Her Weight in Gold (PDF)

Collected here are a number of short stories by the popular American writer George Barr McCutcheon (1866-1928). McCutcheon is best known for his novels set the fictional Eastern European state of Graustark, and for his novel Brewster's Millions which became a 1985 film starring Richard Pryor and John Candy. The included stories are: "e;Her Weight in Gold"e;, "e;The Maid and the Blade"e;, "e;Mr. Hamshaw's Love Affair"e;, "e;The Green Ruby"e;, "e;The Gloaming Ghosts"e;, "e;When Girl meets Girl"e;, "e;Quiddlers Three"e;, "e;The Late Mr. Taylor"e; and "e;The Ten Dollar Bill"e; "e;Well the question is: how much does she weigh?"e; asked Eddie Ten Eyck with satirical good humour. His somewhat flippant inquiry followed the heated remark of General Horatio Gamble, who, in desperation, had declared that his step- daughter, Martha, was worth her weight in gold. "e;I am not jesting, sir,"e; said the General with asperity. "e;Martha may not be as good-looking as - er - some girls that I've seen, but she is a jewel, just the same. The man who gets her for a wife will be a blamed sight luckier than the fellows who marry the brainless little fools we see trotting around like butterflies."e; (It was the first time that Eddie had heard of trotting butterflies.) "e;She's a fine girl,"e; was his conciliatory remark. "e;She is pure gold,"e; said the General with conviction. "e;Pure gold, sir."e; "e;A nugget,"e; agreed Eddie expansively. "e;A hundred and eighty pound nugget, General. Why don't you send her to a refinery?"e;