last circumstance occurred that couldn't fail to give Mir. Brassey considerable lift in Uncle Jacob s opinion. Lawyer Hacker, with whom MT. B. seemed to have good deal oi business lately, came in hot haste in search of that gentleman, whom he found on the widows back porch mak- ing himself quite one of the family Uncle Jacob. with his corncob pipe and pitcher of blackstrap, fanking the party.
 Il have just received" said the law yer, breaking in on the company with the air of one on pressing business, ''an offer of two hundred thousand dol lars for your Florida plantation. What answer shall give?"
 Say I've changed my mind and don't wish to sell, carelessly replied the other. turning to resume hls fete- a-tete with Lucy, and Hacker left
 Uncle Jacobs ears had not been idle; and when, in the evening, it was dis closed in family council that Mir. Brassey had that afternoon proposed 10 Lucy, the old gentleman, instead of exploding as had been feared, smoked his pipe in silence, and when that and the blackstrap were finished, betook himself quietly to bed.
 Next morning Uncle Jacob was off betimes to town. Going straight to Lawyer Hackers ofGce. he sought and obtained private interview.
 How mooch you sharch to wride my villp" he asked.
 Twenty-Five dollars" replied the lawyer, blandly.
 ..Doo mooch, objected Uncle Jacob. ''Shoost shdrike off der dwventy und it's bargain"
 Mir. Hacker expostulated a little, but finally accepted the amendment