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6 th E D I T I O N
6 th E D I T I O N
Business Law
Introduction To
Introduction To
Business Law Introduction To
Business
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for your course, visit www.cengagebrain.com.
6 th
EDITION
Law
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SE / Beatty/Samuelson/Abril / Intro to Business Law, 6e ISBN-13: 9781337404341 ©2019 Designer: Stratton Design
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Business
Law
6 th E D I T I O N
Jeffrey F. Beatty
Boston University
Susan S. Samuelson
Boston University
Patricia Sánchez Abril
University of Miami
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Preface xv U nit 5
The Lifecycle of a Business 377
20 Starting a Business: LLCs and Other Options 378
UNIT 1 21 Corporations 398
The Legal Environment 1 22 Bankruptcy 420
1 Introduction to Law 2
2 Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility 15
3 International Law 39 UNIT 6
4 Constitutional, Statutory, Administrative,
and Common Law 58 Government Regulation 439
5 Dispute Resolution 79
23 Securities and Antitrust 440
6 Crime 101
24 Consumer Protection 460
25 Environmental Law 482
26 Accountants’ Liability 501
U nit 2
Torts121
UNIT 7
7 Intentional Torts and Business Torts 122
8 Negligence, Strict Liability, and Product Property519
Liability137
9 Privacy and Internet Law 156 27 Intellectual Property 520
28 Real Property and Landlord–Tenant Law 538
29 Personal Property and Bailment 560
30 Estate Planning 576
UNIT 3 31 Insurance 593
Contracts and the UCC 177 Appendix A
The Constitution of the United States A1
10 Forming a Contract 178
11 Requirements for a Contract 198 Appendix B
12 Performance of a Contract 220 Uniform Commercial Code B1
13 Practical Contracts 242
14 Sales 261 Appendix C
15 Negotiable Instruments 278 Answers to Selected End-of-Chapter Questions C1
16 Secured Transactions 295
GlossaryG1
Table of Cases T1
U nit 4 Index I1
Agency and Employment Law 315
17 Agency 316
18 Employment and Labor Law 336
19 Employment Discrimination 356
iii
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v
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Chapter Conclusion 95
Chapter 4 Constitutional, Statutory, Exam Review 95
Administrative, and Common Law58 Matching Questions 97
4-1 Constitutional Law 59 True/False Questions 97
4-1a Government Power 59 Multiple-Choice Questions 98
4-1b Power Granted 60 Case Questions 99
4-1c Protected Rights 63 Discussion Questions 100
4-1d Fifth Amendment: Due Process
and the Takings Clause64
4-1e Fourteenth Amendment: Equal
Chapter 6 Crime101
Protection Clause66 6-1 Criminal Procedure 102
4-2 Statutory Law 66 6-1a A Civil versus a Criminal Case 102
4-2a Committee Work 67 6-1b State of Mind 103
4-3 Common Law 68 6-1c Gathering Evidence:
4-3a Stare Decisis68 The Fourth Amendment 104
4-3b Bystander Cases 68 6-1d After Arrest 106
4-4 Administrative Law 70 6-2 Crimes That Harm Businesses
4-4a Rule Making 70 (and Their Customers) 109
4-4b Investigation 71 6-2a Larceny 109
4-4c Adjudication 71 6-2b Embezzlement 109
6-2c Fraud 109
Chapter Conclusion 73 6-2d Arson 111
Exam Review 73 6-2e Hacking 111
Matching Questions 75 6-3 Crimes Committed by Business 111
True/False Questions 75 6-3a Making False Statements 111
Multiple-Choice Questions 76 6-3b RICO 112
Case Questions 77 6-3c Money Laundering 112
Discussion Questions 77 6-3d Hiring Illegal Workers 113
6-3e Foreign Corrupt Practices Act 113
6-3f Punishing a Corporation 113
Chapter 5 Dispute Resolution79
5-1 Court Systems 80 Chapter Conclusion 114
5-1a State Courts 80 Exam Review 114
5-1b Federal Courts 83 Matching Questions 117
5-2 Litigation 84 True/False Questions 117
5-2a Pleadings 84 Multiple-Choice Questions 117
5-2b The Discovery Process 87 Case Questions 118
5-2c Summary Judgment 89 Discussion Questions 119
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xv
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Each and every item in the Learning Path is assignable and gradable. Thus instructors
have up-to-the-minute information on the class’ general understanding of concepts as well as
data on the performance of each individual student. Students also know where they stand—
both individually and compared to the highest performers in the class. Thus, both faculty
and students are less likely to face unpleasant surprises on exams.
