Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1921-11-18
CHAPTER i.
An Aunt Errant.

Never had life seemed more fair and
smiling than at the moment when
Aunt James letter descended upon me
like a bolt from the blue. The fact
is, was taking a vacation from Aunt
Jane. Being an orphan, | was sup
posed to be under Aunt James wing,
but this was the merest polite fiction,
and l am sure that no hen with one
chicken worries about it more than
/ did about Aunt Jane. l had spent
the last three years, since Aunt Susan
died and left Aunt Jane with all the
money and no one to look after but
me, in snatching her from the brink
of disaster. Fer most recent and mar
row escape was from a velvet
tongued person. Of half her years who
turned out to be a convict on parole.
She had her handbag packed for the
elopement when / confronted her with
this unpleasant fact. When she came
to she was bitter instead of grateful,
and went about for weeks presenting
a spectacle Of blighted affections
which was too much for the most self
approving conscience. So it ended
with my packing her off to New York,
where / wrote to her frequently and
kindly, urging her not to mind me but
to stay as long as she liked.
Meanwhile ] came up to the ranch
for a long holiday with Bess and the
baby, a holiday which had already
stretched itself out to Thanksgiving,
and threatened to last until Christ
mas.
AS to Aunt Jane my state of mind
was fatuously calm. She was stay
ing with cousins, who live in suburb
and are frightfully respectable. /
was sure they numbered no convicts
among their acquaintance, or indeed
any one from whom Aunt Jane was
likely to require rescuing And If it
came to a retired missionary / was
perfectly willing.
But the cousins and their respect
ability are Of the passive order, where
as to manage Aunt Jane demands ag-
gressive and continuous action. Hence
the bolt from the blue above alluded
to.
I was swinging TRANQUILITY in the
hammock, l remember, when Bess
brought my letters and then hurried
away because the baby had fallen
downstairs. Unwarned by the slight
est premonitory thrill, kept Aunt
James letter till the last and skinned
through all the others.
At last l came to Aunt Jane /
ripped open the envelope and drew
out the letter-a fat one, but then
Aunt James letters are always fat.
Nevertheless, as l spread out the
close-filled pages felt mild wonder.
Writing SO large, SO black, so stag
gering, SO madly underlined, must in
dictate something above even Aunt
James usual emotional level. Per-
haps in sober truth there was a mis-
Sionary-
Twenty minutes later / staggered
into Bess' room.
''Hushl" she said. "Don't wake the
6aby!"
'sRaby or no baby" whispered saw
agely, "Tve got to have a timetable.
leave Tor the city tonight to catch
the first steamer for Panama I"
Later, while the baby slumbered
and / packed, l explained. This was
difficult; not thar Bess is as a gen.
eral thing obtuse, but because the pic
ture Of Aunt Jane embarking for
some wild, lone isle of the Pacific as
the head Of a treasure-seeking expe-
dition was enough to shake the strong
est intellect. And yet, amid the well
ter Of ink and eloquence which filed
those fateful pages, there was the cold
hard fact confronting you. Aunt Jane
was going to look for buried treasure,
in company with one Violet Higglesby-
Browne whom she sprung on you
without the slightest explanation, as
though abiding to the queen Of Sheba
or the Siamese twins. By beginning
at the end and reading backward
Aunt James letters are usually most
ineligible that way-you managed to
piece together some explanation Of
this Miss Higglesby-Browne and her
place in the scheme Of things. 1t was
through Miss Browne, whom she had
met at a lecture upon Soul-Develop-
ment, that Aunt Jane had come to
realize her claims as an Individual
upon the Cosmos, also to discover that
she was by nature woman of af-
fairs with a talent for directing large
enterprises, although adverse infiu-
ences had hitherto kept her from rec