Everything was deadly still. For everybody was waiting to hear the speech. Presently Poppy sat down. And then you should have heard the applause! Afterwards he asked me, kind of sheepish-like, what he had said. And did I ever laugh! For the funny part is that he never said a word!
In conclusion, I hardly need to tell you that Tom and his recovered grandpa were brought together. And was that ever a joyful meeting for the old gentleman. Tom now lives in the old-fashioned house near the canning factory. He’s crazy over our Pickle Parlor and I imagine that we’ll sell out to him in time, as the building and lot are his, anyway. You’ll smile when I tell you that Uncle Abner and Mrs. O’Mally got married. As for old Butch, he got a steady job up the canal and never came back.
Picking up the story of Tom’s father, Nathan Weir wasn’t dead, as his family had supposed, but for years he had been in the Ohio state penitentiary, where he had been taken following a robbery in which he had been shot in the arm. Blood poison setting in, the arm was later taken off. His wife had died, and from his long absence it was concluded that he was dead, too. Getting out of the penitentiary, he had come back to Rimtown, finding his father dead and the family scattered. After that he got mixed up in a jewel robbery in Peoria, and to hide from the law he came to Tutter, knowing about the old tunnel—and what was his amazement to find his brother and son living near the pirate’s old home in a cave! Learning about the gold cucumber, from listening, he had stolen it, thinking that it would give him the “key” to the treasure’s hiding place. Failing in this, he finally decided to lay low and secretly grab the treasure when the others had lifted it. His mind was “off,” or otherwise, in having heard about our “diamonds” he wouldn’t have broken into Poppy’s cellar. For he should have known that there was no connection between our advertised “diamonds” and those of which he had been robbed by his crooked Peoria accomplice. Later he got the idea that the diamonds were in Mr. Weckler’s safe ... yet how peculiar must have been his feelings to break into that particular house! No doubt he stepped on the yellow cat. And in all probability its yowling made him furious, which would explain why he strangled it. The “machine” that we had seen at church was just a contraption that some boy had rigged up. I think it was Spider Whickleberry. I heard the kids telling afterwards how slick Spider could pick off cats. He thought it was fun to catch them and then let them go.
We found the “cat strangler” living in a hut in the heart of the willow patch. He was sick. And two days later he died in the hospital. As he was Tom’s father, the less we say about him the better. He’s gone. And that’s enough.
My story comes to an end here. And I can only hope that you have enjoyed it. Coming soon is POPPY OTT AND THE FRECKLED GOLDFISH. Can you imagine a scientist spending his whole lifetime studying freckles? Professor Aldercott Pip, A.B., M.A., Ph.D., modestly claimed to be the best-informed freckle specialist in the world. But we could hardly credit our ears when we heard about his marvelous “freckle” dust. Gosh! Then came the amazing surprise of the freckled goldfish!
It was Poppy, of course, who planned our new “aquarium” fish store. And was it ever a darb! In the selling campaign that followed our main slogan was: “What is home without a freckled goldfish?” We got up all kinds of nifty schemes. “You trade in your old-fashioned auto for a new one,” he told the Tutter people, “so why not trade in your old-fashioned goldfish and get one of the up-to-date freckled kind?”
“The book of a million laughs!” That is what you’ll call it when you’ve read it. And remember, too, it’s coming soon.
THE END
This Isn’t All!
Would you like to know what became of the good friends you have made in this book?