MindTap also includes:
• Case Collection where instructors can find over 1,600 additional cases that were
included in several previous editions of all of the Cengage Business Law or Legal
Environment texts. These cases are searchable by name, year, state, and subject
matter.
• Adaptive Test Prep for students, where they can generate their own practice quizzes
with questions similar to those found on most exams.
To view a demo video and learn more about MindTap, please visit www.cengage.com/
mindtap.
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This text has been used in courses for undergraduates, MBAs, and Executive MBAs,
with students ranging in age from 18 to 65. This book works, as some unsolicited comments
indicate:
From verified purchasers on Amazon:
• “If you have this textbook for your business law class, then you are in luck! This
is one of the best and most helpful textbooks that I have ever had the pleasure of
using. (I mostly just use my textbooks as a pillow.) I actually did enjoy reading this
and learning the material. The author breaks down the concepts so they are easy to
understand. Even if you hate law, if you put forth the effort to learn this, you should
have no trouble at all learning and understanding the concepts.”
• “I enjoyed this book so much that I will not be selling it back to the bookstore
(or anyone) because I know that I will use the book for years.”
From undergraduates:
• “This is the best textbook I have had in college, on any subject.”
• “The textbook is awesome. A lot of the time I read more than what is assigned—I
just don’t want to stop.”
• “I had no idea business law could be so interesting.”
From MBA students:
• “Actually enjoyed reading the text book, which is a rarity for me.”
• “The law textbook was excellent through and through.”
From a Fortune 500 vice president, enrolled in an Executive MBA program:
• “I really liked the chapters. They were crisp, organized, and current. The informa-
tion was easy to understand and enjoyable.”
From business law professors:
• “The clarity of presentation is superlative. I have never seen the complexity of con-
tract law made this readable.”
• “Until I read your book I never really understood UCC 2-207.”
• “With your book, we have great class discussions.”
From a state supreme court justice:
• “This book is a valuable blend of rich scholarship and easy readability. Students and
professors should rejoice with this publication.”
Current. This 6th edition contains more than 25 new cases. Most were reported within the
last two or three years, and many within the last 12 months. The law evolves continually, and
our willingness to toss out old cases and add important new ones ensures that this book—and
its readers—remain on the frontier of legal developments.
Authoritative. We insist, as you do, on a law book that is indisputably accurate. To highlight
the most important rules, we use bold print, and then follow with vivid examples written in
clear, forceful English. We cheerfully venture into contentious areas, relying on very recent
decisions. Can a Delaware court order the sale of a successful business? Is discrimination
based on sexual orientation legal? Is the list of names in a LinkedIn group a trade secret?
What are the limits to free speech on social media? Where there is doubt about the current
(or future) status of a doctrine, we say so. In areas of particularly heated debate, we footnote
our work. We want you to have absolute trust in this book.
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Features
Each feature in this book is designed to meet an essential pedagogical goal. Here are some
of those goals and the matching feature.
Exam Strategy
GOAL: To help students learn more effectively and to prepare for exams. In developing this
feature, we asked ourselves: What do students want? The short answer is—a good grade in the
course. How many times a semester does a student ask you, “What can I do to study for the
exam?” We are happy to help them study and earn a good grade because that means that
they will also be learning.
About four times per chapter, we stop the action and give students a two-minute quiz. In
the body of the text, again in the end-of-chapter review, and also in the Instructor’s Manual,
we present a typical exam question. Here lies the innovation: We guide the student in analyz-
ing the issue. We teach the reader—over and over—how to approach a question: to start with
the overarching principle, examine the fine point raised in the question, apply the analysis
that courts use, and deduce the right answer. This skill is second nature to lawyers and teach-
ers, but not to students. Without practice, too many students panic, jumping at a convenient
answer, and leaving aside the tools they have spent the course acquiring. Let’s change that.
