Five Hundred Dollars | Page 9

money he lent father. With twenty-seven years' interest it would amount to a good deal of money--more than I could well spare. I don't think I shall hear from it again."
"Has he gone, Albert?" asked Mrs. Marlowe, returning to the breakfast-room.
"Yes; I told him you were indisposed, and couldn't stand excitement."
"No matter what you told him, as long as we are rid of him."
CHAPTER VI
SQUIRE MARLOWE IS SURPRISED.
Mrs. Barton was washing the breakfast dishes, and was alone, Bert having gone to his daily work at the shoe shop, when the outer door opened and Uncle Jacob entered the cottage, valise in hand.
"I've accepted your offer sooner than you expected, Mary," he said.
"You are heartily welcome, Uncle Jacob," responded his niece, with evident sincerity. "If you can put up with our poor accommodations after being entertained in Albert's luxurious home----"
"Don't trouble yourself about that, Mary," interrupted the old man. "Albert doesn't want me. He civilly asked me to find another stopping place."
"You don't mean it!" exclaimed Mrs. Barton indignantly.
"You see," explained Uncle Jacob, with a quiet smile, "his wife was taken suddenly indisposed--after she found I wasn't as rich as she expected."
"I hope you won't take it too much to heart, Uncle Jacob," observed Mary Barton, in a tone of solicitude.
Uncle Jacob's amused laugh reassured her.
"It is just what I expected, Mary," he said, "and I shan't grieve over it much. You ought to have seen how they all looked when I asked Albert's advice about opening a small cigar and candy store in the village. You can imagine what a mortification it would be to my high-toned nephew to have my sign out,
JACOB MARLOWE,
Candy and Cigars.
over a small seven by nine store, when our relationship was known."
"I hope that won't prevent your carrying out the plan, Uncle Jacob. If your gains are small, you can make your home with us and pay what you can afford."
"Thank you, Mary, you are a true friend, and I shan't forget your kind offer. But I never had the slightest idea of opening such a store. I only mentioned it to test Albert."
"But you will have to do something, Uncle Jacob," said Mary Barton, perplexed; "and that would be as easy as anything. Bert could go in the evening and help you if you found it too confining."
"I have something else in view in the city," returned Jacob. "I don't need to earn much you know. I don't set up to be a dude," he added, with a comical glance at his rustic attire, "and I don't mean to board at the Fifth Avenue Hotel."
"I am sorry you can't stay in Lakeville," said Mrs. Barton regretfully.
"I will stay here a week, Mary, to get acquainted with you and your boy. I have taken a fancy to him. He is a fine, manly youth, worth a dozen of such fellows as Percy Marlowe."
"Indeed, he is a good boy," said his mother proudly. "I don't see what I could do without him."
"So, Mary, if you'll show me where you are going to accommodate me, I'll go up and take possession."
"Will you mind my putting you in with Bert? I have but two chambers."
"Not a bit. It will be all the better. If I were going to stay here permanently I would build an extension to the house for you."
"But that would be expensive, Uncle Jacob."
"So it would. I'm always forgetting that I am not a rich man. You see I was rich once. As I told Albert, I have seen the time when I had a hundred thousand dollars to my credit in a bank of Sacramento."
"Oh, Uncle Jacob! Why didn't you invest it in government bonds, and you would have been independent for life?"
"Because I was not so prudent as my niece, I suppose. However, it's no use crying over spilt milk, and I've got a matter of five hundred dollars left."
"But that won't last long, Uncle Jacob."
"Not unless I work. But I'm pretty rugged yet, and I guess I can manage to scrape along."
When Bert came home to dinner, he was surprised and pleased to find Uncle Jacob installed and evidently feeling quite at home.
"I wish I could stay at home this afternoon to keep you company," he said; "but I have only an hour for dinner."
"Business first, my boy!" said the old man. "For pleasure we'll wait till this evening. Is there a livery stable in the village?"
"Yes, sir; Houghton's."
"Then after supper we'll hire a buggy, and you and your mother and I will take a ride."
"But, Uncle Jacob, you forget that it will cost a dollar, or perhaps two."
"No, I don't, Mary; but I'm having a vacation, and I want to enjoy myself a little before pitching into hard work again. I am sure you will be the better for a ride."
"Yes,