"Why, lied to her, of course, as any honorable man would have done. I
told her that her father was an engineer and a friend of mine, and that
he was killed in an accident before she was born--that was all plausible
enough.
"Then I told her that her mother was in poor health, and had died just
before I had adopted her, and had left a will, giving her to me, and
besides had left forty thousand dollars in the bank for her, when she
married or became of age.
"Well, John, cutting down short, she met a fellow over there, a New
Yorker, that just seemed to think she was made a-purpose for him, and
about a year ago he wrote and asked me for my daughter--just think of
it! His petition was seconded by the baby herself, and recommended by
Sister Florence.
"They came home six months ago, and the baby got ready for dress-parade;
and I went down to New York and seen 'em off; but here's where old Fate
gets in his work again. That rascal of an O. B. Sanderson--I didn't
notice the name before--was my own nephew, the very young cuss whose
picture kept me from marryin' the baby's mother! I never tumbled till I
ran across his mother, she was my sister Carrie.
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