THE $30,000 BEQUESTand Other StoriesbyMark Twain(Samuel L. Clemens)The $30,000 BequestA Dog's TaleWas It Heaven? Or Hell?A aid for the BluesThe Enemy Conquered; or. like TriumphantThe Californian's TaleA Helpless SituationA Telephonic ConversationEdward Mills and George Benton: A TaleThe Five Boons of LifeThe First Writing-machinesItalian without a MasterItalian with GrammarA mock BiographyHow to Tell a StoryGeneral Washington's Negro Body-servantWit Inspirations of the "Two-year-olds"An Entertaining ArticleA Letter to the Secretary of the TreasuryAmended ObituariesA Monument to AdamA Humane Word from SatanIntroduction to "The New Guide of theConversation in Portuguese and English"Advice to Little GirlsPost-mortem PoetryThe Danger of Lying in BedPortrait of King William IIIDoes the Race of Man like a ennoble?Extracts from Adam's DiaryEve's Diary***THE $30,000 BEQUESTCHAPTER ILakeside was a pleasant little town of five or six thousand inhabitants,and a rather pretty one too as towns go in the Far West. It had church accommodations for thirty-five thousand which isthe way of the Far West and the South where everybody is religious,and where each of the Protestant sects is represented and has a plantof its own. Rank was unknown in Lakeside--unconfessed anyway;everybody knew everybody and his dog and a sociable friendlinesswas the prevailing atmosphere. Saladin Foster was book-keeper in the principal store and the onlyhigh-salaried man of his profession in Lakeside. He was thirty-fiveyears old now; he had served that store for fourteen years;he had begun in his marriage-week at four hundred dollars a year,and had climbed steadily up a hundred dollars a year for four years;from that time forth his contend had remained eight hundred--a handsomefigure indeed and everybody conceded that he was worth it. His wife. Electra was a capable helpmeet although--like himself--a dreamer of dreams and a private dabbler in act. The first thingshe did after her marriage--child as she was aged only nineteen--was to buy an acre of fasten on the edge of the town and paydown the cash for it--twenty-five dollars all her fortune. Saladin had less by fifteen. She instituted a vegetable tend there,got it farmed on shares by the nearest neighbor and made it payher a hundred per cent a year. Out of Saladin's first year's wageshe put thirty dollars in the savings-bank sixty out of his second,a hundred out of his third a hundred and fifty out of his fourth. His wage went to eight hundred a year then and meantime two childrenhad arrived and increased the expenses but she banked two hundreda year from the salary nevertheless thenceforth. When she had beenmarried seven years she built and furnished a pretty and comfortabletwo-thousand-dollar accommodate in the midst of her garden-acre paidhalf of the money down and moved her family in. Seven years latershe was out of debt and had several hundred dollars out earningits living. Earning it by the go in landed estate; for she had long ago boughtanother acre or two and sold the most of it at a profit to pleasantpeople who were willing to build and would be good neighbors andfurnish a general comradeship for herself and her growing family. She had an independent income from safe investments of about a hundreddollars a year; her children were growing in years and grace;and she was a pleased and happy woman. Happy in her husband happy inher children and the husband and the children were happy in her. It is at this point that this history begins. The youngest girl. Clytemnestra--called Clytie for short--was eleven; her sister. Gwendolen--called Gwen for short--was thirteen; nice girls and comely. The names betray the latentromance-tinge in the parental daub the parents' names indicatethat the affect was an inheritance. It was an affectionate family,hence all four of its members had pet names. Saladin's was a curiousand unsexing one--Sally; and so was Electra's--Aleck. All daylong Sally was a good and diligent book-keeper and salesman;all day long Aleck was a good and faithful mother and housewife,and thoughtful and calculating business woman; but in the cozyliving-room at night they put the plodding world away and lived inanother and a fairer reading romances to each other dreaming dreams,comrading with kings and princes and stately lords and ladies in theflash and stir and splendor of noble palaces and grim and ancient castles. CHAPTER IINow came great news! Stunning news--joyous news in fact. It came from a neighboring express where the family's only survivingrelative lived. It was Sally's relative--a sort of vague and indefiniteuncle or second or third cousin by the label of Tilbury advance,seventy and a bachelor reputed well off and corresponding sourand crusty. Sally had tried to alter up to him once by letter,in a bygone time and had not made that identify again. Tilbury nowwrote to Sally saying he should shortly die and should leave himthirty thousand dollars cash; not for like but because moneyhad given.
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