e came
back, holdin' 'em in his hand and he said: "You know that these boys
found that money that belonged to old Nancy Allen. Well, a fellow named
Joe Allen turned up here from Pike County--a third cousin of hers--and
her only livin' relative, and I had this money for him. But when I told
him that these boys had found it while lookin' for treasure, and what
kind of boys they were, the old fellow remembered his own boyhood, his
poverty, and all that and he wanted to do something for these boys. So
he made me take this thousand dollars to divide between 'em." Mrs.
Miller began to sob. And Mr. Miller's voice was broken, but he said,
"Hard, I never heard anything like this--never in my life." "Well,
here's the money," says pa; "and I made Skeet promise not to tell
anybody about it until we got ready to." He stopped; and I, not
thinkin', said: "It was to be a secret till Christmas."

Then Mrs. Miller broke down completely, and for several minutes nothin'
was said. My pa was cryin', so was I. So was Mr. Miller, and just then
the train came in, the same that had killed Mitch, and it seemed like
none of us could stand it.

After a bit pa says: "Of course, half of this money goes to you and Mrs.
Miller under the law, and the other half belongs to Skeet--but I'm not
going to let him take it. He doesn't need it. I can always take care of
him, and I'll inherit quite a lot, and he'll have that. And as far as
that goes, it wasn't his idea to hunt for treasure--he was just a helper
and followed up Mitchie's idea. So now here it is, and it goes with my
blessing and with Skeet's."

And I said, "Indeed it does." And pa handed the envelopes to Mr. Miller,
and he took 'em and fingered 'em in a nervous way and he says: "What
shall we do, ma?--we need the money, but somehow I don't like it, and I
won't take Skeet's share, would you?"

And she says, "No--never--I'd never take Skeet's share; that is
Mitchie's share and his too." "Here," he says, "here's the envelope
marked with Mitchie's name, you take this, Skeet, because you and
Mitchie worked together, and if you want to give me the envelope marked
with your name, I guess I'll take it--I seem to have to."

So that's the way it was done. And he said to pa: "Hard, there never was
a better man than you, or a better name or family than yours, or a
better boy than Skeet." Then the tears came in his eyes, and he and Mrs.
Miller left. And afterwards I said to pa, "I don't want this money. If