Students love the Exam Strategy feature.
Ethics
GOAL: Make ethics real. We include the latest research on ethical decision-making, such as
ethics traps (why people make decisions they know to be wrong).
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• CPA Questions. For topics covered by the CPA exam, administered by the American
Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Exam Review includes questions
from previous CPA exams.
Answers to the odd-numbered Matching, True or False, Multiple-Choice, and Case
Questions are available in Appendix C of the book.
Cases
GOAL: Bring case law alive. Each case begins with a summary of the facts and a state-
ment of the issue. Next comes a summary of the court’s opinion. We have written this
summary ourselves to make the judges’ reasoning accessible to all readers while retain-
ing the court’s focus and the decision’s impact. In the principal cases in each chapter, we
provide the state or federal citation, unless it is not available, in which case we use the
LEXIS and Westlaw citations.
Teaching Materials
For more information about any of these ancillaries, contact your Cengage Consultant, or visit
the Beatty Samuelson Abril Business Law website at www.cengagebrain.com.
Instructor’s Manual. The Instructor’s Manual, available on the Instructor’s Support Site
at www.cengagebrain.com, includes special features to enhance class discussion and student
progress:
• Answers to the You Be the Judge cases from the main part of the chapter and to the
Exam Review questions found at the end of each chapter.
• Current Focus. This feature offers updates of text material.
• Additional cases and examples.
• Exam Strategy Problems. If your students would like more of these problems, there
is an additional section of Exam Strategy problems in the Instructor’s Manual.
• Dialogues. These are a series of questions-and-answers on pivotal cases and topics.
The questions provide enough material to teach a full session. In a pinch, you
could walk into class with nothing but the manual and use the Dialogues to con-
duct an effective class.
• Action learning ideas. Interviews, quick research projects, drafting exercises, class-
room activities, and other suggested assignments get students out of their chairs and
into the diverse settings of business law.
Cengage Testing Powered by Cognero. Cognero is a flexible online system that allows
you to author, edit, and manage test bank content from multiple Cengage solutions; create
multiple test versions in an instant; and deliver tests from your LMS, your classroom, or
wherever you want.
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PowerPoint Lecture Review Slides. PowerPoint slides are available for use by instruc-
tors for enhancing their lectures and to aid students in note taking. Download these slides
at www.cengagebrain.com.
Interaction with the Authors. This is our standard: Every professor who adopts this book
must have a superior experience. We are available to help in any way we can. Adopters of this
text often call or email us to ask questions, offer suggestions, share pedagogical concerns, or
inquire about ancillaries. One of the pleasures of writing this book has been this link to so
many colleagues around the country. We value those connections, are eager to respond, and
would be happy to hear from you.
Jeffrey F. Beatty
Susan S. Samuelson
Phone: (617) 353-2033
Email: ssamuels@bu.edu
Patricia Sánchez Abril
Phone: (305) 284-6999
Email: pabril@miami.edu
Acknowledgments
The list of people who have contributed helpful comments and suggestions for this book
is long. We are grateful to all of the reviewers and instructors from around the country who
have helped us refine this book through all of its editions.
Copyright 2019 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
Patricia Sánchez Abril is a Professor of Business Law and Vice Dean for Graduate Business
Programs and Executive Education at the University of Miami School of Business Adminis-
tration. Professor Abril’s research has appeared in the American Business Law Journal, Harvard
Journal of Law & Technology, Florida Law Review, Houston Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review,
and Columbia Business Law Journal, among other journals. In 2011, the American Business
Law Journal honored her with its Distinguished Junior Faculty Award, in recognition of
exceptional early career achievement. Her research has won the Outstanding Proceedings
competition at the annual conference of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business and has
twice earned the Hoeber Memorial Award for Excellence in Research. Professor Abril has
won awards for her teaching in both the undergraduate and graduate programs at the Uni-
versity of Miami.
