Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-09-21
MAKING HIS WILL.
How the DalrVmple Girls Found q
Home at Leggetts Luck.

0Ou4o ab A0880CI q LUCK.
We are the four Dalrymple girls,
Dolores, Blanche, Huldah and Ignatia-
Oddly enough, we are not the least bit
like our names. for Dolores is the most
cheerful, jolly sort Of q body; Blanche
is the dark one, and Huldah the beauty;
while am nothing at all like the
stately, imposing maiden one would
naturally expect to see in Ignatia Dali
rymple.
We are orphans, and our sole posses
sions consist of small house and gar
den in a humdrum village, few silver
spoons, one beautiful old cabinet of
solid mahogany. q string of gold beads
descended to us from our great-grand-
mother, and ourselves. All the rest
our fathers books and our mothers
jewels-went little by little to buy our
bread and butter while were growing
from babies to young women.
For three or four years now we have
been taking care Of ourselves; Dolores
with her pen-she writes the most de-
ightfu1 tales; Blanche with her music
pupils in q neighboring city; Huidah
as a typewriter in the same busy place,
and keeping the old home in order
ard making many of the girls clothes.
We all like good times and pretty
things, and sometimes can't help wish
ing we could have more of them. But,
on the whole, we jog along very con-
tentedly, trying to keep sweet-tem-
pered and serene, as our precious moth
er always did even in the darkest
hours.
One morning not long ago. soon
after Blanche and Huldah had come
home for vacation, we sat together in
our cool, pleasant sitting-room. For
wonder, we were not all talking at the
moment that a laundering knock was
given on the front door. We jumped
as guiltily as though we had been
caught stealing jam. and went to See
who had come. A tall countryman
stood before me on the porch.
Good mornin', marm," he said, at
the same time extending letter. 'Old
Col Leggett, over to Rockmeadow. he
asst me to give We this as 1 was a-pass-
in. 1 reckon this is the Dalrymple
place. marm?"
eyes Thank you." said, staring at
the letter and then at him.
He made an awkward attempt at a
bow and went off to his wagon.
came back to the sitting-room, hold
ing the thick yellow envelope up for
my sisters to see.
''Only think, girls, it is from Grand
father Leggett!'
Now our Grandfather Leggett was a
very peculiar parsonage. For a great
many years he had lived on the other
side of the world, and had written to
our mother very SELDOM. A few months
after her death, he came home to Leg
gets Luck, the old family homestead,
about ten miles down the railroad from
our village. He came over to see us
twice a year, usually bringing sack
of potatoes or apples. At Christmas
time he always sent US five dollars
apiece. Once we were invited to spend
a week with him. We enjoyed the pic
turesque, rambling farmhouse. the por-
traits, the quaint furniture and all the
special hooks our mother had told us OF
in our childish days passed in q distant
state. but we could not enjoy our new
found grandfather. Whether he had
lived loo long in some heathenish
country where they don't have Amer
lean girls; whether his conscience re-
preached him for some other reason, we
did not know. but he seemed just as i'll
at ease with us as we felt with him.
Some way we could not be ourselves
with the little. dark-skinncd, white
haired old gentleman, whose keen,
black eyes shone from under his bushy
brows as brilliantly as the wonderful
gem flashed upon his shirt-front.
Our Grandfather Leggett was reputed
to be fabulously rich, but every body
said that viii Hendip was to be his
heir The Hendip estate Joined the
Leggett Luck. and the two families
were distantly related. Willis father,
who had married and died away of in
y foreign land, was grandfather's
partner, and we had heard that grand
father had adopted Will We all liked |
the genial, handsome fellow, who came |
often to see US, but we suspected. from
sundry sharp speeches our grandfather
made now and then, that he was not |
pleased with the intimacy growing up |
between s'Cousin VIII" and those Dali |
xymple girls.
Such was the state Of things between |
our relatives and ourselves when the |
letter made its appearance. |
ssWho Is it for?" asked Huldah, for |
getting her grammar.
I turned the blank envelope toward
her.