Short stories, American; United States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
"Well, just about then Jack White came over from Cambria and told
Clint that he'd heard that his uncle was asking around where he was.
You see, Clint's uncle had a store down there, and had made a tidy
pile of money, and as he hadn't any children, he said he wouldn't mind
leaving it to him if he was living respectable. Clint had lived with
him when he was a boy, but they hadn't got along very well, so Clint
ran off. The old man didn't mind this, though, and now he wanted to
find him. Jack said he was sure that if Clint was to go over and play
his cards right he'd get the money. You may be sure this was a stroke
of luck for Clint just then, and he didn't like to lose it; but you
see he didn't look very genteel, and he knew his uncle was sharp
enough to find it out. He was fat enough, for whiskey never made a
living skeleton of him, but it was plain that it wasn't good health
that had made his nose so red, nor fine manners that had given him the
cut across his cheek and bruised up his eye. The boys all allowed that
he was the hardest-looking chap in the camp, and if his uncle left him
his money, it wouldn't be on the strength of his good countenance! But
you know he had to do something right off, and so he wrote as pretty a
letter to the old man as ever I want to see; but when the answer came
it said his uncle was very sick, and as he had something particular
to say to him, wouldn't Clint come over at once, and inclosed he'd
find the money for his fare. I tell you this stumped Clint, for he'd
had another fight, and was a picture to behold.
"But here's where the surprise to us all came in. Clint was pretty
well puzzled what to do, and while all the boys were advising him,
Kirby spoke up. I'd noticed he was pretty quiet, but nobody could have
guessed what he was thinking about. He looked some like Clint, and
once had been pitched into by a new Digger Run boy for Clint. The
fellow never made the second mistake about them. It wasn't as though
they were twins, but they both had brown hair and long beards, blue
eyes, and were about the same build, so you couldn't have made a
descriptive list of the one that wouldn't have done for the other.
What Kirby said was that Clint's uncle hadn't seen him since he was a
boy, and he'd expect to find him changed; and although he--that's
Kirby, you know--had had hard feelin's to Clint, he wasn't a man to
hold a grudge, and he'd let bygones be bygones. So if Clint thought
well of it, he'd go over to Cambria, and if he found the land lay
right he'd pass off for him, and make things sure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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