The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-09-02
The EVENING STORY
A Heathenish Plot.
DIV DonaId AiIen.)

| A Heathenish Plot.
(By Donald Ailen.)
| They were all comparatively humble
people, and yet it is among that class
one finds human nature without its We
/ neer.
Firstly, there was old David King,
whom everybody called Grandpa King,
| and who was known to be as stubborn
as mule and worth about $4,000. He
had no wife and only one child.
| Then there was Mrs. Abernethy, who
| was the child referred to. She had
| been married twenty-three- years and
| was the mother of a son of twenty.
| Then came her husband, who never
| had much to say.
| Then came Mrs. Roder and Mrs.
| Flint, right and left neighbors They
! were good women but they didn't want
anything to happen in that town of
| Sandy Hill that they didn't learn all
| about.
Then came the Rev. Mr.. James, the
! young minister of one of the churches.
| Then came Miss Bessie Thorp and
! her stepmother. Miss Bessie was nine
| teen years old and the agent for fire.
| proof paint had called her the best
| looking girl in the county.
| But why name all these people like
| the cast of play? Because they made
with Grandpa King. 1t came to his
ears that young CORTLAND Abernethy,
! his grandson, was beauing Miss Thorpe
around, and straightway that mule jaw
of his ''Sot' and he tramped over to his
daughters house. and even before his
| cOattailS were we'll inside the door he
| exclaimed in his most tragic voice:
Il won't have it, l won't have it.'
| why, grandpa, what's happened?"
| asked the daughter.
Il say it's got to stop.'' he shouted.
| COR I won't leave him a darned cent"
"Grandpa!'
MOT a darned cent?"
Grandpa Kingi''
Nor nobody else a darned cent?
| He stomped around the room for a
moment, while his daughter stood with
open mouth.
husband of yours thinking about when
you let CORTLAND run around with that
! Thorpe gaI?''
| Why. she's NICE was the answer.
Don't tell me that! She's just like
her mother that died ten years ago,
and what did her mother do?''
I've always heard that she was"
| THAT she was good woman? Well,
let me tell you something. 1 courted
her for two years. We was engaged.
Then along came this worthless Sam
Thorpe
why, father, never heard of
| that!''
| Dye 'spose 1 went around blabbing
it.''
And you are mad at Bessie be-
cause her mother Tilted your
Yes, 1 am, and you'd better keep
| her and CORTLAND apart or it'll be a
sorrowful thing for several of you!
If he should fall in love with and mar
| ry her
| And Grandpa King was so over
Ah, rI,k h. I,4 ,<~I- -
| the clock with his cane and then fell
| into a chair. 1t was a long minute
! before he could go on.
Il made my will last week, and
jest as lief tell you about it. I leave
you and your bump of a husband
| $1,000
.'Oh, father, how nice of you
"Shet uc. 1 leave CORTLAND SO, OOO.'
What a noble grandfather
Noble nothing, Nine and seven are
16. and there's enough over $4,000 left
to pay my funeral expenses. L have
left one thousand to Mrs. Roder for
| telling me what to use to cure a sore
heel. 1 have left the same to Mrs.
Flint as the biggest gossip in town. The
same has been left to young
/ preacher, Mr.. James, to paint the
| church and get cushions for the pews.
The other odd thousand is to go to
| the heather of Africa.
! But father. you always hated the
heathen.''
And I do yet, and that's why 1
leave EN- the money. It's to buy
whisky and rifles and bowie knives
with, so that they can kill each other
| off faster. If not used that way then
| it's to revert to the town to pay the
cost of filling up the mud holes in the
streets. Now you have it, and what
are you going to do about it?''
why, father. 1 am sure we shall
| all think it very nice of YOU
Cant you understand what I mean!
If you don't do something about Court
land and that Thorpe gal I'll make
new will and none Of you will get
cent. I'll leave it all to the county to
pay men for cutting the thistles and
mayweeds along the highway"
But what can we do? CORTLAND
| is almost 21, and if he's in love with
Bessie Thorpe we can't change him.
Then lose my money-the whole
pack of you! Do? Why, call a sort
| of you may have brains huff to sug-
gest the right idea If you hain't, then
the wuSS for you.
And so the convention ASSEMBLE at
Mrs. Abernethy's house, but it lost one
of its delegates almost as soon as the
will was explained 1t was grandpa
grandson. He f1ared right up and said
to his mother and father and the min
| lister and the others:
"Granddad can go hang with his
| old money! 1 shall marry whom L
please, if she will have me! Bessie
| hundred miles around If her mother
Tilted grandpa, she did a wise thing
But you will not be selfish about
| it - suggested the minister. The
church is in sad need of repainting
| and the pew cushions.