For months old Joseph ate of his nephew's food, drained his
purse, abused his generosity, ignored his comforts and almost
succeeded in driving the young but devoted wife back to the home from
which Tom had married her.
It was at this juncture that the mild-mannered bookkeeper arose to the
dignity of a fine rage, and co-incidentally Joseph Hooper for the
first time realised what an overbearing, disagreeable visitor he had
been and departed, but without the slightest ill-feeling toward his
benefactors. Indeed, he was deeply repentant, deeply apologetic. He
ruefully announced that it would never be in his power to repay them
for all they had done for him, but, resorting to a sudden whim,
declared that he would make them his heirs if they didn't mind being
used as a means to convey his final word of defiance to the children
who had cast him off. Not that he would ever have a dollar to leave to
them, but for the satisfaction it would give him to cut the traitors
off with the proverbial shilling. Beset with the notion that this was
an ideal way to show his contempt for his offspring, he went to the
safety deposit vault and took there from the worthless document known
as his last will and testament and in the presence of witnesses
destroyed the thing, thereby disinheriting the erstwhile wife and her
children as effectually as if he had really possessed the estate set
forth in the instrument.
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