THE APRIL FOOL. 111

 

to New York? I have not a dollar in my
pocket, and will receive nothing for a week
or two.”

The only resource was in borrowing; and
to this the doctor resorted with consider-
able reluctance. From a gentleman who
had always shown an interest in him, he
obtained five dollars. Within an hour after
the receipt of the letter, he was on his way
to the city. The more he pondered the
matter, the more likely did it seem to him
that his first conclusion was the true one.
There was an uncle of his father’s, a miser,
reputed to be very rich, from whom, some
years before, the family had received let-
ters; and it seemed not at all improbable
that his death had occurred, and that he
and his sister had been remembered in the
will. This idea so fully possessed his mind
by the time he arrived in the city, that he
was already beginning to make, in imagi-
nation, sundry dispositions of the property
soon to come into his hands.

“Can I see one of the gentlemen belong-