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CHAPTER
INTRODUCTION
TO LAW
The Pagans were a motorcycle gang with a reputation for violence. Two of its rougher
members, Rhino and Backdraft, entered a tavern called the Pub Zone, shoving their way
past the bouncer. The pair wore gang insignia, in violation of the bar’s rules. For a while,
all was quiet, as the two sipped drinks at the bar. Then they followed an innocent patron
toward the men’s room, and things happened fast.
“Wait a moment,” you may be thinking, “are we reading a chapter on business law or
one about biker crimes in a roadside tavern?” Both.
Law is powerful, essential, and fasci-
nating. We hope this book will persuade
you of all three ideas. Law can also be
Should a pub owner
surprising. Later in the chapter, we will pay money damages to the
return to the Pub Zone (with armed victim of gang violence?
guards) and follow Rhino and Backdraft
to the back of the pub. Yes, the pair
engaged in street crime, which is hardly a focus of this text. However, their criminal
acts will enable us to explore one of the law’s basic principles, negligence. Should a pub
owner pay money damages to the victim of gang violence? The owner herself did noth-
ing aggressive. Should she have prevented the harm? Does her failure to stop the assault
make her liable?
We place great demands on our courts, asking them to make our large, complex,
and sometimes violent society into a safer, fairer, more orderly place. The Pub Zone
case is a good example of how judges reason their way through the convoluted issues
involved. What began as a gang incident ends up as a matter of commercial liability. We
will traipse after Rhino and Backdraft because they have a lesson to teach anyone who
enters the world of business.
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We inherited a complex structure of laws from England. Additionally, ours is a nation born
in revolution and created, in large part, to protect the rights of its people from the government.
Our country’s Founders created a national government but insisted that the individual states
maintain control in many areas. As a result, each state has its own government with exclusive
Federalism power over many important areas of our lives. What the Founders created was federalism: a
A double-layered system of double-layered system of government, with the national government and state governments
government, with the national each exercising important but limited powers. To top it off, the Founders guaranteed many
and state governments each
rights to the people alone, ordering national and state governments to keep clear. They
exercising important but limited
powers
achieved all of this in one remarkable document: the United States Constitution.
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Rose had been a few weeks at the Fifields, long enough to learn
the family ways, so that Miss Fifield felt she could leave home for a
long-planned visit. It was a stormy day, and Mrs. Patience suddenly
exclaimed, “I wonder who can be coming this way in such a hurry?
Why, I believe—yes, it is Rose, running as fast as she can. I hope
Eudora is not sick.”
Almost as she spoke the door opened and Rose rushed in, snow-
powdered and breathless; her hat blown partly off, her face wet with
tears as well as snow flakes, and her voice broken and thick with
sobs, as without giving time for any questions she burst out:
“You said it was a leading of Providence for me to go to the
Fifields’. But it wasn’t; and he says he will have me put in jail if I don’t
tell where the money is. And how can I tell when I don’t know?
Maybe God cares for some folks, but I’m sure He doesn’t for me or I
wouldn’t have so much trouble. I wish I was dead, I do!” and flinging
herself down on the well-worn lounge she buried her face in the
pillow and burst into a storm of sobs.
What did it all mean? They were equally perplexed by the mystery
and distressed by Rose’s evident grief. Mrs. Patience drew off her
things and tried to calm her with soothing words; Miss Silence
brought the camphor bottle—her remedy for all ills. But Rose only
cried the harder till Mrs. Blossom kindly, but with the authority that
comes of a calm and self-controlled nature, said, “Rose, you must
stop crying, and tell us what is the trouble.”
Then choking back her sobs Rose lifted her tear-swollen face and
exclaimed, “Oh, Mrs. Blossom, Mr. Fifield says I have taken a
hundred dollars! A hundred dollars in gold! And I don’t know one
thing more about it than you do, but he won’t believe me, and he
calls me a thief, and everybody will think I am awful, when I want to
be good, and was trying so hard to do my best. What shall I do?” and
she wrung her hands with a gesture of utter despair.
