The Amazing Inheritance

lfooly wa

Tessie than it can possibly be to you. She stared at

t department store, the Evergreen. Mr. Walker, the long, thin head of the department, had just reprimanded her sev

o what customers ask for, Miss

sie stubbornly. Tessie was tired of bein

pastry. "In the Evergreen, Miss Gilfooly, a customer is to get what she wants. And the customer is

njustice of the world and especially of long, thin Mr. Walker, who would sta

she was

and returned to its owner without one of the hundred and ten pieces being broken or even nicked. To prove this surprising story there were statements from Mrs. Joshua Cabot, who had been robbed, and from Stuttering Jimmie, the robber, who had showed that he was a quick and expert packer. Without the statement of Mrs. Joshua Cabot, easily the leader of the Waloo younger matrons, you never

t a dreary, weary round of work. She found fault with her oatmeal and skim milk because they were not strawberries a

fiercely, although she must have known that Granny's eyes, keen as they were, could never penetrate the hundreds of frame and brick and stucco houses which separated the shabby little Gilfooly cottage from the big brick and stucco mansion which housed the Kingleys. "Ethel Kingley has everything in the world, and I haven't anything at all! It isn't fair! It isn't fair! Ethel Kingley's shoes cost more than

eager to remind her that her own brot

re is full it must overflow if anything more is poured into it, and Tessie was just full of gri

by little cottage ever since he had returned from France. "Now look here, my girl!" She regarded Tessie over her spectacles with kind but firm eyes. "It's plain to be seen that you got out of the wrong side of bed this morning. You're old enough to know that there are two kinds of folks in the wor

!" interrupted Te

l that you're a lucky girl to have me and Johnny to look after

weeks!" exclaimed

don't want to be late and have your pay docked you'll take that frown off your face and put on a smile with your hat and ru

with her white face in which the purple shadows made her eyes look big and purple-blue. Her yellow hair was bunched over her ears in the ugly fashion of the day and was really responsi

away and leave Granny without some word of apology. "It isn't because I don't appreciate you an

ueen for a while, and it's remembering the days when she was queening it that help to make the other days bearable. Yes, my lamb, old Granny understands, and she don't blame you a mite. But just you wait! The good Lord'll get around to the Gi

ny, who was eating Tessie's d

young eyes, Johnny. It's only when you're old and wear glasses

at the unjustness of Mr. Walker and with her eyes filled with tears. Before the te

n you tell me where I'll f

an. She stopped thinking that the world was unjust and discovered that it was showing a kindly partiality to one Teres

hyly and pinkly, and when Tessie

s for you!" And he smiled radiantly. There was some fun in carrying good news to a pretty girl. And such good news! He gave it to her all in one piece. He did not believe in breaking the good news into small portions. "Yo

at the messenger suspiciously. Was he making fun of her? She had studied geography, but she had neve

er to a throne. Her Uncle Pete had run away to sea when he was sixteen years old. For several years letters came to Granny with strange stamps on the upper right-hand corner of the envelopes and then communication ceased. For twenty-five years there had been no word from Uncle Pete.

from the office of Marvin, Phelps and Stokes to carry the good news to Tessie and wh

ke sure that she was in the hardware department of the Evergreen a

as awfully strict and never let the girls go a minute before half-past five he laughed again and said all right. He would tell Mr. Mar

y were not to talk to their gentlemen friends during working hours. Before nine and after half-past five they could do as they pleased, but from nine until half-past five they c

able on which aluminum saucepans were so attractively arranged and behind which Tessie was standing with a wh

ly in the pages of the National Geographic Magazine, which he looked at every month in the employees' rest-room, had Mr. Walker ever seen such a head. The coarse black hair was frizzed and stiffened until it stuck straight out from the scalp and was adorned with shells. The man's nose was tattooed in red and blue and a string of shells hung around his neck. A

ly. "Miss Teresa Gilfooly?" he said in a lisping voice and with

he simply cou

essie and pressed the hem of her short skirt to his forehead. "Queen Teresa!"

goings-on in his department. Not for a minute! But he had to stop and adjust a matter with a customer, and when at last he reached T

his! You can't have your gentlemen friends down here! I can't ha

s up,

ker. Tessie had never seen a man like Mr. Bill, not even on the moving-picture screen. She lived in the hope that some day he would speak to her, would stop and ask, perhaps, how sales were; but never once had Mr. Bill so mu

owning disapproval, while Tessie's face was all flushed with unbelieving wonder. Of

s. One of her gentlemen friends was on his knees to her not five minutes ago in this ve

She could not believe the amazing statement and so she did not speak firmly, as a queen should s

he hundreds of black-gowned figures which filed into the Evergreen every morning, and filed out of the Evergreen every night. But now that his attention was focused on Tessie, he had to see how big and blue her eyes were, how fine her white skin was,

ocked. That was no way to rep

n-of the Sunshine Islands, you know! In the Pacific Ocean," she added hurriedly, for Mr. Bill had looked at Mr. Walker with a significance and a regret whic

and all the salesgirls who heard it turn in his direction, and feel sorry for little Tessie Gilfooly. It sounded as if M

was not a word in all the Evergreen rules on how to reprimand an employee if she neglected her work when

Mr. Bill again, and he too, st

d again two big tears gathered in her eyes. Tessie, like

e said quickly. "We must go and tell father. Can you believe it? Imagine finding a queen down here i

and excited as she was she clun

suppose she has been impudent or stealing or something. What will