The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-09-13
PART L

great-aunt PauIina had miniature by AM H Cosway, ostrich feather fan with tor IVA N todse-shen sticks, Geneva watch, the 11z~@zgA secret of longevity, and all the virtues EEASkSHAH that go hand in hand with these prec1- N@a@ ous things. And though she had also a
 box of olive wood with reverent cardcature of our Saviour painted thereon by a Polish princess with whom she had been bosom friends, that which treasured most to the very last day of her long. wise. kind. enviabIe cynical < tIe was chesthke wood-box tackled over with a faded chintz It such a wood box as you may see handy to the open fire in many modern living room; common thing, made of white pine. Yet 1t differed from other wood-boxes in two ways. It had been pierced here and there by a narrow augur and It had figured in a romance.
 When asked what the holes were for. Aunt Paulina used to turn in her bed (she was bed ridden when knew her), smile cynically and say ito let spiders out" And it was not 1,nti1 the family had done all things possible within the con fines of good breeding to keep me from commit ting authorship that about the augur holes became known to any one in this world outside of Aunt PauIina- Going to write, are you? she said said .eYesp eRomances?"
 "If the Lord Is good to me-.
 She made great pretense of being offended with this speech.
 eff you're going to leave 1t all to the Lord. she said. you hay possibly worm yourself through the needles eye-not that you'll be rich-I,ve got enough to leave my money to without being bothered with grandnephews and nieceg and whatyoumay y-caI' 'ems-btt you won't amount to much That's certain Your great-uncle Peter of blessed memory and general incompetence used toAA leave everything to me. wornned him into the the lots on Seneca street and the lake front r Her old jaws worked little she were chew ing. It was her way of showing that she wasn't really down on Uncle Peter, dead these thirty years 4f I in my heyday" she continued a.I should write your rornauces you and make a man of you Don't shake your head at me in that naughty manner. have snubbed Daniel Hawthorne in my time. He up to be presented, shufflfng sideways like a crab, and it didn't take me two seconds to see that he had leftover egg on his mustache-"
 She paused and drew her lips into her mouth. and closed her which were bright as an mp's What did you say?" I asked. t T said to him." said the dreadful old woman and for believe it of her, you ve got egg on mustache Hadn't you better go and wash it off? He put me into story later-the one about LeatherTop- Pm the oEd bag that smokes a pipe and hobnobs with the devil Now Eddie Poe was worth the lot of them No egg on his mustache5 nb cobWebs in his head" Here she chuckled asAll the long winter your greatuncIe Peter lay adying' she said. "I used to read aloud to him the rornances about cataleptie frances and premature burial" You didn't!" exclaimed indignantly. sI did so." she said (but never believed this). And it kept him agoing long after doctors said he ought to have stopped"
 Did Poe put you anything?" asked
 ssNot unless" said my cynical great-aunt q am
 
 "Hgeia, Lgeia,
 My beautiful one,
 Whose harshest idea
 Will to melody run," and cack1ed with amusement
 eff he used you at aIl." said, cit would have been as a ghouI Do you remember when you told me to open my mouth and shut my eyes, and you put red pepper in?"
 4I suppose you'd like ma to leave you something in my will to make up for it?" She cast malignant eye toward the mantelpiece. "I will leave you my goggleeyed china. puppys" she said.
 Don't forget It," said T. stoutly.
 Eddie Poe understood me- said my greataunt. land him. We were the only people of day who knew" here she glanced dehantly and said: "Beans about literature. the to say so, and he agreed with me-
 'Is it true that he drank?" asked.
 "It's true anything in the Gospels she an- swered, "that your greatunc1e Peter did But he married sense and, money, and never'-here the imp eyes snapped almost audibly-"caught with the goods! Eddie Poe married romance and pov- erty, and%he was."
 q know;s' said r. "that Uncle Peter married money. You say he married sense, but weren't you. Aunt Paulina, at any time also beautiful2'
 Family tradition aside, 1t obvious from the very beautiful. She pondered the question for time and then said. judicially:
 .In her brilliant moments Virginia Lee, of Richmond But to start you on your career with story. By the way, you're not to tell it till I'm comfortably dead.p s"Then I'm more likely to end my career with it." said. eAnd won't you make it just plain dead,