The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1923-10-13
PENITENT UNCLE
BY n. LOUIS RAYsolD


e. 1929. by Mcclure Newspaper syndicats.r
s. A ND. so, after all these years, I
"A am trying to make up for my in
difference by this method Of repara-
ton. The money is yours to do with
as you desire. When you receive it I
shall be dead and beyond the reach Of
thanks.
"Your belatedly penitent great-uncle,
Jonathan Benjamin Cowles."
This was the conclusion of the let.
ter which Jimmy Stiles several days
ago had signed with fiourishing sig
nature and then reread with grinning
satisfaction. How tickled Mary Lou
Use would be! And how unlikely eves
to discover the hoax.
Now he sat at his desk and wonp
dered whether Mary Louise had yes
cashed the inclosed certificate Of de-
post.
She had come to visit her aunt, who
was matron of the County Home,
where Jimmy was one Of many lonely,
blue-overalled and aproned orphans.
Mary Louise's mother, because Of
whose illness she had been sent away,
died during her absence and she
stayed on with her aunt. And when
matrimOny with a widower Of small
means and considerable family claimed
the estimable matron, Mary Louise
still fingered.
Jimmy became her companion in all
the playground squabbles, nor did the
marvellous piece of luck which befell
him when he was fifteen make him
forget her.
Jimmy rose rapidly-graduated bril-
liantly from high schOOl-went into a
lawyers office daytimes and continued
study at evening school. Ultimately
he entered the bar and became an at
torney with reputation before he
was thirty.
Meanwhile Mary Louise had been
bound out" to a lonely farmers wife.
Growing attached to her, the woman
had done more than the stipulated
clothing and feeding of the child-had
taught her what she could of gram
mar, geography and similar rudiments
of learning.
A summer boarder had taken an in
terest and lent her books, not only
during her stay but for many months
afterward.
These changes had meant separa-
ton for the boy and girl, during which
the memory Of each grew dim to the
other but did not utterly fade. And at
Drift HarbOr, that wonder spot Of
ocean beach and vivid sunset and
riotous surf, their paths converged
once more.
Signing his name in the Drift Har-
Dor house register, Jimmy looked up
from the final flourish of his sigma
ture-James w. Stiles, Boston
straight into pair Of well-remem-
bered soft blue eyes.
"You! Mary Louise!"
Yes, it was Mary Louise, who some
times filled in at the hotel, which stood
mile or two from her adopted home,
in various capacities from that of
clerk to waitress.
"Are you happy, Mary Louise" he
asked one day.
Mary Louise threw him a question
ing glance from beneath her curly
lashes. "Just now" she said ingenu-
Ously. "But winters-oh, Jimmy, it is
very lonely. And-and I see no fu-
ture. If only l could afford to 90 to
the city and have couple of years at
a normal school. Then-oh, just think,
I might be able to teach!"
She sighed blissfully, as though
teaching were an achievement too
heavenly to contemplate. Il dream
nights of what 1 would do with q
thousand dollars. That's my favorite
air castle in SPAIN"
That winter Jimmy Unexpectedly
won case which netted him an even
thousand and the sight of the check
brought back to him the words Of
Mary Louise.
An intense longing surged within
him to help her out even as years ago
he had been helped by the kindly rec
tor. But handing over a sum of that
amount to an unrelated young lady
presented problem.
Suddenly the idea Of creating q
fictitious great-uncle occurred to him
"a great-uncle who would exist but
for moment on sheet Of paper, but
long enough to bequeath to Mary Lou
Use thousand-dollar legacy.
The letter had been written and sent
and now Jimmy sat and dreamed in
his office Of it's reception by a blue
eyed girl in lonely farmhouse near
Drift Harbor.
And as he dreamed the door of his
Office opened. At sight of slim fig
ure Jimmy sprang to his feet.
"You fraud!" cried a sweet voice.
my great-uncle JIMMY"
Jimmy swallowed. "How-er-why-
er-"
"Well, partly because I read in the
papers Of your thousand-dollar fee in
the Hitchcock case, but mostly be-
cause only one person in the world
makes the funny US that you do.
had only to compare the j. of Jona-
than with the j. on the hotel register
to have my suspicious confirmed. OF
course I couldn't"
MARY Louise" interrupted Jimmy
firmly, hand over that certificate"
And when she did so he folded it even
Ixv nd ,ls O. s. l.