And speaking of grocery stores, had Mr. Smith ever seen a store run down as his old one had since he sold out? For that matter, something must have got into all the grocery stores; for a poorer lot of goods than those delivered every day at his home he never saw. It was a disgrace to the trade.
He said a good deal more about his grocery store—but nothing whatever more about his Blaisdell ancestors; so Mr. Smith felt justified in considering his efforts to interest Mr. Frank Blaisdell in the ancestor business a failure. Certainly he never tried it again.
It was in February that a certain metropolitan reporter, short for feature articles, ran up to Hillerton and contributed to his paper, the following Sunday, a write-up on “The Blaisdells One Year After,” enlarging on the fine new homes, the motor cars, and the luxurious living of the three families. And it was three days after this article was printed that Miss Flora appeared at Miss Maggie’s, breathless with excitement.
“Just see what I’ve got in the mail this morning!” she cried to Miss Maggie, and to Mr. Smith, who had opened the door for her.
With trembling fingers she took from her bag a letter, and a small picture evidently cut from a newspaper.
“There, see,” she panted, holding them out. “It’s a man in Boston, and these are his children. There are seven of them. He wrote me a beautiful letter. He said he knew I must have a real kind heart, and he’s in terrible trouble. He said he saw in the paper about the wonderful legacy I’d had, and he told his wife he was going to write to me, to see if I wouldn’t help them—if only a little, it would aid them that much.”
“He wants money, then?” Miss Maggie had taken the letter and the picture rather gingerly in her hands. Mr. Smith had gone over to the stove suddenly—to turn a damper, apparently, though a close observer might have noticed that he turned it back to its former position almost at once.
“Yes,” palpitated Miss Flora. “He’s sick, and he lost his position, and his wife’s sick, and two of the children, and one of ’em’s lame, and another’s blind. Oh, it was such a pitiful story, Maggie! Why, some days they haven’t had enough to eat—and just look at me, with all my chickens and turkeys and more pudding every day than I can stuff down!”
“Did he give you any references?”
“References! What do you mean? He didn’t ask me to hire him for anything.”