The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-05-03


to marry that English girl, Lad Eve
iyn, next month. Well. Jarvis he was
all worked up. Oh, you couldn't guess
Il III a week. 1t was an awful thing
that happened to him. Just as he's got
his trunk packed for England, where
the knot-tyin' is to take place, he gets
word that some old lady that was sec
ond cousin TO his mother, or something
like that, has gone and died and left
him all her property
Real thOughtless OF her, want
ftp says /
We'll" says Jarvis. lOokin' kind Of
foolish, Il expect she meant well
enough. I don't mind the bonds, and
that sort of thing, but there's this
Nightingale cottage Now, what am
to do with that?"
RAISE nightingales for the trade"
says I.
Jarvis amt one of the joshin' kind.
though, same as Pinckney. He had
this weddin' business on his mind, and
there want much room for anything
else. Seems the old lady who'd quit
livin' was a relative he didn't know
much about
81 remember seeing her only once"
says Jarvis, land then I was a little
chap Perhaps that's why I was such
a favorite of hers. She always sent
Must have thought you WAS hard on
prayer-bOoks," says l. 'She want
batty. was she?"
Jarvis wouldn't say that: but he
didn't deny that there might have been
a few cobwebs I'm the belfry. Aunt
Amelia-thats what he called heT--had
lived by herself for so long, and had
coaxed up such a case of nerves, that
there was no tellin' The family didn't
even know she was abroad until they
heard sshe'd died there.
You see.' says Jarvis. the deuce
of it is the cottage is just as she
stepped out of it, full of a lot of old
truck that I've either got to sell or
burn, suppose. And it's a beastly
nuisance"
ITS a shame" says !. But where
is this Nightingale COTTAGE"
why. it's in Primrose park, up in
Westchester county," says he.
with that I pricks up my ears. You
know I've been putin my extra-long
green in pickle for the last few years.
layin' for a chance to place 'em where
J / could turn 'em over some day and
count both sides. And Westchester
sounded right.
Say" says !. leadin' him over TO the
telephone booth, you sit down there
and ring up some real estate guy out
in Primrose park and get a bid for that
place. It'll be about half or two-thirds
what it's worth. I'll give you that,
and 10 per cent more on account of the
fixin's. Is 1t a gO?''
Was it? Mr.. Jarvis had central and
was calm up Primrose park before
gets through. and inside of an hour
I'm a taxpayer. I've made big Jumps
of money quicker'n that, but I never
spent such a chunk of it so swift be-
fore But Jarvis went off with his
mind easy, and l was satisfied. In the
evenin' I dropped around to see the
Whaleys.
Dennis, you low-county bog-trot-
ter" says /, about all I've heard out
of you since I was knee high was how
you was achin' to quit the elevator and
set back to diggin dirt and cuttin'
tgrass. same's you used to do on the
old sod. Now here's a chance to make
good"
Well, say, that was the only time 1
ever talked ten minutes with Dennis
Whaley without bein' blackguarded.
He'd been fired off the elevator the
week before and had been job-huntin'
ever since As for Mother Whaley,
when she saw a chance to shake three
rooms back and a fire escape for
place where the trees has leaves on
'em. she up and cried into the corned
beef and cabbage, just for joy.
"I'll send the keys in the morning."
says l. ''Then you two pack up and
go out there to Nightingale cottage
and open her up. If it's fit to live in,
and you don't die of lonesomeness.
maybe I'll run up once in a while of
a Sunday to look you over"
You see. l thought it would be a
bright scheme TO hang onto the place
for year or so, before I tries to I'M
load. That gives the Whaleys wi 1T
they've been wishin' for, and me
chance to do the weekend act now
and then. Course, I want lookin' for
no complications. But they come along,
ali right.
1t was on a Saturday afternoon that
] took the plunge. You know how
quick this little old town can warm
up when she starts. We'd had the stu
do fans goin' all the mornin', and the
first shirtwaist lads was paradin'
across FOrty-second street with their
coats off. and Swifty'd made tracks for
Coney Island, when remembers Prim-
rose Park.
I'd passed through IN expresses
often enough: so 1 didn't have to
look it up on the map; but that was
about all When I'd spoiled the best
part of an hour on a local full of COM
mittees and loW-cUt high-brows. who
killed time playtn' whist and Cussin'
the road, 1 was dumped down at d
cute little station about big enough for
a lemonade stand. AS the cars went
off I drew in a long breath. Say, I'd
got off just in time to escape bein'
carried into Connecticut.
I jumps into a canopy-top surrey
that looks like It had been stored in
an open lot all winter, and asks the
driver If he knows where Nightingale
cottage is.
Sure thing" says he That's the
place Shorty McCabe's bought"
'Do tell" says I. "Wen. cart me
out TO the front gate and put me off"
!. 1t was a nice ride. If it had been a
' mile longer I'd had facts enough for a
town history. Drivin' a depot carriage
was just side issue with that Prim-
rose blossom Conversin' was his long
suit. He tore off information by the
yard. and slung it over the seat back
at me like one Of these megaphone lee
tuners on the rubber-neck wagons. Ac-
cordin' to him, Aunt Nellie had been a
good deal of a she-hermit.
Why" says he, Major Curtis Bin
ger told me himself that in the five
years he lived neighbors to her he