Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-08-06
Evening Story
A hEATHENisH PLOT.
BY Donald Allen.

Copyright. 1918, by the Mcclure
Newspaper syndicate.)
They were all comparatively hum
HE people. and yet it Is among that
class one finds human nature without
its veneer.
Firstly, there was old David King,
whom everybody called Grandpa
King. and who was known to be as
stubborn as mule and worth about
500. 900. 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 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 if the churches:
Then came Miss Bessie Thorpe and
her stepmother Miss Bessie was
nineteen years old and the agent Tor
fireproof 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 up the cast of a conspiracy that
started 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:
m won't have it! won't have it,"
"Why. grandpa, what's happened?"
asked the daughter.
II say it's got to stop!" he shouted:
cor won't leave him darned cent.
"Grandpa!"
Nor you darned cent?"
Grandpa King!"
! "Nor nobody else darned cent?!
He stamped around the room FOR
moment, while his daughter stood
with open mouth.
What are you and that doughnead
husband of yours thinking about
when you let CORTLAND run around
with that Thorpe gal?"
"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?"
1--WE always heard that she was
THAT she was a good woman? Well.
let m, tell you something. l courted
her for two years. We was engaged.
Then along came this worthless Sam
| Thorpe" j.
'"why, father, I never heard Of
that"
"D'ye 'spose I went around blabbing
|it!"
"And YOU are mad at Bessie be-
! cause her mother Tilted your"
Eyes. I am, and you'd better keep
her and CORTLAND apart or it'll be
sorrowful thing for several OF you
II he should fall In love with and
marry her"
And Grandpa King was so overcome
at the thought that he struck at the
clock with his cane and then fell into
chair It was long minute before
he could 60 on.
81 made my will last week. and
! lest as lief tell you about it. I leave
you and your bump of husband
seven thousand dollars"
ooh father. how nice Of YOU"
! "Shet up. l leave CORTLAND nine
thousand dollars
! What a noble grandfather
Noble nothing! Nine and seven
are sixteen, and there's enough over
four thousand dollars left to pay my
funeral expenses. l have lett one
thousand. to Mrs. Roder for telling
me what to use to cure sore heel. l
have left the same to Mrs. Flint as
the biggest gossip in town. The
/ same has been left to that young
preacher, Mr.. James, to paint the
church and get cushions for the
pews. The other odd thousand is to
20 to the heather Of Africa
But, father, you always hated
the heathen!"
"And I do yet, and that's why I
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, am sure we shall
all think it very nice of you"
| Cant you understand what
mean If you don't do something
about CORTLAND and that Thorpe
gal I'll make a new will and none Of
you will get cent. I'll leave 1t al
to the county to pay men for cutting
the thistles and mayweeds along the
highway"
"But what can we do? Courtlant
lis almost twenty-one, and If he's II
love with Bessie Thorpe we cans
change him."
"Then lose my money-the whole
pack Of YOU Do? Why, call sor
of convention and talk 1t over. Some
!, of YOU may have brains 'nuff to sug
| gest the right idea. If you haint tnel
| the wuss for YOU"
And so the convention assembled
at Mrs. Abernethy's house, but it los