"
Bonner's enforced presence at Anderson Crow's home was the source of
extreme annoyance to the young men of the town. "Blootch" Peabody
created a frightful scandal by getting boiling drunk toward the end of
the week, so great was his dejection. As it was his first real spree, he
did not recover from the effect for three days. He then took the pledge,
and talked about the evils of strong drink with so much feeling at
prayer meeting that the women of the town inaugurated a movement to stop
the sale of liquor in the town. As Peabody's drug store was the only
place where whiskey could be obtained, "Blootch" soon saw the error of
his ways and came down from his pedestal to mend them.
Bonner was a friend in need to Anderson Crow. The two were in
consultation half of the time, and the young man's opinions were not to
be disregarded. He advanced a theory concerning the motives of the
leader in the plot to send Rosalie into an exile from which she was not
expected to return. It was his belief that the person who abandoned her
as a babe was actuated by the desire to possess a fortune which should
have been the child's. The conditions attending the final disposition of
this fortune doubtless were such as to make it unwise to destroy the
girl's life. The plotter, whatever his or her relation to the child may
have been, must have felt that a time might come when the existence of
the real heiress would be necessary.
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