ther in a great state of excitement.
She'd just got a letter from the West Indies, tellin' her that a distant
relation had died an' left her a small fortin! People's notions about
the size o' fortins differs. Enough an' to spare is ocean's wealth to
some. Thousands o' pounds is poverty to others. She'd only just got
the letter, an' was so taken up about it that she couldn't help showin'
it to me.

"`Now,' says I, `Mrs Buxley,'--that was her name, an' your real name
too, Betty--says I, `make your will right off, an putt it away safe,
leavin' every rap o' that fortin to Betty, for you may depend on't, if
Edwin gits wind o' this, he'll worm it out o' you, by hook or by crook--
you know he will--and go straight to the dogs at full gallop.'

"`What!' says she, `an' leave nothin' to my boy?--my poor boy, for whom
I have never ceased to pray! He may repent, you know--he _will_ repent.
I feel sure of it--and then he will find that his mother left him
nothing, though God had sent her a fortune.'

"`Oh! as to that,' says I, `make your mind easy. If Edwin does repent
an' turn to honest ways, he's got talents and go enough in him to make
his way in the world without help; but you can leave him what you like,
you know, only make sure that you leave the bulk of it to Betty.'

"This seemed to strike her as a plan that would do, for she was silent
for some time, and then, suddenly makin' up her mind, she said, `I'll go
and ask God's help in this matter, an' then see about gettin' a lawyer--
for I suppose a thing o' this sort can't be done without one.'

"`No, mum,' says I, `it can't. You may, if you choose, make a muddle of
it without a lawyer, but you can't do it right without one.'

"`Can you recommend one to me?' says she.

"I was greatly tickled at the notion o' the likes o' me bein' axed to
recommend a lawyer. It was so like your mother's innocence and
trustfulness. Howsever, she'd come to the right shop, as it happened,
for I did know a honest lawyer! Yes, Betty, from the way the world
speaks, an' what's often putt in books, you'd fancy there warn't such'n
a thing to be found on 'arth. But that's all bam, Betty. Leastwise I
know'd one honest firm. `Yes, Mrs Buxley,' says I, `there's a firm o'
the name o' Truefoot, Tickle, and Badger in the City, who can do a'most
anything that's possible to man. But you'll have to look sharp, for if
Edwin comes home an' diskivers what's doin', it's all up with the fortin
an'