Short Stories
Hawaii, drawing interest and awaiting their wedding day. Al-
bert took over the business of the firm of Ah Chun and Ah Yung,
Harold, the eldest, having elected to take a quarter of a million
and go to England to live. Charles, the youngest, took a hundred
thousand, a legal guardian, and a course in a Keeley institute. To
Mamma Achun was given the bungalow, the mountain House
on Tantalus, and a new seaside residence in place of the one Ah
Chun sold to the government. Also, to Mamma Achun was given
half a million in money well invested.
Ah Chun was now ready to crack the nut of the problem.
One fine morning when the family was at breakfast--he had seen
to it that all his sons-in-law and their wives were present--he an-
nounced that he was returning to his ancestral soil. In a neat
little homily he explained that he had made ample provision for
his family, and he laid down various maxims that he was sure,
he said, would enable them to dwell together in peace and har-
mony. Also, he gave business advice to his sons-in-law,
preached the virtues of temperate living and safe investments,
and gave them the benefit of his encyclopedic knowledge of in-
dustrial and business conditions in Hawaii. Then he called for
his carriage, and, in the company of the weeping Mamma
Achun, was driven down to the Pacific Mail steamer, leaving be-
hind him a panic in the bungalow. Captain Higginson clam-
oured wildly for an injunction. The daughters shed copious
tears. One of their husbands, an ex-Federal judge, questioned Ah
Chun's sanity, and hastened to the proper authorities to inquire
into it. He returned with the information that Ah Chun had ap-
peared before the commission the day before, demanded an ex-
amination, and passed with flying colours. There was nothing to
be done, so they went down and said good-bye to the little old
man, who waved farewell from the promenade deck as the big
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