The Great Brain by John Fitzgerald

Author:John Fitzgerald [Fitzgerald, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Education, General, Juvenile Fiction, Action & Adventure, Juvenile Nonfiction, Social Issues, Humorous Stories, Reading, Teaching Methods & Materials
ISBN: 9780142400586
Google: C8nZAAAAMAAJ
Amazon: 0142400580
Publisher: Puffin
Published: 1967-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

A Wreath for Abie

AUGUST CAME TO ADENVILLE, bringing with it the hottest weather of the year. The heat slowed everybody down. People walked a little slower. Our fathers began crowding us kids at the swimming hole to escape from the heat. Dogs became listless. My dog, Brownie, spent most of his time lying in the shade of a tree or under our back porch. I began to worry about Lady, who was expecting a litter of puppies. Tom had told me that it would take sixty-two days from the day Lady was mated with Brownie before the pups would be born. He assured me that the heat wouldn’t stop Lady from having the litter. As always The Great Brain was right. Lady gave birth to a litter of eight beautiful puppies the second week in August. I took Tom’s advice and decided to wait until three weeks after the puppies were weaned before taking my pick of the litter.

“They will be bigger then,” Tom had told me, “and not dependent on their mother, so I can judge them better.”

During the third week in August Abie Glassman fainted in front of the livery stable. He was carried inside by Mr. Tanner and some other men who revived him. Everybody blamed it on the heat.

Abie had earned himself a reputation for being a miser since opening his variety store. It began when he had removed the strong box from his peddler’s wagon and placed it in the living quarters of his store. It was a box made from wood with steel bands around it and had a big padlock on it. I guess Abie needed the strongbox when he was traveling around the outlying country and didn’t get near a bank only once or twice a year. Everybody who had seen Abie carrying the strongbox into his store had wondered what was in it.

It was just a couple of weeks after Abie opened his store that the rumor got around town the strongbox was filled with gold pieces. A man named Milton Tedford, who worked on the railroad as a brakeman, started the rumor. He had made a purchase in the store and had given Abie a twenty dollar gold piece. He told friends that Abie had gone into the living quarters to make change out of the strongbox. Abie had given Tedford a ten dollar, a five dollar, and a two-and-a-half dollar gold piece in change. As the story was repeated around town people became convinced that the strongbox was filled with gold pieces.

Uncle Mark was worried about the rumor. He told Abie there were always drifters in town who might hear about the strongbox and attempt to rob it. He tried to persuade Abie to put the money in the bank. Abie told Uncle Mark there was nothing to worry about.

Howard Kay was the first one to tell me Abie had a strongbox filled with gold pieces. He had heard his father telling his mother about it. I had run all the way home to tell Tom about it.

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