The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-09-23
MAKING HIS WILL.
How the Dalrymple Girls Found q
Homo at Leggetts Lick.

We are the four Dalrymple girl!
Dolores, Blanche, Huldah and Ignati:
Oddly enough, we are not the least bi
like our names, for Dolores is the mos
cheerful, jolly sort of a body; Blanch
is the dark one. and Huldah the beauty
while ! am nothing at all like tn
stately. imposing maiden one woul
naturally expect to see in Ignatia Dial
rymplc.
We are orphans. and our sole posses
sions consist of a small house and gan
den in humdrun village, few silve
| spoons, one beautiful old cabinet o
solid mahogany, string Of gold bead
! descended to us from our great-grand
mother. and ourselves. All the rest
our fathers books and our mother
iewels-went little by little to buy on
bread and butter while We're growing
from babies to young women.
For three or four years now we hav'
been taking care of ourselves; Dolore!
with her pen--she writes the most de
| lightful tales; Blanche with her music
pupils in a neightoi'ing city; Huldaf
as typewriter in the same busy place
and / keeping the old home in order
AID 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-
err always did even in the darkest
hours.
One morning not long ago, soon
after Blanche and Huldah had come
home Cor a vacation, we sat together in
our cool, pleasant sitting-room. For a
wonder, we were not all talking at the
moment that laundering knock was
given on the front door, We jumped
as guiltily as though we had been
caught stealing jam, and l went to see
who had come. A tall countryman
stood before me on the porch.
Good inornin', Elarm," he said, at
the same time extending letter. ''Old
Col Leggett, over to Roclxmeadow, he
asst ME to give We this as | was a-pass-
in. l reckon this is the Dalrymple
place, marm?"
''Yes. 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.
l 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
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
getts 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 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. darlA-skinned, 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 everybody
said that viii Hendip was to be his
heir. The Headip estate joined the
Leggett Luck, and the two families
were distantly related. Wills father,
who had married and died away off in
a foreign land, was grandfather's
partner, and we had heard that grand
father had adopted VIII. 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 Cousin WHIP and ''those Dali
rymple girls"
Such was the state of things between
our relatives and ourselves when the
unexpected letter made it's appearance.
''Who is it for?" asked Huldah, for
getting her grammar.
l turned the blank envelope toward
her.
mo address," she cried! ''How
man"
Hush, Huldah!" reproved Dolores,
w4;o, as the eldest, had taken the letter
from ME and was tearing it open.
WHO knows but he has sent US thou
sand dollars"
No DANGER" murmured Huldah, as
Dolores began to read aloud:
DEAR Sis: / want you to come over next
the 18th. on the 4:I5 train. l an
,olng TO make sny will We must arrange
-bout win and Sweetheart too Bring one.of
he others with you IGNATIUs LEGGETT."
a sheeted ghost arising from be-
meath the floor and sitting SOL
,mnly in our midst could scarcely
nave created more of sensa-
ion than this epistle. What could it
possibly mean? 1t was an open secret
among us that Blanche and VIII Hen
lip were very fond of cath other Did
know this, too. and was he
about to bestow his blessing upon
hem and to ask our advice in making
this will? Such unaccustomed thoughts
as these were too great for our poor
brains. We sat there dazed, staring at
zach other helplessly. At length