Dewey County advocate. [volume] (Timber Lake, S.D.) 1910-1913, 1913-05-30

closures There we're two letters. one
CT which was brief and written in bad
script on single sheet of paper bear
ing legal head. 1t was dated at
Charlesport, Maine, and stated that
the writer, in conformity with the last
wish Of his friend and client, Hercu-
les Thayer, was ready to transfer GER
tain deeds and papers to the late Mr..
Thayer's designated heir, Agatha
Redmond; also that the writer re-
Qnested an interview at Miss Red.
mond's earliest convenience.
Holding the half-opened sheets In
her hand. the lady closed her eyes
and sat motionless. as If in the grasp
OF an absorbing thought. With the
disappearing child, the signs OF life
on the hillside had diminished. The
traffic of the street passed far below,
the sharp click-click of pedestrian
now and then sounded above, but no
one passed her way. The hum of the
city made blurred wash of sound,
like the varying yet steady wash OF
the sea. AS she opened her eyes
again, she saw that the twilight had
perceptibly deepened. Far away,
lights began to flash out in the city,
as II a million flrefiies, by twos and
threes and dosens, were waking to
their nocturnal revelry.
On the hill the light was still good.
and the lady turned again to her read
ing. The other letter WAS written on
single sheets of thin paper in an old
fashioned, beautiful haDd. Wherever
a doubles occurred, the first was writ
ten long, in style of sixty years ago;
and the whole letter was as easily
legible as print. Across the top was
written: ITO Agatha Redmond. daugh-
ter of my ward and desr friend. Aga
tina Shaw Redmond" and below that.
in the lawyers choppy handwriting,
was a date OF nearly a year previous
AS Agatha Redmond read the second
letter. a smile, half of sadness, half
Of pleasure. overspreac her counte-
nance. 1t ran as followA:
81 ion, Maine.
"My Dear Agatha: tske my pen in
hand to address you, the daughter Of
the dearest friend OF my life. for the
first time in the twenty-odd years of
your existence. Once ar child you
saw me, and you have doubtless heard
my name from your mothers people
from time to time; but can scarcely
hope that any knowledge of my pri-
vate life has come to YOU 1t will be
easy, then, for you to pardon an old
man for giving you, in this fashion,
the confidence he has never been able
to bestow in the flesh.
when you read this epistle, my
dear Agatha, shall have stepped into
that next mystery, which is Death.
Indeed, the duty which I am now dis
charging serves as partial preparation
for that very event. This duty is to
make you heir to my house and es-
tate and to certain accessory funds
which well enable you to keep up the
place.
"You may regard this act. possibly,
as the idiosyncrasy Of an unbalanced
mind; 1t is certain that some of my
kinsfolk will do So But while l have
been able to bear up undel their
greater or less displeasure for many
years, l find myself shrinking before
the possibility of dying absolutely un-
known and forgotten by you. Your
mother, Agatha Shaw, of blessed mem
DRY now for many years. was m. ward
and pupil after the death OF your
grandfather. I think / may say with
out undue self-congratulation that few
women of their time have enjoy, ID as
sound a scheme of education as your
mother. She had a knowledge of
mathematics, could construe DO. b in
Latin and Greek, and had acquil ID a
fair mastery of the historic civ liza
ton of the Greeks, Egyptians ans an
cient Babylonians. While these at.
tainments would naturally be insufi-
cient for mans work in life, vet for
a woman they were of an exceptional
order.
Sufficient to say that in your moth
ers character these noteworthy abili
ties we're supplemented by gracious
womanly arts; and when she arrived
at maturity, I offered her the homo,
of marriage.
ut is painful for me to recall the
scene and the consequences of you,
mothers refusal OF my hand, ever
after these years of philosophical re
Election. 1t were idle for a man O,
parts to allow a mere preference ir
regard to his domestic situation tt
influence his course of action in any
essential manner, and l have never
permitted my career to be shaped b,
such details. But from that time
however, the course Of my life wa.
changed. From the impassioned ora
tor and preacher was transformed
into the man of books and the study
and since then l have lived far from
the larger concourses' of men. Ny
weekly sermon. for twenty years, hal
been the essence Of my weekly toll II