I
“Willard!”
Mrs. Morris’s rebuke sounded only half-hearted, and she shot an apologetic glance at Willard’s father. But for once Mr. Morris, the sternest of disciplinarians, chose to be deaf. After all, the boy’s disappointment was keen, and so his criticism of Grandma Pierson elicited only the perfunctory warning from his mother. The boy’s disappointment was shared to a scarcely lesser extent by his parents, but they had learned to bear disappointment in silence. Willard, waiting for his father’s reprimand, sat with downcast eyes fixed on his untasted breakfast. Finally, however, as the storm did not break, Willard took courage and went on, but with more caution.
“Well, I can’t help it,” he insisted, with a gulp. “She’d ought never to have promised if she didn’t mean to keep it!”
“I’m certain, Will,” responded Mrs. Morris soothingly, “that your Grandma Pierson fully meant to keep it. Mother was never the sort to say a thing and not mean it.”
“If she hadn’t died, she’d have done just as she said she’d do,” said Mr. Morris. “I guess she expected to live a good many years yet. Eighty-one isn’t very old; leastways, it wasn’t for her; she was such an active old lady. When were we out there before this time, mother?”
“Three years ago Christmas. That was when she made the promise. I sort of wish she hadn’t, seeing it’s turned out as it has.”
“She might have known she’d have to die sometime,” said Willard rebelliously. “Seems as though she might have made a new will after she promised what she did.”
“Maybe she put it off, thinking there’d be more money later,” replied Mr. Morris. “Cousin Joe writes that the whole estate won’t amount to much more than five thousand dollars; and some of that’s in a mortgage that’ll take a lot of handling to realize on. Fact is, mother, I don’t just see where she expected to get the money for Will, anyway, do you?”
Mrs. Morris shook her head thoughtfully. “Perhaps she thought that by the time Will was ready for college she’d have the money. She certainly meant to do something for him, George. She’d always been especially fond of Will.”