The Widow Wickett's Windows.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1520, 19 February 1886, Page 3

The Widow Wickett's Windows.

* Mr. Tibbetts the lawyer was riding •lowly along the road, thinking for t once in a way what a brief life this wa«, and how quickly we left it behind lis. He had just been making old Mr. ..Parkman'g will, and it was doubtful if old Mr. Parkman would live until .night. The pompous, bustling, dictatorial man was dying, and the world would get along well enough •without him, as it would without •dt of us. One person would grieve for him, and that the very one who would benrfitby his death. Tears ago Mr. Parkman bad picked up in the streets of London, on a cold, winter night, a .poor little Italian boy, who had been .sent by his padrene to scrape the . violin at a bleak street corner. Mrhad found that the little *.feiicw wes iil treated, and had taken kg* I measures to release and adopt 'him, and this boy, now grown to be seventeen years old, was the old man's * pride and comfort C 'l want to give everything to Ludovico," he said to the lawyer. "He deserves it. and I love him. My

nephew, Ralph Verner, would pounce 1 npon everything if I left no will. No, 'I should make one even if I had never

found this boy. I should leave all to some charity. Ralph is a brute—rich, greedy, contemptible. Ludovico will carry out my ideas, and do good with his money." So the will was written, and it was Bow in the lawyer's brest-pocket, to be earned to his office and locked up in a certain box

" I mav live for years," said the old man, "and Ralph would make no bones of destroying a will, He is a bad fellow—a very had fellow.''

But at the door Mr. Parkman's man told him that the doctor had said his master's hrurs were numbered ; that he would not see the nr xt run rise.

No wonder that Mr. Tibbetts felt that this was an uncertain sort of world.

But the boys down in the road un which his horse slowly trotted, who were making the mos* of the celebration of Gunpowder Plot with some gunpowdery playthings, such as one nay fancy Satan had invented for his offspring, were troubled with no grave thoughts or solemn emotions. The black figure of the lawyer, long and lean, seated on his quiet old horse, instead of awakening awe in their small bosoms, aroused them to deeds of mischief.

Suddenly an invention, resembling a bomb shell, though smaller and less destructive, hurtled threw the air, hit Mr. Tibbetts in the sma'l of the back, and exploded. Mr. Tibbetts started, the reared, aud in a moment mure Mr Tib etts was on his back in the road, the horee a mile away up the road, and the will sticking in the solitary rooi*»berrY bush that decorated the Widow Wickett's front garden.

Now widow Wiekett was one of these people »ho are hi ways wretchedly poor, no matter what is done for them, and thfiusjh she bad more given h»»r than ary other person in the viiliage, she always had broken panes of klms in her window, and wbs always j atching them up with pasteboard, tin pans, and straw bats. Toddling out shortly after the accident, of which she heard nothing, she found a pi« ce of stiff parchment sticking in her bush, and as it was just the size of two panes of glass, she appropriated it at once, fastening t well on with many tacks. As she could not read writing, the names upon the sheet never struck her eye; and as for the red tape, she used that for a shoestring immediately. Meanwhile, down at the inn to which he had been carried, Mr. Tibbetts came to himself, found he was not greatly injured, expressed his opinion of boys in general, and waited for his clothes, which were being brushed for him.

"And by the way," cried Mr Tibbetts, suddenly, "bring me the document in my waistcoat pocket, William. It's very valuable." Vain search was made on the road everywhere. The will was gone. Sore as he was from bir fall, M. Tibbetts had himrelf driven back to the Park man mansion. He arrived there before the sun set, but old Mr P irkman was already dead; and all rewards that were offered tailed to bring the will to light. The Widow Wicket never read the newspapers The law had its course. The nephew eame into the property.

The two old servants who had been well provided for by their master nought other situations. Ludovico was left withont a penny ; but he had a good education ; and Mr. Tibbett's offered him a place in his office, on a salary that saved him from starving—a better salary than he would have given any other boy. Somehow he felt himself responsible for the boy's changed fortune; and he never quite give up all hope about the will

About six months passed ; a yeartwo—and nothing was heard of it.

Now, Mr. Tibbetts bad charge of the property, and the Widow Wicketts little house was upon it. • Ludovieo was, therefore, tent on one occasion to collect her not.

" There's your money," the widow Mid. " Now you've extortioned it ont of me, take it It wm give me by a good lady to pnt the glaca in my wmdya and save me from rheumatics agin the winter; bat no, I've got to suffer now. I hope you'll think of that when you're warm as toast in your feather beds and blankets." " Indeed it's not I. I couldn't ask it of you," said Ludovico, almost in tears.

" Look here!" said the widow. " See my panes. Two windys. Twelve panes in each. Three whole in the lot This them boyes broke; and this cracked unknownst! and this my elbow went through; and this is them boys again ; and I put a bit of stick that give under it is the way it was them went The cat was on the sill under it at the time. Ah, well! the corvner'll have me this winter." Ludovico went away with a swelling heart

"Ah !" he said, to himself. "If I were rich as my dear old friend intended I should be, I'd not oppress the poor." * There, sir'' he said, handing the money to Mr Tibbetts, " The wretched old soul has paid it, and now she can't have her window-panes put in. She'll die of cold. How cruel Mr. Grose is!"

" Oh, Widow Wickett's panes. We all know about them," said Mr, Tibdetts. " They're her stock in trade. Why. lad, they're always out." 41 Always!— all tbese'bitter winters! 1 sighed Lndovico Then an heroic thought possessed him He would take the money he had saved for a coat and: go to the glazier and buv time pane* of glass and some putty, and himself mend the Widow Wickett's windows. And when office hours were over away he sped, carried out his good intention, and appeared at the .Widow Wickett's door with his "hands full of glass and smiles of benevolence on his fac.? and announced his intention. The widow was horrified. The broken windows brought her half her income in charitable gifts from pitying strangers, but she was obliged to submit, and pretend to be grateful She sat in her rocking chair, ruefully looking on, while Ludovico extracted the old hats and pans and ripped off the parchment, and threw the whole outside the window into the garden where the gooseberry bush grew. Happily he worked and soon the windows were all restored to their original condition. " The Lord's blessin' on you," whined the widow, meaning something else.

" Oh, don't mention it," said Ludovico, politely, " You mustn't wash thun until to-morrow or they'll fall out. Good-bye." Mrs Wickett never washed anything, but she began to meditate on doing it instantly, and Ludovico marched away. He would have no coat, but his conscience would not trouble him.

" Oh, if I were rich, how good I would be to the poor ! " be said. At this instant something hit his heel sharply. A blessed breeze had impelled one-half of the parchment he had taken from the widow's window after him

He stooped and picked it up. The first thing that struck hin was his own name. He looked at it closely. It wa« part of a will—in his favour. Back flew the boy j the widow wa< just cramming the other pait under her tea-kettle, but he snatched it from her without a word, and rushed away. Mr. Tibbetts saw him coming, and his prophetic soul saw a great revelation in the boy's pale face. " What have you got there ? " he shouted. Lndovico answered : "The Widow Wickett's window panes ! A few days after, the widow was in court, explaining how she came by such window panes. And so the boy came to his own, and really is the rich man he dreamed of being as he daubed the putty against the frames of Mr*. Wickett's window.

That old lady is well provided for by the gratitude of the young heir, *ho has bought her house for her, furnished it, and settled on her an income beyond her wants j but she keeps au empty snuff-box in her pocket, and amiable strangers are often heard to mention that tbey gave a few pennies just now to a poor old soul, who never could save enough for her one luiury—a pinch of snuff