Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker: Sometime Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel on the Staff of his Excellency General WashingtonMitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir)
History
Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker: Sometime Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel on the Staff of his Excellency General Washington
Mitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir)
Quakers -- Fiction; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Fiction
On March 25, ‘79, I came in late in the afternoon and sat down to read.
My father, seated at the table, was tying up or untying bundles of
old papers. Looking up, he said abruptly, “Your cousin has been here
to-day.” It was said so naturally as for a moment to surprise me. I made
no reply. A few minutes later he looked up again.
“Arthur, Arthur--”
I turned from a book on tactics issued by Baron Steuben. “I am not
Arthur, father.”
He took no notice of this, but went on to say that I ought to have come
long ago. And what would I do with it?
I asked what he meant by _it_, and if I could help him with his papers.
No, no; he needed no help. Did I ever hear from Wyncote, and how was
William? I made sure he had once again taken me for my cousin. I found
it was vain to insist upon my being his son. For a moment he would seem
puzzled, and would then call me Arthur. At last, when he became vexed,
and said angrily that I was behaving worse than Hugh, I recalled Dr.
Rush’s advice, and humouring his delusion, said, “Uncle, let me help
you.” Meanwhile he was fumbling nervously at the papers, tying and
untying the same bundle, which seemed to be chiefly old bills and
invoices.
“Here it is,” he went on. “Take it, and have a care that thou hast it
duly considered by James Wilson, or another as good. Then we will see.”
“What is it, uncle?” I returned.
He said it was the reconveyance of Wyncote to my grandfather; and with
entirely clear language, and no fault of thought that I could observe,
he stated that at need he would execute a proper title to Godfrey, the
present man.
I was struck dumb with astonishment and pity. Here was a man acting
within a world of delusion as to who I was, and with as much competence
as ever in his best days. I did not know what to say, nor even what to
do. At last I rose, and put the old yellow parchment in my coat pocket,
saying I was greatly obliged by his kindness.
Then, his business habits acting as was their wont, he said, “But it
will be proper for thee to give me a receipt.”
I said it was not needed, but he insisted; and at this I was puzzled.
I did not want the deed, still less did I want it to pass into Arthur’s
hands. I said, “Very good, sir,” and sitting down again, wrote a
receipt, and? calmly signing my own name, gave it to him. He did not
look at it, but folded and indorsed it, and threw it into the little red
leather trunk on the table.
I went away to my aunt’s without more delay, a much-astounded man. The
good lady was no less astonished. We read the deed over with care, but
its legal turns and its great length puzzled us both, and at last my
aunt said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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