when the plank came away was not
a chest full of doubloons, pieces-of-eight, moidores, and other such
ancient coins, mingled with golden ornaments thickly studded with
precious stones; no, we saw the very bright lid of a tin box, a circular
box, rather more than two feet in diameter. There was a small round
hole in the centre of the lid, into which a little roll of newspaper
was stuffed--presumably to keep the sand out--and beside this hole I
noticed, soldered fast to the lid, a small brass plate on which my eye
caught the word "Patented." It was strange enough to find the tin box in
such perfect preservation while the stout oak plank above it had rotted
into fragments; but the wisp of newspaper, and the brass plate with its
utterly out-of-place inscription, were absolutely bewildering. My head
seemed to be going around on my shoulders, while something inside of it
was buzzing dreadfully. Suddenly Susan exclaimed, in a tone of disgust
and consternation: "It's--it's that perfectly horrid churn-wash-boiler!"

As she spoke these doomful words I recalled Old Jacob's drunken story,
which I now perceived must have been true, and the dreadful thought
flashed into my mind that Gregory Wilkinson must have gone crazy, and
that this dreary practical joke was the first result of his madness.
Susan meanwhile had sunk down by the side of the hole and was weeping
silently.

As a vent to my outraged feelings I gave the wretched tin vessel a
tremendous poke with the spade, that caved in one side of it and knocked
the lid off. I then perceived that within it was an oblong package
carefully tied up in oiled silk, and on bending down to examine the
package more closely I perceived that it was directed to Susan. With a
dogged resolve to follow out Gregory Wilkinson's hideous pleasantry
to the bitter end, I lifted the package out of the box--it was pretty
heavy--and began to open it. Inside the first roll of the cover was a
letter that also was directed to Susan. She had got up by this time, and
read it over my shoulder.

"My dear Susan,--I have decided not to wait until I die to
do what little good I can do in the world. You will be glad,
I am sure, to learn that I have made arrangements for the
immediate erection of the steam-laundry at the asylum, as
well as for the material improvement in several other ways
of that excellent institution.

"At the same time I desire that you and your husband shall