You and Aunt Margaret have given me
all the love there has been in my life. That is the one reason above all
others why you shall not give me charity. Hand me money because you find
me crying for it! This isn't the first time this old trail has known
tears and heartache. All of us know that story. Freckles stuck to what
he undertook and won out. I stick, too. When Duncan moved away he gave
me all Freckles left in the swamp, and as I have inherited his property
maybe his luck will come with it. I won't touch your money, but I'll
win some way. First, I'm going home and try mother. It's just possible
I could find second-hand books, and perhaps all the tuition need not
be paid at once. Maybe they would accept it quarterly. But oh, Uncle
Wesley, you and Aunt Margaret keep on loving me! I'm so lonely, and no
one else cares!"
Wesley Sinton's jaws met with a click. He swallowed hard on bitter words
and changed what he would have liked to say three times before it became
articulate.
"Elnora," he said at last, "if it hadn't been for one thing I'd have
tried to take legal steps to make you ours when you were three years
old. Maggie said then it wasn't any use, but I've always held on. You
see, I was the first man there, honey, and there are things you see,
that you can't ever make anybody else understand. She loved him Elnora,
she just made an idol of him. There was that oozy green hole, with the
thick scum broke, and two or three big bubbles slowly rising that were
the breath of his body.
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