The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1921-11-10
Cousin Percy's Little Joke.
CHAPTER l.

p%erience Of waking In the middle or
the night to find everything perfectly
still and quiet and normal, and yet
with the impression persistlng that
there had been q tremendous crash OF
some sort just before the waking
senses were alive enough to realize II.
1t a some such razlng jolt as this
that was given me on the morning
when l was called In, with the other
members Of the family, to listen TO the
reading Of my grandfather's will.
But, first, however, to give some
Idea of the conditions precedent, as a
lawyer would say. My father-good,
easy-going, comfort-loving Dad!-
never owned what Grandfather Dud-
ley, pursuing his thin lips and swapping
the words out, called "the money
sense" AS an architect high In his
profession and with fine artistic feel
Ing for the beautiful In buildings, he
earned a liberal lncome--and spent 1t |;
or so much Of II that there was barely
enough left after his death to provide
IOT lily IuotiltI anu StSttl, Nv W hNNP
me going, as you might say, in an ex-
ceedingly modest manner. Without
work, | mean. ! may as well confess,
Mt once, that | had never acquired the
work habit. l was always going to-"
but 1t was so fatally easy to keep on
postponing the chilling plunge. I sup
pose I had been ready on at least half
a dozen occasions TO take a dive into
some pool with a salary attachment /;
but always some good friend would
bob up to say, "Oh, come on, Stannle,
old man; we're lacking just one
to make up the bunch. Don't be a
clam. Time enough to settle down
when you have to-" and then 1t would
be all off.
Besides, you see, there was always
Grandfather Jasper In the background.
He had money-lashings of 1t, Sc we
all believed; and 1t had been a family
understanding for years that he in
tended splitting the bulk Of 1t, fifty
fifty, between my cousin Percy and
me. Before we go any farther, let me
set Ii down that Cousin Percy was
and is-all the seventeen different
kinds of things that I am not, and
never wished to be; smooth, neat. we'll
groomed, a grind In college and a
perfect dear" with the girls, am
bilious as the very devil, and measur-
ing his friends by the amount of pull
they might be able to exert in his be-
half; there you have him from the
crown of his weli-brushed little head
to his patent-leather pumps.
you're a fright, Stannie," he would
say, In his carefully polished diplo-
matte manner-he had a billet In the
Department of State at Washington,
and was in training for the legation
service abroad--"you are a perfect
fright. Three whole years out of col
lege. and you haven't done u single,
solitary useful thing yet. When are
you going to begin? And, incidental
ly, how long are you going to keep
Llsette waiting?"
Oh, Lord fright there was another
knot In the tangle-Lisette. We had
agreed to agree-Lisette and I--some
six months or so In advance Of Grand
father Jasper's death, and we were
both perfectly well assured. and had
assured each other a dozen times, that
my income from Dads estate wasn't
more than half big enough to marry
on. You see, 1t was this way: Lisette
was one of a family of four girls In a
mighty expensive household. and there
wasn't anything to lean on on that
side Of the fence. Though, of course.
we never discussed 1t brutally In so
many words, we were waiting for that
fifty-ffty look-in at the will which fam.
lily tradition declared had already been
drawn up, signed, sealed, witnessed
and put away in cold storage: other.
wise In the ~safe-keeping of GRANDPA.
ther Jasper's family lawyer.
All Of which may serve to bring us
back to that nightmare effect regis.
tered at the start. When the Dudley
will was taken out of the icebox and
read to the assembled members of the
family, there were at least two shock
ing surprises. Jasper hadn't been any
where neal as rich as we had all beer
thinking he was; that his modes'
manner Of living had been, perhaps. a.
much a matter of necessity as o.
choice. Bad investments-of which
the family had never heard so mucl
as i whisper-had cut his forum,
Down to something less than half
million. all told. That was shocl
lumber One; and shock Number Tw,
vas strictly personal to me: Grand
ather Jasper had left me his love ant
Test wishes, and had willed the none!
Ind property-all Of It. mind you-t'
cousin Percy. giving as his reason
lat he thought Percy would make
otter use Of It.
n az course. I had everybody's sympa
'3v ana condolence-even Percy's. TO
~ matter. NV mother wept: and
I recall 1t. Lsette racnared to com
- tear Or 80 wbcrI told her wha
-hapuanetl M rrf'"'h r'h"f Ind =
c~s1ni3u~ls a. 1 m hsnndn