The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-10-23

it to herself three times, and then she
read it aloud to her companion.
Now, what do you suppose possessed
that boy to shoot at a COOKE" she ask
ed. Cooks are so awful hard to get
nowadays. 1 don't see why he didn't
shoot a tramp if he had to shoot some
thin
He w'n't tryin' to shoot a cook.
pears like cried acknowledgements
voice was of that sibilant and pene-
trating tinbre which is best illustrated
in the accents of a steam filters file
"'pears like he was tryin' for a bat"
Not a bat" said her mistress, cor
rectiveIy; lit was a cat. You look at
the letter an you'll see. And, anyway,
how could a man shootin' at bat hit
a cook mot Mess she was up a tree
birds -nestin' after owls eggs. You
don't seem to pay much attention to
what you read, Lucinda but L should
think your common sense would help
you out some when it comes to a boy
you've known from the time he could
walk, an a strange cook. But, any
how, that's neither here nor there. The
question is, what's to pay with this
damage suit? I think myself five hum
dred dollars is too much for any cooks
left arm. A cook amt in no such vital
need of two arms. If she has to shut
the door of theGoven while she's stirrin'
somethin' on top of the stove, she can
easy kick it to with her foot. 1t won't
be for long, anyway, and I'm a great
believer in making the best of things
when you've got to-
Lucinda screwed up her face and
made no comment. Lucinda's face in
| repose was a cross between a monkey
] and a peanut; screwed up. it was par
ticularly awful, and always exasperat-
ed her mistress.
..well, why don't you say somethin',
Lucinda? I amt aslxin' your advice,
but, all the same, you can say anything
| If you've got a mind to-
81 amt got a mind to say anythin',"
| the faithful maid rejoined.
II guess you hit the nail on the head
| that time said Aunt Mary, without
any unnecessary malevoIence concealed
behind her sarcasm; and then she re-
read the note and frowned afresh..
Five hundred dollars is too much"
/ she said again. I'm goin' to write to
Mr.. Stebbins an tell him SO tonight.
| He can compromise on two hundred and
/ fifty, just as well as not Get me some
| paper and my desk, Lucinda Now, get
a spryness about YOU
Lucinda got a spryness about her,
and brought her mistress writing desk
! with commendable aIacrity. Aunt Mary
4 wrote fiercely for some time, and finally
wrote most OF the fierceness out of her
self,
4 After all, boys will be boys" she
said, ..and If this is the end I shan't
feel it's money wasted. I'm great be-
lever in being patient. Most always.
4 4c ind xrl,I this
i letter to Joshua and tell him to take
it right to post Be prompt. now. I'm
q great believer in doin' things
prompt
Lucinda went promptly; she always
went promptly, end that was why she
had been Aunt Mary's favorite slave
for over twenty years.
Lucinda had been, comparatively
/ speaking, young when she had come te
4 wait upon the pleasure of the Watkins
millions, and her waiting had been sc
pertinent and so patient that it hao
endured over a quarter of century
Aunt Mary had been under fifty in the
, hour of Lucinda's dawn; she was ovel
seventy now. Jack hadn't been borr
then; he was in college now; and Jacks
older brothers and sisters and his dead
!. and-gone father and mother had beer
!, living somewhere out West then, quit
. hopeful as to their own lives and quite
! hopeless as to the stern old great-aun
who never had paid any attention t.
her niece since she had chosen to elop,
/, with the Doctors reprobate son. Nov
> | the father and mother We're dead ant
buried, the brothers and sisters wer
reinstated in their rights and had al
! grown up and become great credits t
the old lady, whose heart had suddenl,
q melted at the arrival of five orphan
a at once. And there was only Jack t
q continue to worry about.
Jack was not anything PARTICULAR
4 remarka BILE; he was just one of thos
lovable good-for- nothings that seer
+ born to get better people into troubl
: all their lives long. He had been spoil
= ed originally by being ten years young
4 err than the next youngest in the fami
8 ly: and then, when the children ha
: been shipped on to Aunt Mary's tende
. mercies, Jack had won her heart i'm
. mediately because she accidentally dis
;, covered that he had never been baptiz
ed, and so felt fully justified in re
;, naming him after her own father am
having the name branded into him fc
keeps by her own religious apparatu
: IT followed naturally that John Wa
Kills. Jr., DeDHdIl NtOl 81 iC. ASithCA
- daughter had insisted that her young
; est nephew should be called) was III
- fayorite nephew of his aunt.
- And it was lucky for him that he We
the favorite, for Aunt Mary, who W.
., highly spiced at fifty, bekcame pepper
:. at sixty, and almost biting at SCI
"a enty. And yet for Jack she would sig
- checks almost without murmur. NJ
Stebbins was much more eensorious ar
:, inpatient with the young man ths
:, she ever was; and to all the rest of Il
- world Mr.. Stebbins was an urbane al
20 agreeable gentleman. whereas to all Il
% rest of the world Aunt Mary was
= problem or a terror. But Mr.. Stebbf
ne needed to be man of tact and ma
.s agement, for he was the real manag
- Of that fortune of which MARY, on