Further questioning at last brought a connected story, from which it
appeared that Nathan Fifield had a hundred dollars in gold, that from
some whim he had put for safe keeping in the parlor stove. That
morning, going around the house to tie up a loose vine, he had
glanced through the parlor window and seen Rose at the stove with
the door open. And when, his suspicion aroused, he had looked for
the money it had been to find it gone, and at once had accused Rose
of the theft.
“And he says I showed guilt when I saw him,” Rose wailed, “and I
did start, for I was frightened to see a face looking in at the window,
and with the snow on the glass I didn’t know at first who it was.”
“But what were you in the parlor, and at the stove for?” questioned
Mrs. Blossom.
“I was dusting the front hall and the parlor. Miss Fifield sweeps the
parlor once a month and I dust it every week, though I don’t see the
need, for those are all the times anybody ever goes into it. Some
feathers came out of the duster, it’s old and does shed feathers, and
I had opened the stove door to throw them in. I didn’t know there
was ever any money in a little leather bag in there; I never dreamed
of such a thing. And if I had I shouldn’t have touched it. Madam
Sharpe always trusted me with her purse, and I never took a penny
from her. I’m not a thief, if he does say that I am. But they won’t
believe me. Miss Eudora is just as certain, and I shall have to go to
jail, for I can’t tell where the money is.”
“Poor child!” and Grandmother Sweet stroked the head that had
gone down in Mrs. Patience’s lap. “It is borne on my mind,” and she
glanced around the little group, “that Rose is wholly innocent, and
that mindful of her youth and inexperience it were well for some of us
to see Neighbor Fifield if an explanation of the mystery cannot be
found.
“No,” with a wave of her hand, as both of her granddaughters
made a motion to rise, “Silence, thee is apt to be hasty and might
say more than was seemly; and Patience, thee inclines to be timid,
and might not say as much as was needful. Thy mother is the one to
go; she has both prudence and courage.”
“Oh, how good you are to me!” Rose exclaimed. “And never so
good as now! I thought you would believe me, I just felt it would kill
me if you didn’t, and now that I know you do I won’t be afraid of
anything.”
Mrs. Blossom was already wrapping herself in her cloak. “Come,
Rose, put on your things; the sooner this is sifted the better,” and
Rose, as many another had done before her, felt a new comfort and
strength in Mrs. Blossom’s strength.
They found Mr. Fifield and his sister hardly less excited than Rose.
“You cannot regret, Mrs. Blossom, any more than I do, this most
distressing occurrence,” and Mr. Nathan rubbed his flushed bald
head with his red silk handkerchief. “I would rather have given the
money twice over than have had it happen. But I must say that it is
no more than I expected when my sisters persisted, against my
judgment, in bringing into the house a girl of whose ancestors they
knew nothing, and who most likely is the child of some of the foreign
paupers who are flooding our shores. I’m sorry, though not surprised,
that it has ended as it has.”
Mr. Nathan was really troubled and sorry, as he said, but he could
not help a spark of self-satisfaction that he had been proven in the
right and his sisters in the wrong. As for Miss Eudora, keenly
mortified at the turn matters had taken, her former friendliness to
Rose only increased her present indignation.
“It’s not only the loss of the money,” she exclaimed, “but the
ingratitude of it, after all our kindness to her, and I gave her my pink
muffler; she never could have done what she has if she had not
been really hardened.”
“But what proof have you that she took the money?” asked Mrs.
Blossom. “As you say she is a stranger to us all, a friendless,
homeless orphan, whose condition is a claim to our charity as well
as our generosity.”
“Proof,” echoed Mr. Nathan. “Pretty plain proof I should call it, and
I’ve served three terms as Justice of the Peace. Last Saturday the
money was safe in its place of concealment. This morning I
surprised her there and her confusion on discovery was almost
evidence enough of itself. When I look for the package it is gone,
and during this time not a soul outside the immediate family has
been in the house. I regret the fact, but every circumstance points to
her as the guilty one.”
