The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1943-03-04
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} ByKATHlEEN NORRIS Z

to a movie in the daytimel"
I'm going with you," said Amy.
Funerals give me the horrors.
Wait for me; I'll get my coat!"
She dashed upstairs again just as
the big Marshbanks car drove up
and Fran got out.
ssShe's seen Kelly; they've had
lunch together!' Cherry thought in
stantly.
''Where've you been, my dear?"
the judge asked casually.
Il suppose it was scandalous not
to go to the cemetery and see the
whole funeral through" Fran said,
avoiding direct answer. "But
there were things had to do, and l
just ran out on it!'
Hes probably crazier about her
than she is about him." Cherry SAID
when Amy brought the subject to
Kelly and Fran a day or two later.
"You never can tell with Fran;
she's deep" Amy answered. She
had to come to the Porter house by
appointment on this occasion; it was
the afternoon when Mrs. Porter's
will was to be read. Two quiet ell
derly women were there from Pas
adena; cousins, Emma told Cherry,
who had been supported by their
rich relative for years. The judge
was coming, and surprisingly Amy
had been notified to be present.
''She must have left you some
money" Cherry surmised, ''or they
wouldn't have asked you to come"
"She must have had plenty" Amy
said in satisfaction.
Emma put her head in the door
and told both girls to come down
stairs.
me, too?" Cherry asked.
Eyes, think so. Everyone in the
house," Emma said briefly, and
vanished. Cherry and Amy followed
Immediately to the library, where
chairs had been set in a solemn
semicircle to face the wide, fiat ma
hogany desk at which the lawyer
sat. Judge Marshbanks was near
him; he smiled at the girls as they
came in. Almost at once the will
was opened.
Their late employer had remem-
bered them all, leaving to every
servant sum approximating a
thousand dollars for each year in
her service, and for Emma's eleven
years of faithfulness a round twen-
ty-five thousand. Cherry was stupe-
fed to hear her own name read out
as beneficiary for legacy of fifteen
hundred.
The old house was to be given to
the city as museum. Everything
in the way of personal belongings,
upstairs furnishings and the bulk of
the estate were left to the grand
daughter of her beloved old friend
Amelia Wellington. Amy Marsh
banks.
what are your plans, Cherry?"
Judge Marshbanks inquired.
81 haven't had time to make
plans" said Cherry, "but ! think I
feel as if / didn't know anything"
"Well," the judge said, that's not
a bad idea. It will get you among
people your own age, shake you
up. put you on your own-yes. that's
a good plan. Berkeley"
Stanford, thought"
"Why not?" he agreed. "Wait a
minute-wait minute" he added,
Il know a nice place down there
where you might like to stay. Lots
of youngsters in the family; you
wouldn't feel so strange. What does
Emma think of this? Have you
talked to her?"
Aunt Emma and / talked the
night Mrs. Porter was so ill, the
last night but one" Cherry was be-
ginning when Amy put in an ami
mated interruption:
"D'you call her Aunt Emma?' "
''Well, yes, l do-sometimes.
Cherry's face turned toward the fire,
famed until the tips of her ears
were red.
1--WE were sitting upstairs waiting
for the doctors to come out of Mrs.
Porter's room," she resumed her
story, land l said l hoped she would
get well, and Emma said she was
sure she wouldn't. So then we talked
of what we would do, and Emma's
going up into Mendocino, where she
has a little place, and retire.
"Well, should think Emma'd be
fixed well enough to do that" the
judge said again with an approving
nod. And then with glance at the
doorway through which Amy hao
| disappeared in quest of her coat anc
hat, he added, $50 she told yol
about your mother, eh?"
| "a month ago."
''Shock to your"
"Oh, no, l think" Cherry con
fessed honestly. II had been dream
ing-imagining that might have
well, different relations. alway:
| thought Emma was my mother!
nurse. But we've like each other.
You're a nice girl" the maj
commented, as if thinking aloud
his half-closed eyes upon her. Cher
ry flushed with pleasure; her little
laugh was proud and embarrassed
| Ibid you-did you ever see m.
mother? Didn't you say yo'
hadn't?" she asked, SOLDERING again
mo" He fell thoughtful; hi
linked hands dropped between hi
knees, his eyes on the fire. mo,
was away-I was in Washington TO
several years after ! married." h
said. but I knew she was yer.
young and very trusting.
"And you mustn't" he went o.
after a moment, ''you mustn'
blame YOUR father too much. III