according to the will left by that eccentric old lady, miss nan corliss, her nephew, dr. corliss,—whom she had not seen for thirty years,—was to receive the old house at crowfield. his wife inherited all the furniture of the old house, except what was in the library. john corliss, the only grandnephew, was to have two thousand dollars to send him to college when he should be old enough to go. and to mary, the unknown grandniece whom she had never seen, aunt nan had declared should belong “my library room at crowfield, with everything therein remaining.”
mary was now going to see what her library was like, and what therein remained. she drew a long breath, turned the key, pushed open the door, and peered cautiously into the room, half expecting something to jump out at her. but nothing of the sort happened. john pushed her in impatiently, and they all followed, eager, as john said, to see “what sister had drawn.” dr. corliss himself had never been inside this room, aunt nan’s most sacred corner.
[11]what they saw was a plain, square room, with shelves from floor to ceiling packed tightly with rows of solemn-looking books. in one corner stood a tall clock, over the top of which perched a stuffed crow, black and stern. in the center of the room was a table-desk, with papers scattered about, just as aunt nan had left it weeks before. on the mantel above the fireplace was a bust of shakespeare and some smaller ornaments, with an old tin lantern. above the shakespeare hung a portrait of a lady with gray curls, in an old-fashioned dress, holding a book in her hand. the other hand was laid upon her breast with the forefinger extended as if pointing.
“hello!” said dr. corliss when he spied the portrait, “this is aunt nan herself as she looked when i last saw her; and a very good likeness it is.”
“she looks like a witch!” said john. “see what funny eyes she has!”
“sh! john! you mustn’t talk like that about your great-aunt,” corrected his mother. “she has been very good to us all. you must at least be respectful.”
“she was eccentric, certainly,” said dr. corliss. “but she meant to be kind, i am sure. i[12] never knew why she refused to see any of her family, all of a sudden—some whim, i suppose. she came to be a sort of hermitess after a while. she loved her books more than anything in the world. it meant a great deal that she wanted you to have them, mary.”
“i wish she had left me two thousand dollars!” said mary, pouting. “these old books don’t look very interesting. i want to go to college more than john does. but i don’t suppose i ever can, now.”
“books are rather useful, whether one goes to college or not,” her father reminded her. “she needn’t have left you anything, mary. she never even saw you—or john either, for that matter. she hadn’t seen me since i was married. i take it very kindly of her to have remembered us so generously. i thought her pet hospital would receive everything.”
“what do you suppose became of her jewelry, owen?” asked mrs. corliss in an undertone. “i thought she might leave that to mary, the only girl in the family. but there was no mention of it in her will.”
“she must have sold it for the benefit of her hospital. she was very generous to that charity,” said dr. corliss.
[13]mary and john had been poking about the library to see if they could find anything “queer.” but it all seemed disappointingly matter-of-fact. they stopped in front of the tall clock which had not been wound up for weeks.
“we’ll have to start the clock, father,” said mary. “the old crow looks as if he expected us to.”
“the key is probably inside the clock case,” said dr. corliss, opening the door.
sure enough, there was the key hanging on a peg. and tied to it was the usual tag. but instead of saying “clock key,” as one would have expected, this tag bore these mysterious words in the handwriting which mary knew was aunt nan’s: “look under the raven’s wing.”
“now, what in the world does that mean?” asked mary, staring about the room. “what did she mean by ‘the raven,’ do you suppose?”
“i guess she means the old crow up there,” cried john, pointing at the stuffed bird over the clock.
“do you suppose she meant that, father?” asked mary again, looking rather ruefully at the ominous crow.
“maybe she meant that,” said her father, sitting down in a library chair to await what[14] would happen. “but i believe this is another of aunt nan’s little jokes. it sounds so to me.”
“pooh! it’s just an old april fool, i bet!” jeered john.
mary still stared at what aunt nan called “the raven,” and wondered. “under which wing am i to look?” she thought. finally she gathered courage to reach up her hand toward the right wing, very cautiously. she half expected that the creature might come alive and nip her. but nothing happened. there was nothing under the right wing but moth-eaten feathers, some of which came off in mary’s fingers.
“i’ll try the other wing,” said mary to herself. she poked her fingers under the old bird’s left wing. yes! there was something there. something dangled by a hidden string from the wing-bone of aunt nan’s raven. mary pulled, and presently something came away. in her hand she held a little gold watch and chain. on the case was engraved the letter c, which was of course as truly mary’s initial as it had been aunt nan corliss’s.
“why, it is aunt nan’s watch, sure enough!” said dr. corliss, beaming. “well, mary! i declare, that is something worth while. you[15] needed a watch, my dear. but i don’t know when i could ever have bought a gold one for you. this is a beauty.”
“it’s a bird of a watch!” piped john, wagging his head at the crow.
“i like it better than wriggly snakes,” said mrs. corliss, smiling.
“oh, how good aunt nan was to leave it here for me!” said mary. “i am beginning to like aunt nan, in spite of her queerness.”
“i like this kind of joke she plays on you,” said john enviously. “i wish she’d play one like that on me, too. i say, mary, do you suppose there are any more secrets hidden in your old library? let’s look now.”
“i wonder!” said mary, looking curiously about the dingy room. “but i don’t want to look any further now. i am satisfied. oh, mumsie! just look!” mary put the chain of the new watch around her neck, tucked the little chronometer into her belt, and trotted away to see the effect in the crooked old mirror of the parlor.
john wanted to take down the crow and examine him further.
“come along, john,” said his father, pushing the little brother toward the door. “this is[16] mary’s room, you know. we aren’t ever to poke around here without her leave, mind you.”
“no,” said john reluctantly. “but i do wish—!” and he cast a longing glance back over his shoulder as his father shut the door on mary’s mysterious library.
