The 30,000 Dollar Bequest and Other Stories eBook

Before the couple went to bed, that first night that they were rich, they had decided that they must celebrate.  They must give a party —­that was the idea.  But how to explain it—­to the daughters and the neighbors?  They could not expose the fact that they were rich.  Sally was willing, even anxious, to do it; but Aleck kept her head and would not allow it.  She said that although the money was as good as in, it would be as well to wait until it was actually in.  On that policy she took her stand, and would not budge.  The great secret must be kept, she said—­kept from the daughters and everybody else.

The pair were puzzled.  They must celebrate, they were determined to celebrate, but since the secret must be kept, what could they celebrate?  No birthdays were due for three months.  Tilbury wasn’t available, evidently he was going to live forever; what the nation could they celebrate?  That was Sally’s way of putting it; and he was getting impatient, too, and harassed.  But at last he hit it—­just by sheer inspiration, as it seemed to him —­and all their troubles were gone in a moment; they would celebrate the Discovery of America.  A splendid idea!

Aleck was almost too proud of Sally for words—­she said she never would have thought of it.  But Sally, although he was bursting with delight in the compliment and with wonder at himself, tried not to let on, and said it wasn’t really anything, anybody could have done it.  Whereat Aleck, with a prideful toss of her happy head, said: 

“Oh, certainly!  Anybody could—­oh, anybody!  Hosannah Dilkins, for instance!  Or maybe Adelbert Peanut—­oh, dear—­yes!  Well, I’d like to see them try it, that’s all.  Dear-me-suz, if they could think of the discovery of a forty-acre island it’s more than I believe they could; and as for the whole continent, why, Sally Foster, you know perfectly well it would strain the livers and lights out of them and then they couldn’t!”

The dear woman, she knew he had talent; and if affection made her over-estimate the size of it a little, surely it was a sweet and gentle crime, and forgivable for its source’s sake.

CHAPTER V

The celebration went off well.  The friends were all present, both the young and the old.  Among the young were Flossie and Gracie Peanut and their brother Adelbert, who was a rising young journeyman tinner, also Hosannah Dilkins, Jr., journeyman plasterer, just out of his apprenticeship.  For many months Adelbert and Hosannah had been showing interest in Gwendolen and Clytemnestra Foster, and the parents of the girls had noticed this with private satisfaction.  But they suddenly realized now that that feeling had passed.  They recognized that the changed financial conditions had raised up a social bar between their daughters and the young mechanics.  The daughters could now look higher—­and must.  Yes, must.  They need marry nothing below the grade of lawyer or merchant; poppa and momma would take care of this; there must be no mesalliances.