The Story of Wool

The Story of Wool

CHAPTER I

A MYSTERIOUS TELEGRAM

Donald Clark glanced up from his Latin grammar and watched his father as
he tore open the envelope of a telegram and ran his eye over its
contents. Evidently the message was puzzling. Again Mr. Clark read it.
Donald wondered what it could be. All the afternoon the yellow envelope
had been on the table, and more than once his mind had wandered from the
lessons he was preparing to speculate on the possible tidings wrapped
up in that sealed packet. Not that a telegram was an unheard-of event in
the family. No, his father received many; most of them, however, went to
the Boston office, and the boy could not imagine what this one was doing
at their Cambridge home.

The moment his father entered the house Donald handed him the envelope
and Mr. Clark quickly stripped it open; yet even though it now lay
spread out before him the mystery it contained appeared to be unsolved.
It was seldom that Donald asked questions, nevertheless he found himself
wondering and wondering what it was that had brought that odd little
wrinkle into his father's forehead. Donald understood that wrinkle; he
had seen it many times and knew it never came unless some question arose
to which it was difficult to frame an answer. As his father and he had
lived alone together ever since he could remember they had grown to know
each other very well, and had become the best of friends. It therefore
followed that when one worried, both worried.

As the boy looked on, his father glanced up suddenly and caught sight
of the anxiety mirrored in his face. The man smiled kindly.


Genre: Literary Fiction