文档介绍：WHERE THERE'S A WILL
WHERE THERE'S A
WILL
By MARY ROBERTS RINEHART
1
WHERE THERE'S A WILL
CHAPTER I
I HAVE A WARNING
When it was all over Mr. Sam came out to the spring-house to say
good-by to me before he and Mrs. Sam left. I hated to see him go, after
all we had been through together, and I suppose he saw it in my face, for
he came over close and stood looking down at me, and smiling. "You
saved us, Minnie," he said, "and I needn't tell you we're grateful; but do
you know what I think?" he asked, pointing his long forefinger at me. "I
think you've enjoyed it even when you were suffering most. Red-haired
women are born to intrigue, as the sparks fly upward."
"Enjoyed it!" I snapped. "I'm an old woman before my time, Mr.
Sam. What with trailing back and forward through the snow to the
shelter-house, and not getting to bed at all some nights, and my heart
going by fits and starts, as you may say, and half the time my spinal
marrow fairly chilled--not to mention putting on my overshoes every
morning from force of habit and having to take them off again, I'm about
all in."
"It's been the making of you, Minnie," he said, eying me, with his
hands in his pockets. "Look at your cheeks! Look at your disposition!
I don't believe you'd stab anybody in the back now!"
(Which was a joke, of course; I never stabbed anybody in the back.)
He sauntered over and dropped a quarter into the slot-machine by the
door, but the thing was frozen up and refused to work. I've seen the time
when Mr. Sam would have kicked it, but he merely looked at it and then at
me.
"Turned virtuous, like everything else around the place. Not that I
don't approve of virtue, Minnie, but I haven't got used to putting my foot
on the brass rail of the bar and ordering a nut sundae. Hook the money
out with a hairpin, Minnie, and buy some shredded wheat in remembrance
of me."
He opened the door and a blast of February wind rattled the window-
frames. Mr. Sam threw ou