News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1914-09-30
An instrument
Of Providence
By WILLARD BRAKEMAN

was written:
We are going to pieces. Whoever gets
this go to Norman ID. Carlisle and tell him
he will find my will in my desk in secret
drawer.
This was all-no date, no signature,
no address as to where Norman ID.
Carlisle would be found.
That night | went to bed thinking
about the message. Suppose it was
genuine. Somebody was enjoying prop
erty that belonged to another. But it
seemed to me that if it were genuine
the writer would have given at least
the city in which the person for whom
it was intended lived. If the perpe-
traitor was doing the thing for sport or
to pass the time or because he hadn't
my more sense he would have given it.
And yet perhaps that's just what
he wouldn't do. He might not like to
particularize. On the other hand, q
man who is about to be dumped into
a roaring ocean might leave something
out that he should have put in.
| was impelled to find Norman D.
Carlisle. | didn't wish to engage in
looking for a needle in haystack, but
l couldn't resist the feeling that 1t
was my bounden duty to do so. There
were then some S0,0OOO0O people in
the United States alone. The name
was AnglO-SaXon, and the person
might be somewhere in the great Brit
ish countries. Nevertheless when [
found that | couldn't let the matter
alone | went into it methodcally. l
put personal advertisement in one
newspaper in every city in the United
States whose inhabitants numbered
BOO, 900 or over for the said Norman L.
Carlisle. | received several replies
signed Norman D. Carlisle, the middle
name usually differing | wrote each
of them, asking if he had lost a rela-
tive mt sea, but they all answered in
the negative-that is. so far as they
knew
After six months | put in another
advertisement for Mr. Carlisle and re-
ceived a reply from Norman D. Car
Isle living in a town of about 10000
people. He had seen the ad. while in
the city where it had been inserted. |
asked him if he had lost relative at
sea. and he replied mo" l dropped
the matter so far as he was concern
ed, but later he wrote me that he was
4 lawyer and had had client who
had sailed from Rio de Janeiro in a
vessel that was catalogued among
ships.
After some correspondence he sent
me check for expenses, and I went
10 see him. He made an engagement
FOR me to meet a lady in his office,
md | was introduced to Miss Edith
Parks. twenty-one years old and come
y. She appeared to be a lady. but
was shabbily dressed. I was Informed |
hat her uncle had been lost on the |
missing vessel from Rio, I brought !
tut the paper I had found, which l
lad carefully kept. and as soon as
she saw it she said she believed that
{ had been written by her uncle. Some |
If his letters were produced. and all |
loubt was removed. The message,
hough scrawled hastily in trembling
land. was found to correspond with
he uncle's writing.
I was then told that Miss Parks had
,een brought up by this uncle. who
vas wealthy. he being unmarried and
children. After he had been
declared legally dead the courts had
ct about administering his estate and
ad already found forty persons who
we're heirs at law.
Since Mr.. Weatherby, the man who
ad been shipwrecked, had given Miss
'arks to understand that she was to be
is heir it was likely that the will men,
oned in the message gave his proper
' to her. But the desk-where was
:? Mr.. Weatherby's furniture had
cen sold a year before. Who had
ought the desk? No one could tell.
Since / had gone so far in the matter
did not propose to be beaten now.
dvertising having availed. | adver-
sed for the person who had bought
desk at a sale of the effects of Cyrus
7eatherby. In due time received a
,ply from the purchaser. wrote him
lat a niece of the deceased wished to
sdeem it and asked him to fix price.
e said he would sell it for S1tO. Miss
arks had no money TO pay for it, so
mailed the man check for the
mount The desk was sent to me,
I'd, taking il into cellar. | chopped
into kindling wood. Among the rub
sh lay the papers in secret draw
, and, taking this up, found one
arked Last VIII and Testament of
7rus Blake Weatherby.~ | read it
id found that he left all his property
his beloved niece Edith Parks.
That same evening I called ON Miss
lrks with the viii that changed her
ndition from poverty to wealth. She
t like a statue staring at the paper
though she were looking through IL
Their than at il. | asked her what
e was thinking about. hut she did
t hear me. | repeated the question,
d, apparently awakening from a
aam, she said: L
1t doesn't seem possible that uncle.
out to die on a bound.ess ocean, too
ought upon to give my address,
lid have reached me among the mil !
rs of people Of the earth"
did not tell her 80. but she soon |