"It seems to me, John, that your aunt had better sell out her store, and come and keep house for you. You will have a large house, and you are not quite old enough to marry and go to house-keeping."
"Not quite," said John, laughing.
"Your aunt will thus be relieved from business anxieties, and you are quite rich enough to provide for her and your cousins."
"It is an excellent arrangement," said John. "I'll write to her at once."
John did write, and, as might have been expected his aunt was very glad to accept his offer. It was, of course, impossible to doubt the validity of the will, and its provisions were, as soon as practicable, carried into effect. Mrs. Oakley removed to New York with Ben, and established herself at a boarding-house. On some accounts it was an unwise step. Ben, having nothing useful to do, grew dissipated, and contracted debts on all hands. In five years his mother's twenty thousand dollars had dwindled to a few hundreds, and once more she found herself obliged to exert herself for a support. She opened a boarding-house, by means of which she managed to make a living. As for Ben, who she fondly hoped would grow up a gentleman, he appears to be sinking deeper and deeper every day into worthlessness and dissipation. He has cost his mother many sorrowful hours.
Mr. Huxter is dead. Probably his excesses in drinking hastened his death. His poor wife was left quite destitute. When John heard of her distress, grateful for her sympathy at a time when he stood in need of it, he asked permission to help her. A certain sum is paid her annually by him, by which, with her earnings as a dress-maker,—a trade which she followed before her marriage,—she is able to make a comfortable living for herself and her children.
John returned to his studies, and was admitted to college with Sam, where both took a high rank. They graduated at the last commencement, and are now both studying law.
Squire Bradley, of Wilton, who was much impressed by the skill with which John ferreted out Mr. Hall's rascality, is anxious to have John enter his office; but Sam, who is unwilling to part with one who from boyhood has been his most intimate friend, insists that John shall enter his father's office with him, after completing a course at a celebrated Law School where they now are. Probably this arrangement will best suit John. I have no hesitation in predicting for him a noble manhood and an honorable career. In spite of the gifts of Fortune that he possesses, I consider his warm and generous heart, his personal integrity, and his manly character, to be John Oakley's most valuable Inheritance.
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