uired:

"Are those fine children your only ones?"

"I never had any but them until about three months ago, when that boy in
the cradle came to put a surprise on me. Look at him, sir! An't he a
hearty little chap for a three monther?"

"Indeed he is!" acknowledged Mr. Berners, as he turned down the coverlet
and gazed at the fat, rosy babe. "And now," he continued, as he replaced
the cover, "will you let me look at your nurse-child? I--I am its
guardian, and responsible for the expense of its rearing."

"So I judged, sir, when I first saw you. The gentleman that brought the
child to me, and gave me a hundred dollars with it, told me how, in
about a couple of months, the guardian of the child would come to make
further arrangements. And you're him, sir?"

"I am he," gravely replied Lyon Berners, as he gazed fondly down on the
face of his sleeping babe, and traced in the delicate features and silky
black hair and faintly drawn black eye-brows the lineaments of its
mother.

"Well, sir, I can tell you, for your satisfaction, that the child is in
good hands."

"I have no doubt of it. And," he continued, after some hesitation, "I
can tell you, for _your_ satisfaction, that the child is all right. She
was born in lawful wedlock."

"I'm glad to hear that, for the child's sake, sir; though if what you
tell me is true, as I suppose it is, I don't see why the parents can't
own their child."

"There are good and sufficient reasons which may be made known to you at
some future time," replied Mr. Berners.

"Humph! then I s'pose it's a case of a _secret_ marriage, that can't be
acknowledged yet a while, upon account of offending rich parents, and
being cut off from their property or something. I have heard of such
things before now. Well, sir, I don't want to intrude on your secrets,
and I know how to keep a still tongue in my head. And as for the baby,
sir, _she_ has made her own way into my heart, and whatever her parents
have been and done, I shall love and nuss her as if she was my own."

"You are a good woman, Mrs. Fugitt; and now to business. I, as guardian
to that child, wish to make some definite arrangement for her support
for the next two years at least."

"Yes, sir."

"Do you know lawyer Sheridan?"

"Of course I do, sir; he drawed up the papers between the Colonel and my
old man when my old man made an engagement with the Colonel to oversee
the plantation for five years."

"Very well. This Mr. Sheridan wil