"Aunt Jane, Aunt Jane, is ma here?" Wide open banged the front door as Benny bounded down the hall. "Oh, here you are! Say, is it true? Tommy Hooker says our great-grandfather in Africa has died an" left us a million dollars, an" that we"re richer"n Mr. Pennock or even the g.a.y.l.o.r.ds, or anybody! Is it true? Is it?"
His mother laughed indulgently.
"Not quite, Benny, though we have been left a nice little fortune by your cousin, Stanley G. Fulton--remember the name, dear, your cousin, Stanley G. Fulton. And it wasn"t Africa, it was South America."
"And did you all get some, too?" panted Benny, looking eagerly about him.
"We sure did," nodded his Uncle Frank, "all but poor Mr. Smith here. I guess Mr. Stanley G. Fulton didn"t know he was a cousin, too," he joked, with a wink in Mr. Smith"s direction.
"But where"s Aunt Maggie? Why ain"t she here? She got some, too, didn"t she?" Benny began to look anxious.
His mother lifted her eyebrows.
"No. You forget, my dear. Your Aunt Maggie is not a Blaisdell at all.
She"s a Duff--a very different family."
"I don"t care, she"s just as good as a Blaisdell," cut in Mellicent; "and she seems like one of us, anyway."
"And she didn"t get anything?" bemoaned Benny. "Say," he turned valiantly to Mr. Smith, "shouldn"t you think he might have given Aunt Maggie a little of that money?"
"I should, indeed!" Mr. Smith spoke with peculiar emphasis.
"I guess he would if he"d known her!"
"I"m sure he would!" Once more the peculiar earnestness vibrated through Mr. Smith"s voice.
"But now he"s dead, an" he can"t. I guess if he could see Aunt Maggie he"d wish he hadn"t died "fore he could fix her up just as good as the rest."
"I"m VERY sure he would!" Mr. Smith was laughing now, but his voice was just as emphatic, and there was a sudden flame of color in his face.
"Your Cousin Stanley isn"t dead, my dear,--that is, we are not sure he is dead," spoke up Benny"s mother quickly. "He just has not been heard from for six months."
"But he must be dead, or he"d have come back," reasoned Miss Flora, with worried eyes; "and I, for my part, think we OUGHT to go into mourning, too."
"Of course he"d have come back," declared Mrs. Jane, "and kept the money himself. Don"t you suppose he knew what he"d written in that letter, and don"t you suppose he"d have saved those three hundred thousand dollars if he could? Well, I guess he would! The man is dead.
That"s certain enough."
"Well, anyhow, we"re not going into mourning till we have to." Mrs.
Harriet"s lips snapped together with firm decision.
"Of course not. I"m sure I don"t see any use in having the money if we"ve got to wear black and not go anywhere," pouted Bessie.
"Are we rich, then, really, ma?" demanded Benny.
"We certainly are, Benny."
"Richer "n the Pennocks?"
"Very much."
"An" the g.a.y.l.o.r.ds?"
"Well--hardly that"--her face clouded perceptibly--"that is, not until we get the rest--in two years." She brightened again.
"Then, if we"re rich we can have everything we want, can"t we?" Benny"s eyes were beginning to sparkle.
"Well--" hesitated his mother.
"I guess there"ll be enough to satisfy your wants, Benny," laughed his Uncle Frank.
Benny gave a whoop of delight.
"Then we can go back to the East Side and live just as we"ve a mind to, without carin" what other folks do, can"t we?" he crowed. "Cause if we ARE rich we won"t have ter keep tryin" ter make folks THINK we are.
They"ll know it without our tryin"."
"Benny!" The rest were laughing; but Benny"s mother had raised shocked hands of protest. "You are incorrigible, child. The East Side, indeed!
We shall live in a house of our own, now, of course--but it won"t be on the East Side."
"And Fred"ll go to college," put in Miss Flora eagerly.
"Yes; and I shall send Bessie to a fashionable finishing school," bowed Mrs. Harriet, with a shade of importance.
"Hey, Bess, you"ve got ter be finished," chuckled Benny.
"What"s Mell going to do?" pouted Bessie, looking not altogether pleased. "Hasn"t she got to be finished, too?"
"Mellicent hasn"t got the money to be finished--yet," observed Mrs.
Jane tersely.
"Oh, I don"t know what I"m going to do," breathed Mellicent, drawing an ecstatic sigh. "But I hope I"m going to do--just what I want to, for once!"
"And I"ll make you some pretty dresses that you can wear right off, while they"re in style," beamed Miss Flora.
Frank Blaisdell gave a sudden laugh.
"But what are YOU going to do, Flo? Here you"ve been telling what everybody else is going to do with the money."
A blissful sigh, very like Mellicent"s own, pa.s.sed Miss Flora"s lips.
"Oh, I don"t know," she breathed in an awe-struck voice. "It don"t seem yet--that it"s really mine."
"Well, "t isn"t," declared Mrs. Jane tartly, getting to her feet. "And I, for one, am going back to work--in the kitchen, where I belong.
And--Well, if here ain"t Jim at last," she broke off, as her younger brother-in-law appeared in the doorway.
"You"re too late, pa, you"re too late! It"s all done," clamored Benny.
"They"ve got everything all settled."
The man in the doorway smiled.