ither the justness or the validity of your
claim; and you should at once take steps to put you in possession of
your legacy."

"That I shall certainly do," said Abner; "and I shall do so, not as
Abner Dudley, but as Abner Dudley Logan. In fact, Uncle Richard, aside
from all question of this bequest, I had already determined to assume
my full name; for, much as I honor you who have been a second father to
me, I think it but justice to my own father's memory, now that I have
arrived at man's estate, that I should wear his name. You know I wished
to do so before I went to Kentucky; but you were so averse to the idea
that I yielded for the time, contrary to my convictions of justice to
my father's memory and against my own preference. But now I am fully
resolved to be known in future by my full name, Abner Dudley Logan."

Dr. Dudley sat silent with downcast eyes, a gloomy, perplexed look upon
his face; and his nephew went on:

"Uncle Richard, I wish you would tell me more about my father and about
my mother's early life. You have always been singularly reticent on the
subject. Why! I was a boy of eleven or twelve before I even knew that
my real name was Logan, and then I discovered it by accident; and it
was not until I read this will of Uncle Hite's that I learned that my
mother had married a second time. The time has now come, I think, when
you should tell me all that you know of my father and mother."

"Of your father," said Richard slowly, and, it seemed to Abner,
reluctantly, "I know little more than the facts already in your
possession. Briefly told, your mother's history is this: Her mother,
Mary Hite, married John Hollis, of Plainfield, New Jersey. To this
union were born eight children, of whom your Aunt Frances, my first
wife, was the eldest, and your mother, the youngest. The six children
intervening died in early childhood. Your grandfather, John Hollis,
died when your mother was two months old, and his wife survived him but
one month. Her half-sister, Sarah Thornton, who had just been married
to Jackson Pepper, of Chestnut Hall in northern Virginia--a widower
with one son--took your mother to raise as her own child. This Sarah
Thornton Pepper died ten years later. She had but one child, Sarah Jane
Pepper. Your mother, after her aunt's death, still lived at Chestnut
Hall until she was about sixteen. Then she greatly offended Jackson
Pepper by refusing to be betrothed to Fletcher Pepper, the son of
Jackson's