The $$30,000 Bequest | Page 5

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This "Small Print!" by Charles B. Kramer,
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*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN
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THE $30,000 BEQUEST and Other Stories
by Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens)
The $30,000 Bequest A Dog's Tale Was It Heaven? Or Hell? A Cure
for the Blues The Enemy Conquered; or, Love Triumphant The
Californian's Tale A Helpless Situation A Telephonic Conversation
Edward Mills and George Benton: A Tale The Five Boons of Life The
First Writing-machines Italian without a Master Italian with Grammar
A Burlesque Biography How to Tell a Story General Washington's
Negro Body-servant Wit Inspirations of the "Two-year-olds" An
Entertaining Article A Letter to the Secretary of the Treasury Amended
Obituaries A Monument to Adam A Humane Word from Satan
Introduction to "The New Guide of the Conversation in Portuguese and
English" Advice to Little Girls Post-mortem Poetry The Danger of
Lying in Bed Portrait of King William III Does the Race of Man Love
a Lord? Extracts from Adam's Diary Eve's Diary
***
THE $30,000 BEQUEST

CHAPTER I
Lakeside 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 is the way of the Far
West and the South, where everybody is religious, and where each of
the Protestant sects is represented and has a plant of its own. Rank was
unknown in Lakeside--unconfessed, anyway; everybody knew
everybody and his dog, and a sociable friendliness was the prevailing
atmosphere.
Saladin Foster was book-keeper in the principal store, and the only
high-salaried man of his profession in Lakeside. He was thirty-five
years 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 wage had remained eight hundred--a handsome figure
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 romance. The first thing she
did, after her marriage--child as she was, aged only nineteen-- was to
buy an acre of ground on the edge of the town, and pay down the cash
for it--twenty-five dollars, all her fortune. Saladin had less, by fifteen.
She instituted a vegetable garden there, got it farmed on shares by the
nearest neighbor, and made it pay her a hundred per cent. a year. Out of
Saladin's first year's wage she 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 children had arrived and increased the expenses, but she
banked two hundred a year from the salary, nevertheless, thenceforth.
When she had been married seven years she built and furnished a pretty
and comfortable two-thousand-dollar house in the midst of her

garden-acre, paid half of the money down and moved her family in.
Seven years later she was out of debt and had several hundred dollars
out earning its living.
Earning it by the rise in landed estate; for she had long ago bought
another acre or two and sold the most of it at a profit to pleasant people
who were willing to build, and would be good neighbors and furnish a
general comradeship for herself and her growing family. She had an
independent income from safe investments of about a hundred dollars a
year; her children were growing in years and grace; and she was a
pleased and happy woman. Happy in her husband, happy in her
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 latent romance-tinge in the parental
blood, the parents' names indicate that the tinge was an inheritance. It
was an affectionate family,