n a moment Bessie was in Dorothy's arms, laughing and
crying and talking in the same breath, presenting Hannah as her husband
and her husband as her Aunt Hannah, in her joy and excitement at being
home once more.

It did not take long to explain why they had come, to the old people,
who entered heart and soul into the matter Anthony offering to go at
once to Carnavon and hunt up some one who could swear to the
hand-writing of Joel Rogers and help to prove the will, while Dorothy
said she had no doubt that among some papers, bills and receipts which
had belonged to Bessie's grandmother and which were still lying in an
old writing-desk where Daisy had put them when her mother died, there
were letters from Joel to his sister, which proved to be a fact.

"I remember him well, though he was a good bit older than I am," Anthony
said. "A little sandy-haired man, very kind-hearted and honest, though
rather touchy and quarrelsome if he had too much beer in him, I
shouldn't wonder but he died in some spree brought on by drink."

"Yes, he died in a spree brought on by drink," Hannah answered, sadly,
and that was the only time she was ever called upon to speak of the
manner of Joel Rogers' death.

Indeed, the whole matter was managed far more easily than she had
feared. No troublesome questions whatever were asked, for there was no
one enough interested in Joel Rogers to ask them, and when the will was
proven and Bessie's claim as his rightful heir established, Grey found
no difficulty whatever in obtaining from the company where the deceased
had owned shares so many years ago, a full and correct account of all
moneys invested and the dividends which had been accruing since, the
whole of which was at once made over to Bessie, who found herself an
heiress to so large an amount that it fairly took her breath away at
first.

"Why, I am rich!" she exclaimed, and then, as the tears gathered in her
eyes, she continued: "Oh, if this had come to me while poor father was
alive, it would have made him so comfortable, and we were so poor."

Then she began to wonder what she should do with it all, and how dispose
of it to the best advantage.

"If you were only poor and wanted it, I should be so glad," she said to
Grey; "but you do not, and so I must do the best I can."

It never occurred to her to use any part of it for herself. She meant to
give it away, and make a great many people happy. And within a day or
two she had decided what