A Gentle Pioneer by Amy Ella Blanchard — Read

The mystery surrounding the copy of the will which had been extracted from Parker's box was solved the next week, and by no less person than Jimmy O'Neill, who came in chuckling over the discovery. "When thieves fa' oot honest folk win back their ain," he said, nodding wisely to Mrs. Kennedy, and producing a paper from his pocket. "Hump Muirhead overketched himsel', as I'll be tellin' ye. It seems he offered what's most vallyble to a backwoodsman, a good rifle, to the one of his comrades that 'ud fetch him the will, an' a dozen av em was on the lookout for it. Two av 'em kep' their eyes on Park Willett from the time he left the house here till he got acrost the river, an' seein' him give a paper to David, they turned their attention to Davy instead, but they blundered in their plans an' caught him comin' home instead o' goin'. Ivery man o' thim bein' anxious to kape his own counsel, they acted as saycrit as they could, an' they all do be watchin' their chanst; so when Parker drops the box, one av 'em is ready to pick it up, and gets out the copy, an' seein' no further use for the box, he drops it again where he found it.

Not bein' quite sure av what he's found an' not knowin' the other two has seen Park give David the will, he waits till he gits where he can examine it, an' then he carries it to Hump in full expectation of gittin' the prize. But Hump see as soon as he pops eyes on it that it's but a copy, bein' as it's written on the back av a letter addressed to Mr. Parker Willett, an' he tells the puir gawk it's no good, an' the two av 'em has words over it, an' the man, Bill Spear, brings it to me, thinkin' he'll get even with Hump by tellin' the whole tale, an' maybe do himsel' a good turn. An' -- " but Jimmy stopped short, considering that it would not be pleasant information if he told Mrs. Kennedy that there were some determined men in the neighborhood who were bent on ridding the place of Humphrey Muirhead, and who were threatening to tar and feather him if he did not leave within a given time. Jimmy himself was one of the party, and he did not mean that the plans should miscarry.