Edith VAN DYNE
Aunt Jane's Nieces
Hardcover
(Reilly & Lee Company Sept. 3, 1906)
, First Edition (US) First Printing edition
The cousins' benign and eccentric patron, Uncle John Merrick, devotes much of his fortune to helping others — an effort managed in its details by Patsy's father Major Doyle. These efforts do not always yield sound results. In one case, Merrick and Doyle loaned a few thousand dollars to a young inventor named Joseph Wegg for a patent he was developing — but Wegg lost a patent lawsuit, and Merrick now owns the collateral on the loan, a farm in a remote region of upper New York State. In his capricious way, Uncle John decides to take his nieces to the farm to escape the city's heat in the approaching summer. He arranges for a real-estate agent to get the farmhouse in good order and ships crates of furnishings to the place, sight unseen. Merrick and the girls come north, and find the farmhouse a surprisingly appealing place. The local inhabitants of a tiny village in the Adirondack mountains are naturally interested in the new residents; they call Merrick "the nabob." The cousins quickly become interested in the family of the previous owner. Joe Wegg's father had been a retired sea captain, and something of a recluse; his close friend Will Thompson went mad when Captain Wegg died, and both their fortunes mysteriously disappeared. The girls meet and become friends with Thompson's daughter Ethel, the local schoolteacher. Also, the cousins (with Louise in the lead; she takes a more prominent role in this book than in the previous volumes) decide that Captain Wegg was murdered and robbed, and they set out in search of suspects. They pry into the local past. Matters begin to clear when Joe Wegg returns home to convalesce after a car accident. The girls are dispirited to learn that there was no murder and no robbery. It is Uncle John who unravels a genuine mystery, as to the fate of the Wegg and Thompson fortunes. He recovers a missing property deed that ensures that Joe Wegg and Ethel Thompson can marry in comfort and security.
- Series
- Aunt Jane's Nieces (Book 1)
- Pages
- 325
- Weight
- 20.8 oz.
Enjoy reading Aunt Jane's Nieces? You may also like these books
