"The same," says John Merrick. "Bad pennies always return, they say. I've come back to look up the family and find how many are left." He eyes the lad. "So my sister Jane has adopted you, my boy -- and she now owns this town!"
A curious man, this Uncle John, returning to the village of Elmhurst where he was born. He has given up his work in the canning business, out West, and has arrived looking as poor as a beggar.
Besides his sister, in Elmhurst, John Merrick also finds three nieces -- all different girls, with different qualities. Jane has been studying them carefully . . . for she has a fortune that someone must inherit.
Now their Uncle John studies them carefully, as well -- for he, too, has a carefully guarded secret.
Author Biography
Lyman Frank Baum (1856 - 1919), better known by his pen name L. Frank Baum, was an American author chiefly known for his children's books, particularly The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He wrote thirteen novel sequels, nine other fantasy novels and a host of other works (55 novels in total, plus four "lost works," 83 short stories, over 200 poems, an unknown number of scripts and many miscellaneous writings) and made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and screen. His works anticipated such century-later commonplaces as television, augmented reality, laptop computers (The Master Key), wireless telephones (Tik-Tok of Oz), women in high risk, action-heavy occupations (Mary Louise in the Country), and the ubiquity of advertising on clothing (Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work).