Mr. Opp

“He read impressively”
BY ALICE HEGAN RICE
AUTHOR OF “MRS. WIGGS OF THE CABBAGE PATCH,” “LOVEY MARY,” “SANDY,” ETC.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY LEON GUIPON
NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 1909
Published, April, 1909
THE DE VINNE PRESS
hope your passenger hasn’t missed his train,” observed the ferryman to Mr. Jimmy Fallows, who sat on the river bank with the painter of his rickety little naphtha launch held loosely in his hand.
“Mr. Opp?” said Jimmy. “I bet he did. If there is one person in the world that’s got a talent for missing things, it’s Mr. Opp. I never seen him that he hadn’t just missed gettin’ a thousand dollar job, or inventin’ a patent, or bein’ hurt when he had took out a accident policy. If he did ketch a train, like enough it was goin’ the wrong way.”
“Mr. Opp ain’t been back to the Cove for a long while, has he?” asked the ferryman, whose intellectual life depended solely upon the crumbs of information scattered by chance passers-by.
“Goin’ on two years,” said Mr. Fallows. “Reckon he’s been so busy formin’ trusts and buyin’ out railways and promotin’ things generally that he ain’t had any time to come back home. It’s his step-pa’s funeral that’s bringin’ him now. The only time city folks seem to want to see their kin folks in the country is when they are dead.”
Mr. Fallows, with some difficulty, got to his feet.