The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1909-09-03

But speaking about the coat, we
didn't find any money in it. 1t
wasn't anyways likely that George
owen would have let it go out of his
hands without looking it over pretty
carefully to mai e sure that a quarter
or five-cent piece hadn't got lodged
in it.
ITO come back to my story, when
started home that night it was sort
OF chilly, and / thought / might as
well put on the coat.
"As said before, was about the
cap'n's build, and my chin whiskers
were good deal like his, and
thought it myself, as | drove along,
that if anybody was to meet me they
would most think it was the cap'n
come back to life again. When got
as far as the Widow Pages, remem-
bered that l had promised my wife to
call and see how the widow was get
ting along. She had had terrible
sick spell, the widow had, but she'd
got up about the house. So pulled
up, and got out and hitched, and
walked up to the front door.
Why, it's Mr.. 'Bijah Neal, isn't
it?' says she. I thought for min
ute, as much as could be, that it was
Cap'n Sam Owen, and | says to my
self, He's come for that envelope"
/ must be 10" XZ@ " &-XZ@ "
il guess / must be losing my facul-
ties, says she, and she sat down, kind
Of laughing and tanning herself.
What envelope were you speak
ing Off said /.
Why, an envelope that the cap'n
left here last March, says she, the
very night before l was taken down
sick And then she went on and told
me all about it.
at appeared, according to what
the widow said, that the cap'n had
package of papers with him that he'd
been keeping in the town safe. He
had been town treasurer for good
many years, but he'd got through
that spring, and he was taking his
own papers home. And among them
he'd found an old receipt that he
said he ought to have given to Mr..
Page before he died, but had over
looked it, and so he had called to
leave it.
After he'd gone the widow picked
up an envelope that he'd dropped on
on the floor, and put it away, think
ing that he'd miss it and come back
for it; or, if not, she'd hail him and
give it to him the next time she saw
him passing by.
But that was the last time she
ever set eyes on the cap'n. She came
down sick the very next day, and had
double pneumonia, and before she got
round again the cap'n had died. And
she said, That envelope never en-
tered my head again till looked out
the window just now and saw you
coming up the yard, looking Just as
the cap'n did that night
Can you find it now?' I asked,
not thinking yet what it might be.
And after thinking a minute she
went to her bookshelves in the old
mahogany desk and took down an old
volume of agricultural reports, and
there was long yellow envelope
tucked between the leaves.
The minute saw it, it came over
me what t. re was inside, and sure
enough, &C ..ta to look into it, it con-
tanned a paper that said on the back,
Last Will and Testament of Samuel
Owen
Folks had been surprised that
there hadn't any will been found, be-
cause it seemed reasonable that the
cap'n would have made some provis-
ion for Lucy, as she was almost like
a daughter to him. But they sup
posed that he had put it off, and put
it off, as so many do, until it was too
late. But here was the will, and
come to examine it, it gave all the
property to Lucy, except one wood
lot that the cap'n left to his nephew
George
1T made quite stir when. the
news got round, and George took it
kind of hard. I guess he'd have
fought the will if there had been any
chance, but 1t wasn't any USE Squire
Dow, that had drawn it up for the
cap'n five years before, was dead, and
his hired man and hired girl, that
witnessed it, had probably never CIV
en- it second thought. But it was
all there in black and white, and it
went through probate court all right.
"But the Widow Page always stuck
to it that it might have stayed in that
book till doomsday, for all she'd ever
thought of it, if it hadn't been for
seeing me that night in the cap'n's
buffalo coat.