Scribner's Magazine, Volume 26, October 1899Various
History
Scribner's Magazine, Volume 26, October 1899
Various
American periodicals
I saw Mr. Cutting wince a little at the premonition of the
responsibility that must inevitably come to him. I knew that, busy
man as he was, he could refuse O'Connor nothing, whether of time or
thought. Indeed, I doubt if anybody except O'Connor could have made
an inroad upon Mr. Cutting's hours and brain on this particular day.
At the moment of O'Connor's calling, Mr. Cutting was in the intricate
midst of a complicated contract he was drawing for the Traction Co., of
which he was counsel. Still, as every man to be thoroughly able must,
he possessed the three qualities of patience, kindness of heart, and
never-failing sense of humor. So he said:
"Well, Michael, if you want to make your will, I will do my best to draw
it up for you. But a will is a pretty important matter."
"That's why I come to you, sor," said O'Connor, simply. I saw Mr.
Cutting's eyes glisten with pleasure as he answered:
"Tell me what you want done with your property."
"That's what I don't know, sor," was O'Connor's reply. Here seemed to be
a hopeless situation, until it cleared when the old man, after pulling
at his beard for a while, added: "I do be thinkin' about the little
felly."
"Yes?" said Mr. Cutting, with all the encouragement rising inflection
can give.
"Thin," O'Connor responded, "there's the ould woman, who has been a good
wife to me." Here he ruminated, his hardened hand across his seasoned
lips. At length he added: "No man could ask a betther, God knows.
An', thin, there's Mollie, me daughter—a shweet, good gurrul, an' his
modther. But I was thinkin' about the little felly—" O'Connor's supply
of speech became temporarily exhausted and the sound of his voice ceased
with a long sigh of inability to further express himself.
"There may, some day, be other little fellies—or fillies," suggested
Mr. Cutting, unable to resist the temptation.
"That's so-o," said O'Connor, thoughtfully. "Shure I forgot that." He
leaned back in his chair and considered.
"You love them all, Michael," Mr. Cutting interposed. "Your wife and
your daughter as well as your grandson?"
The reply came quickly. "I do that, sor. God bless them, ivery wan.
That's what's perplexin' me, sor." Sweeter and better perplexity could
no man have. Kindly anxiety overspread the old face.
"You have, of course, entire confidence in your son-in-law?" The
question was a steady one, fully anticipating the answer that came at
once:
"I'd thrust Tim wid me life. He is a good man, an' a kind man—an' he
niver drinks."
"Then, Michael," said Mr. Cutting, gravely and after no slight pause,
"the best will you can make is no will."
"How is that?"
"In the first place," Mr. Cutting explained, "if you make no will, it
can't be broken." This was a bull that decidedly impressed the would-be
client.
"That's thrue, sor," he replied, reflectively.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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