Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1890-02-19
IN AN OLD HAT;
Or, Tho Peculiar Way in Which the
Will Was Found.

Or, Tho Peculiar Way in Which the
Will Was Found.
An auction was going on at the old
yellow farmhouse on the hill. Bachelor
Barker was dead, and his heir, a young
nephew whom he had never seen since
the boy was four years old, had come
down to sell things off. Rumor said he
afterward, and take money from the
bank and build fine new residence,
with mansard roof
Its shame" said one or two. 'Such
q pity Barker did not make will.
He must have had some intentions
about such q property. He never could
have intended all that wealth to go
to boy he did not like enough to
ask him over for the summer"
The doctor felt sure he would have
founded hospital, and placed him in it
as resident physician for life, if the will
had been made.
The Clergyman knew he meant to do
something for the church. The profess
sor had heard him speak of free library
and reading-room. Every one knew
something, and all the far-away cousins
had expected legacies.
Every one thought the arrangements
all wrong, but the heir and the auc-
tioneer, who had made an inventory of
the old furniture-the tall clock, the
andirons, the solid tables with leaves.
the spinning-wheels, big and little; the
fddle-back chairs, and all those other
possessions adored by the fashionable
to-day, but utterly despised twenty
years ago as ''old things not wort. keep
ing"
The young heir would, if he built his
villa, furnish it with "sets" of the latest
style, with brussels carpets with white
grounds and bright wreaths OF roses
scattered over them.
Cant get much for the old sticks"
he said, ''but I'd like to clear up and be
done with it,
Miss Camiola Brown sitting at the
front up-chamber window cutting out
calico short waists for Mrs. Blacks five
little boys, laid down her shears for
once in her life, and. with her elbows
on the sill, watched the people as they
walked or drove past and entered in at
the gates of the late Mr.. Barker's
premises.
'Poor Benjamin. she sighed. II
wonder whether up in Heaven he re-
members the day when he took me in
and walked me all over the house?
The things are old-fashioned, Cam
iola,' he said to me; but they were
mother's--and before that they were
grandmother's. l like them, but say the
word, and I'll new furnish No, Ben,'
says l, what your ma liked to have,
don't want to alter. l like it all; it's
good stuff and then he kissed NO."
Miss Camiola felt for her handker-
chief, as she said this to herself. "And
we stood at the grand window and looked
off toward the mountains. We're going
to be happy as ever folks were," said
he;' here the tears began to fall. ''Oh,
Ben" she sobbed, ito think we quar-
relied after that, and didn't speak when
we met. But you never married, and
refused two offers-good ones. Ben, l
guess we'll meet up there some time, and
make up"
Poor old Camiola put her head down
on her arms and cried softly amongst
the purple blossoms of the wisteria that
vailed the window. No one could see
her from the road. But her tears dried
soon, and she came back to the present.
They were selling the old furniture
at auction. The claw-footed side-board,
the settle, the big mahogany cradle in
which four generations of babies had
been rocked-all these dear old things
that once were to have been hers, as
BENJAMIN Bankers wife; and she was a
poor seamstress, an old maid going
from house to house for her board and
fifty cents day; looking forward to
feeble old age, and with an awful dread
in her soul of becoming "town poor" at
last.
If she had married Ben, how different
it would have been.
''Why, Miss Camiola! you've been
cryin'v' said Mrs. Blacks loud voice,
Just then, in her ear. Camiola started
guiltily, but she was too candid to COM
plain of cold or the sun in her eyes.
swell, l have cried a little, Mrs.
Black" said she. "You see, we used to
be friends, MIR: Barker and I, and knew
his ma, and remember all that furni-
ture, and it seems sin to sell it and
tear down the old, house, and may be
root up the lilacs and strawberry shrubs,
and, perhaps, cut down the trees. 1t
was almost ike home to me in Mrs.
Barker's day" @5#3552
& "Well, it must seem sin to any one,
and more 50 to you, Miss Camiolo," said
Mrs. Black. ''But don't you want to go
over and see the place and what is 60
ing on? You might as we'll just take
day or the rest of it, I'm in no hurry,
and you look tuckered out"
Mrs. Black was kind in her way, and
felt certain pity for Camiola. She had
heard that Camiola was once engaged
to Mr.. Barker, and might to-day have
been rich and important widow, in
stead Of poor, lonely seamstress.
..Go along, Miss Camiola, she added.
II know you want TO-"