He cleared out--young Gabe did--soon as the will was settled and afore the outstandin' debts was, and nobody in this latitude see hide nor hair of him till three years ago this comin' spring.
"Then, lo and behold you! he drops off the parlor car at the Orham station and cruises down to South Orham, bald-headed and bay-windowed, sufferin' from pomp and prosperity.

Seems he'd been spendin' his life cornerin' copper out West and then copperin' the corners in Wall Street.
The folks in his State couldn't put him in jail, so they sent him to Congress.

Now, as the Honorable Atkinson Holway, he'd come back to the Cape to rest his wrist, which had writer's cramp from signin' stock certificates, and to ease his eyes with a sight of the dear old home of his boyhood.
"Bill Nickerson comes postin' down to me with the news.
"'Bailey,' says he, 'what do you think's happened?
Stingy Gabe's struck the town.' "'For how much ?' I asks, anxious.

'Don't let him have it, whatever 'tis.' "Then he went on to explain.

Gabe was rich as all get out, and 'twas his intention to buy back his old man's house and fix it up for a summer home.