Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1894-05-25

friends for two years; now tell me how
much you know about mey"'
IL know that you are rich, and have
had fancy To come To college long al
ter the age that most men leave II. i
know that YOU have been married, and
that your wife died; and that you have
been the best, indeed, almost the only,
friend | ever had
-"Did you know that | have SOM
mo
IL have. lie is five years old. He
| cost me his mothers life, and | have
never been able to bear 10 look upon
his face in consequence. Holly, if you
will accept the trust. | am going to
leave you the boys sole guardian"
| sprung almost out of my chair.
Me- | said.
"Yes, you. have not studied you
for two years for nothing. i have
known for some time that | could not
last, and since realized the fact have
been searching for some one To whom
could contidc the boy and this" and
he tapped the iron box. "Iou are the
man, Holly; for, like a rugged tree,
YOU are hard and sound at core. List
en-: the boy will be the last survivor of
one of the most ancient families in
the world, that is as far AS
families in the world, can be
traced. You will laugh at me when
say il. but one day it will be proved
to YOU beyond a doubt that the founder
of the family, my siXty-iifth or sixty
sixth lineal ancestor, was an Egyptian
priest of Isis. though he was himself
of Grecian extraction, and was called
Kallikrates, or the Strong and Beauti-
full, or, To be still more accurate, the
Beautiful in Strength. His father was
believe, one of the Greek mercenaries
raised by Hakor, Mendesian prince of
the twenty-ninth dynasty. In or about
the year 339 before Christ, just at the
time of the final fall of the Pharoahs,
this Kallakrates broke his VOWS of celib-
acy and fled from Egypt with princess
of royal blood who had fallen IN loye
with him, and was finally wrecked up
on the coast of Africa, somewhere, as /
believe, in the neighborhood of where
Delagoa Bay now is, or rather to the
north of il, he and his wife being saved,
and all the remainder of their company
destroyed in one way and another.
Here they endured great hardships, but
were at last entertained by the mighty
queen of a savage people, a white wo-
man of peculiar lovlinesS, who, under
circumstances which | can not enter
into, but which you will one day learn.
if YOU live, from the box, finally MUIR
dered my ancestor, kallikrates. His
wife, however, escaped, how, / know
not, to Athens, bearing child with her,
whom she named TisiSthenes. Or the
Mighty Avenger, Five hundred years
or more afterward the family migrated
to Rome under circumstances of which
no trace remains, and here, probably
with the aim of preserving the idea of
vengeance which we find set out in lis
isthenes, they appear to have pretty
regularly assumed the cognomen of Vim
deX, or Avenger. Here, too, they re-
manned for another five centuries or
more, till ABBOTT 40 a, d., when Charlie
magne invaded Lombardy where they
were then settled, whereupon the head Of
the family seems to have attached him.
self to the great emperor, and to have re-
turned with him across the Alps, and
finally to have settled in Brittany. Six
generations later his lineal representa-
tive crossed to England in the reign of
Edward the Confessor, and in the time
of William the Conqueror was advanced
TO great honor and power. From that
time till the present day can trace my
descent without break. Not that the
Ninceys-for that was the final corrup-
ton of the name after its bearers took
root in English soil-have been particu-
larly dstinguishd-they never came
much to the fore. Sometimes they
were soldiers, sometimes merchants,
but on the whole they had preserved a
dead level of espectability, and still
deadcr level of mediocrity. From the
time of Charles ii till the beginning of
this century they were merchants.
About 1890 my grandfather made a con-
siderable fortune out of brewing, and
retired. In 1921 he died, and my faith
or succeeded him, and dissipated most
of the money. Ten years ago he died
also, leaving me a net income OF about
two thousand year. Then it was that
undertook an expedition in connection
with that and he pointed to the iron
chest, (which ended disastrously
enough. On my way back | travelled
in the south of Europe, and finally
reached Athens. There met my beloved
wife, who might well also have been
called the Beautiful like my old Greek
ancestor. There | married her, and
there, year after, she died"
He paused awhile, his head sunk up
on his hand. and then continues:
"My marriage had diverted me from
a project which | can not enter into
now. / have no time, Holly have
no time! One day, if you accept my
trust, you will learn all about it, After
my wife's death turned my mind to it
again. But first it was necessary, or
at least / conceived that it was neces-
sarv that I sbould attain ~ a ,,a,fao,