“For all that,” Mrs. Blossom’s voice was calmly even, “I believe
there is some mistake. At the Refuge they told Patience they had
always found her truthful and honest, and while she was with us we
never saw anything to make us doubt that she was perfectly trusty. I
did not even know of her meddling with what she ought not to.”
“Oh, she’s a sly one,” and Mr. Nathan rubbed his head harder than
before. “She has taken us all in—and that includes myself, and
inclines me still more to the belief that this is not her first offence;
and also to the opinion that she should be promptly dealt with.”
“At the same time I hope,” urged Mrs. Blossom, “that you will do
nothing hastily. Imprisonment is a terrible thing for a young girl like
Rose, and might blast her whole life. Time makes many things clear,
and it is always better to err on the side of mercy than of justice.”
“Certainly, certainly. And I do not know,” lowering his voice so it
might not reach Rose, “that I should really send her to jail; but the
law—” and he waved his hand with his most magisterial air, “the law
must be a terror to evil-doers. If not, what is law good for? We might
as well not have any, and my social as well as my official position
demands that I enforce it.”
“And she deserves to be well punished, if ever any one did.” Miss
Eudora gave an indignant shake to her curls as she spoke. “And I
was just thinking of giving her the blue cashmere I had when I went
to Albany. Jane is always complaining of what she calls my ‘shilly-
shally’ ways, and finding fault with my lack of decision, and I feel that
at whatever cost to myself I must be firm in this. Though nobody
knows what a shock it has been to my nerves.”
“Besides,” triumphantly added Mr. Nathan Fifield, who felt that he
was on the defensive before Mrs. Blossom, and holding up as he
spoke an old-fashioned, richly chased gold locket, “here is further
evidence. While Rose was gone Eudora made an examination of her
effects and this is what she found concealed in a pincushion. Now I
leave it to you if it looks reasonable that a child in her position would
have a valuable trinket like that; or if she had, would keep it hidden?”
When they entered the house Mrs. Blossom had told Rose to stay
in another room, but through the partly opened door she caught a
glimpse of the locket as it swung from Mr. Nathan’s fingers.
“That is mine!” she cried, darting in. “My very own, and it was my
mother’s. What right have you with it, I should like to know? And why
isn’t it stealing for you to go and take my things?”
“Hush, Rose!” Mrs. Blossom reproved. And then her faith in Rose
a little shaken in spite of herself, “If the locket is yours, as you say,
why did you never tell us about it? And why did you hide it so?”
“Why, I never once thought of it,” she answered, looking frankly up
at Mrs. Blossom. “I don’t think the locket is pretty at all, it is so queer
and old-fashioned, and I don’t even know whose picture is inside. All
the reason I care for it is because it was my mother’s. And I sewed it
up in that pincushion, which one of the teachers at the Refuge gave
me, because I was afraid if Mrs. Hagood saw the locket she might
take it away from me.”
“I wonder if this could have been her mother’s father,” for Mrs.
Blossom’s mind at once turned to the subject she had thought of so
often—that of Rose’s family.
“There was a chain to the locket once, but I broke and lost that. I
remember that mamma used sometimes to let me wear it, and it
seems to me she said it was Uncle Samuel’s picture, but I’m not
sure.”
“It certainly is a good face.” And Mrs. Blossom held out the open
locket to Miss Eudora, who as she took it let it drop from her fingers
that the unwonted excitement had made tremulous. In striking the
floor a spring was pressed to a compartment behind the picture, and
as Mr. Nathan Fifield stooped to pick it up a piece of closely folded
paper fell out.
Mrs. Blossom hastily spread this out, and found it the marriage
certificate of Kate Jarvis and James Shannon, dated at Fredonia, N.
Y., some sixteen years before. “Here is a clue to Rose’s family,” she
exclaimed, as they all clustered about the bit of time-yellowed paper,
forgetting for the moment the cloud that rested so heavily over Rose.
“It surely should be,” responded Mr. Nathan.
“I shall write to Fredonia at once,” continued Mrs. Blossom. “And
as the minister whose name is signed may in the meantime have
died or moved away, my best course would be to write first to the
postmaster for information, would it not?”
“Here is a clue to Rose’s family.”—Page 216.