Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-07-18
DAILY SHORT STORY
A Neglected Parcel.
O17.IluI.I

L lNeQ III the OlueSC part OF inc CITY. |
My ancestors had been great people. |
and my home had once been the small |
est of their residences. Now it stood |
between a junkshop and a grocery |
store. II it could be sold at all, it |
would not bring over $500. My income
did not enable me to live anywhere |
else. and if had not owned the place |
1 don't see how / could have lived any
where. was at times in hopes that |
society of ladies would purchase it to |
be kept in remembrance CT the fact |
that during the American Revolution |
some big general had had his head |
quarters there, but it didn't.
Well, We grew poorer from day to
day. My brave little wife Kept on
making the most of nothing and cheer
ing me besides. How she managed to
make the children look respectable !
don't know. At last l conceived the
idea of borrowing little money on my
house, turning it into q shop and going
to live somewhere else. / secured q
mortgage of 5000 and commenced the
alterations.
One day while some workmen were
tearing down partition they took out
something rolled up in n piece of vel
low paper. 1 was not there at the
time, and the parcel was thrown into
a corner. When the place was cleaned
up, 1t was put in the cellar the house
was locked, and n sign ITO Let was
tackled to the doorpost.
Before giving the first tenant pos.
session l went over the house to see
If anything had been left there. l
found nothing worth taking away, but,
going to the cellar, noticed on Il dust
heap the roll in the yellow paper.
tore off Il piece of the paper and eX-
posed canvas. L threw the thing back
on the dust heap, but on second
thought picked it up and carried it TO
my little fiat uptown. Being in haste
at the time, l tossed it into u closet
and forgot all about it.
My tenant occupied the building six
months without paying cent OF rent,
then went out in the middle of the
night with all his belongings. The
shop remained vacant after that for
six months. Then / got new tenant,
who paid one months rent in year.
At the end of this time, the MORTGAGE
not having received any interest. pro
ceedings for the foreclosure of the
mortgage were begun.
l was starting out one morning in
the depths of despair when my wife
called to met Henry, what's this old
parcel? 1t has been standing in the
closet, taking up room, for more than
year" / cast an uninterested glance
at ii and, not remembering ever to
| have seen 1t, told her that l. didn't
know what il was. She unrollcd it and
produced an oil portrait of Il woman
with an immense hat on her head,
lace handkerchief about her neck and
u dress with papniers over the hips
''By Jovew l exclaimed. How did
that thing come into this house,"
"If you don't know, 1 don't" replied
my wife. Il wonder il it is worth
anything"
81 don't think 1t is. At any rate, 1t
doesn't look very valuable. I'll take it
| out with me and find out"
NV wife rolled up the canvas, and,
putting it under my arm, l left the
house Stopping ut II printshop, l Of
fered 1t for sale and received an offer
fers all the way from that figure TO
So, till 1 came to Il place where they
dealt in a better class of pictures. The
dealer looked at it and told me that If
1 would leave it with him he would eX-
anime it when he had leisure. L could
stop when l went home. He took my
name and address, and l left him.
That evening as l entered my home
my wife asked me what l had done
with the picture. and. having forgotten
il. told her 1 had discovered that it
was not worth over So She asked for
the S., wlereupOn put her off by tell
| ing her thut was to have it the next
day. The next day forgot the matter
again and excused myself by saying
that the buyer had backed out. Thus
the matter rested, indefinitely forgot
| ten.
| At the end of a week l received
note from the picture dealer asking me
to call My wife and L were going out
together to make some purchases and
went first to the picture dealer, hoping
to get a few dollars to help us out.
| Him. he said as we entered the
store. "What do you want for that
picture?"
"I have been offered So" l said. hop
ing that he would give me six. He
smiled. "Very well, make it five. I'm
hard up and need the money!
"Where did the picture come from?"
| A glimmer of remembrance came to
me. 81 think it was found in my
house, 81 - street"
"How did it get there?"
SCI don't know. The house was
pulled to pieces about the time the
picture appeared. Perhaps it fell out
from somewhere"
Ibid you own the house"
| eyes own it now"