A Strange Story

A Strange Story (in Short Story Collection Vol. 047 )

In the northern part of Austin there once dwelt an honest family by
the name of Smothers. The family consisted of John Smothers, his wife,
himself, their little daughter, five years of age, and her parents,
making six people toward the population of the city when counted for a
special write-up, but only three by actual count.

One night after supper the little girl was seized with a severe colic,
and John Smothers hurried down town to get some medicine.

He never came back.

The little girl recovered and in time grew up to womanhood.

The mother grieved very much over her husband's disappearance, and it
was nearly three months before she married again, and moved to San
Antonio.

The little girl also married in time, and after a few years had rolled
around, she also had a little girl five years of age.

She still lived in the same house where they dwelt when her father had
left and never returned.

One night by a remarkable coincidence her little girl was taken with
cramp colic on the anniversary of the disappearance of John Smothers,
who would now have been her grandfather if he had been alive and had a
steady job.