The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-10-07
TIE EVENING STORY
Heiress of ShorcIandS.
(BysDorethy MiSfie

Margery' stared out of the east
window, hardly hearing what Mr..
Leslie was trying to tell her.
She knew that old Ellen was sob
bling behind her in the old black wal
nut rocker
Far below where the sloping gar
den slipped into the salt meadow, was
the strip of curving shorelands, and
then the sea, deep blue in the October
sunlight, with great rolling breakers
sweeping in over the brown rocks,
slippery with clinging seaweed.
1t had been her home for seven
years. ever since her uncle had grudg-
ingly taken her in after her mother s
death. He had never paid much at
tention to her, but old Ellen had Law
ished all the love of her woman's ma
ture on the little waif.
And now they were both to be
turned out 1t was a week since her
uncles death. There had been a rush
of relatives over from the mainland,
nephews and grandnieces and second
cousins and one younger brother, her
own uncle Micah. Margery had
shrunk from meeting them all They
seemed like a flock of crows all gath
cred to the funeral for personal pick
ings, as Ellen said.
And there was not so much after
all, just Shorelands, the big, gray
home, with it's low 'ells,'' and half
cultivated fields.
Even Mr.. Leslie had told them he
thought they would have the place.
Ellen had worked for the old gentle
man nearly thirty years, and he had
liked her in his grim, strange way.
Surely there would be some recog-
milton of such service.
But there was no will, and now Mr.
Leslie was telling them in the alb
sence of any will, the property would
be divided up among the family. Mar
gerry would receive her mothers share
of course, after the sale, but it would
be small, for there were many other
nieceS and nephews.
ct amt a bit like him to act so,
Ellen protested, wiping her eyes He
was mean and sharp and awful close.
but he was just in the long run, and
know he meant Margie to have the
place when he died, and that 1 was to
stay and look after her, and my wages
paid regularly
Il believe he did, too, Ellen said
Philip Leslie, but we cannot prove
it. I've lived next to him all my
life, and know him fairly we'll. He
caught me one up his best Bartlett
pear trees, and instead of whipping
me good, he made me sit there all
day and MUNICH pears for cure. But
you must not worry, either of you"
He crossed the room to where Mar
gerry stood a lonely little figure in her
new black dress, her long brown
braids bound around her head and
fastened with dark shell pins, her face
a trifie pale and wistful He was ~
and she was 8 now. He had teased
her and chummed with her for seven
years whenever he had come back to
Block Island on his vacations. She
had been the one sweetheart of his
life. Somehow he always thought of
her as part of the dear old island,
part of the song of the sea.
'Margery knows what mean, and
so do you, Ellen. 1 can say it right
out before you, for you've always
loved her. We can be married. and
you shall stay with us. Mother
would love to-have you She's get
ting old, and Margery will be with me
in town a good deal
Il know, and it's mighty kind of you,
Mr. Leslie. to say so,' faltered Ellen.
but it rifles me to see this flock of
crows waiting on the corpse, if I may
say so. And they never come nigh him
when he was alive, and he couldn't
abide the sight of one of them. and now