w of her bony hand, gazed at
it with delight.

Then she looked up at Kate.

"You is good chillen," she said. "You is mighty good chillen. I don't
'spect I'll lib much longer in dis hyar world. Ise so precious old dat
it's 'bout time to stop. But I don't 'spects I'll find nobody in heben
that'll be more reel comfort to me dan you chillen."

"Oh Aunt Matilda!" cried Kate. "Why, you'll meet all your friends and
relations that you talk so much about and who died so long ago."

"Well," said Aunt Matilda, very deliberately, "perhaps I shall, and
perhaps I sha'n't; dere's no tellin'. But dere ain't no mistakin' 'bout
you chillen."

That afternoon, when Uncle Braddock called, Aunt Matilda said to him:

"Ef you see Ole Miles ye kin tell him he needn't bring me no answer to
dat letter."

Very early one morning, a few days after this, Kate went over to Aunt
Matilda's cabin.

She saw Aunt Judy standing at the door.

"How's Aunt Matilda?" asked Kate.

"Gone to glory," said Aunt Judy.

Aunt Matilda was buried under a birch-tree near the church that she used
to attend when able to walk.

That portion of her "fund" which remained unexpended at the time of her
death was used to pay her funeral expenses and to erect a suitable
tombstone over her grave. On the stone was an inscription. Harry
composed it, and Kate copied it carefully for the stonecutter.

And thus, after much hard labor and anxious thought, after many
disappointments and a great deal of discouragement, Harry and Kate
performed to the end the generous task they had set themselves, which
was just what might have been expected of such a boy and such a girl.

THE END.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

1. Punctuation has been normalized to contemporary standards.

2. Typographic errors corrected from original:
p. 13 "find" to "fine" ("fine head for mathematics")
p. 63 "Mr. Mr." to "Mr." ("pacify Mr. Matthews")
p. 78 "hubhub" to "hubbub" ("heard above the hubbub")
p. 96 "grumly" to "grimly" ("said Aunt Matilda, grimly")
p. 129 "buiness" to "business" ("business should not be diverted")
p. 181 "or" to "for" ("for it was quite evident")

End of Project Gutenberg's What Might Have Been Expected, by Frank R. Stockton

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN EXPECTED ***

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