Brownlee was a bankrupt's widow, that
when the husband died there was nothing left but this Green Valley lot,
which he bought absent-mindedly one day, and his life insurance which
though was a good one. And the widow having no money didn't want to
stay amongst her rich city friends and so she's come here. They say
she hates Green Valley like poison but that the girl Jocelyn thinks
it's fun living here, even though her hands are blistered and there's
no place to go evenings. I heard that David Allan's been plowing up
the Brownlee garden lot and helping the girl set things out.
"And now, Grandma, what of all things do you suppose has happened? Old
man Mullin's back. Nobody can hardly believe it. He's been gone these
ten years and nobody blamed him a mite when he left that miserly,
nagging wife of his and went off to California. Why, they say she
nearly died giving him a ten-cent piece every week for spending money
and that he used to work on the sly unbeknownst to her to get money for
his tobacco and then didn't dare smoke it where she could see him. And
he's come back. Some say he's got so much money of his own that she
can't worry him and that he's got to be so deaf besides that he's safe
more or less.
"And as if that wasn't enough, there's talk of Sam Ellis's selling the
hotel and going out of business.
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