" Mr. Molyneux had
telegraphed instanter to this Dr. Wilder. Dr. Wilder had
some sense of Christmas promptness. He remembered poor
Chappell perfectly, and mailed that night a thorough
certificate. This certificate it was which Mr. Molyneux
had carried to the poor old tenement of Massachusetts
Avenue, and this had made happy that Christmas Day--and
this.
"Why," said Mr. Bruce Kuypers, almost as if he were
speaking aloud, "it seems so queer that Christmas
comes and goes with you, and you have forgotten all about
that stormy day, and your ride to Mrs. Chappell's!
"Why, at our place, we drink Mr. Molyneux's health
every Christmas Day, and I am afraid the little ones used
to think that you had a red nose, a gray beard, and came
down the chimney!"
"As, at another place," said Matty, "they thought of
Mr. Bruce--of Noah's Ark memory."
"Anyway," said Mr. Molyneux, "any crumbs of comfort
we scattered that day were BREAD UPON THE WATERS."
Of Mr. Kuypers's quick journey the main points have
been told. Six days before, by some good luck, which
could hardly have been expected, the "Gem City Medium's"
despatch from Washington was full enough to be
intelligible. It was headed, "ANOTHER SWINDLER NAILED."
It said that Mr. Molyneux, of the Internal Improvement
office, had feathered his nest with $500,000 during
the war, in a pretended expedition to the Rio Grande.
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