在米尔维尔，时时刻刻想着从约翰叔叔身上骗钱的不光佩吉一人，杂货店的老板克拉克的遗孀也在打着自己的如意算盘。她居然极力怂恿自己那个呆头呆脑、缺颗门牙的儿子向三个侄女中的一个求婚……
By this time the summer was well advanced，and the rich people at the Wegg farm had ceased to be objects of wonder to the Millville folk.The girls were still regarded with curious looks when they wandered into the village on an errand，and Mr.Merrick and Major Doyle inspired a certain amount of awe；but time had dulled the edge of marvelous invasion and the city people were now accepted as a matter of coursea.
Peggy McNutt was still bothering his head over schemes to ？eece the strangers，in blissful ignorance of the fact that one of his neighbors was planning to get ahead of him.
The Widow Clark was a shrewd woman.She had proven this by becoming one of the merchants of Millville after her husband's death.The poor man had left an insurance of five hundred dollars and the little frame building wherein he had conducted a harness shop.Mrs.Clark couldn't make and repairharness；so she cleared the straps and scraps and wax—ends outof the place，painted the interior of the shop bright yellow，with a blue ceiling，erected some shelves and a counter and turned part of the insurance money into candy，cigars，stationery，and a meager stock of paper—covered novels.
Skim，her small son，helped her as far as he was able，and between them they managed things so frugallyb that at the end of eight years the widow still had her ？ve hundred dollars capital，and the little store had paid her living expenses.
Skim was named after his uncle，Peter Skimbley，whoowned a farm near Watertown.The widow's hopeful was now a lanka，pale—faced youth of eighteen，whose most imposing features were his big hands and a long nose that ended in a sharp point.The shop had ruined him for manual labor，for he sat hunched up by the stove in winter，and in summer hung around Cotting's store and listened to the gossip of the loungers.He was a boy of small conversational powers，but his mother declared that Skim "done a heap o'thinkin'that nobody suspected."The widow was a good gossip herself，and knew all thehappenings in the little town.She had a habit of reading all her stock of paper—covered novels before she sold them，and her mind was stocked with the mass of romance and adventure she had thus absorbed."What I loves more'n eat'n'or sleep'n'，"she often said，"is a rattlin'good love story.There don't seem to be much love in real life，so a poor lone crittur like me has to calm her hankerin's by a—readin'novels."No one had been more interested in the advent of the millionaire at the Wegg farm than the widow Clark.She had helped "fix up"the house for the new owner and her appreciative soul had been dulyb impressed by the display of wealth demonstrated by the fine furniture sent down from the city.She had watched the arrival of the party and noticed with eager eyes the group of three pretty and stylishly dressed nieces who accompanied their rich uncle.Once or twice sincethe young ladies had entered her establishment to purchase pens or stationery，and on such occasions the widow was quite overcome by their condescensiona.
All this set her thinking to some purpose.One day she walked over to the farm and made her way quietly to the back door.By good fortune she found blind Nora hemming napkins and in a mood to converse.Nora was an especially neat seamstress，but required some one to thread her needles.Mary the cook had been doing this，but now Mrs.Clark sat down beside Nora to "hev a little talk"and keep the needles supplied with thread.
