And 'tis no good
saying the days of miracles be passed, because they ban't.
I heard later that the lawyers let Amos read his brother's will and got a
power of attorney for him to act and carry on. And the will left Vitifer
Farm to Amos, on the condition that he would keep on his nephew Ernest. It
was four year old; and the codicil, that Joe wrote the day he disappeared,
ordained that when Amos died, Vitifer shouldn't be sold to Duchy, but
handed down to the next generation of the Gregorys in the shape of Ernest.
Well, Amos had no quarrel with that, and when he went home, he asked his
nephew if he'd known about the codicil, and he said he had not. And when
he learned of his uncle's kind thought for him, he broke down and wept
like a child, till Amos had to speak rough and tell him to keep a stiff
upper lip and bear himself more manly.
"If you be going to behave like a girl over this fearful loss, I shan't
have no use for you at Vitifer," Amos warned the young chap. "You must
face this very sad and terrible come-along-of-it same as I be doing. And
you must show me what you're good for, else I may do something you won't
like. This tragedy reminds me, Ernest," he said, "that I haven't made my
own will yet, and as you be my next-of-kin, if your poor uncle have gone
home, that means you'll inherit Furze Hill also in course of time and be
able to run a ring fence round both places.
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