t
my entertainment."

"I wonder if she'll recognize me," said Harry.

"No doubt; as soon as she learns with whom she rode, she'll be very
curious to come and see me perform."

"How old were you when you began to be a ventriloquist?"

"I was eighteen. I accidentally made the discovery, and devoted
considerable time to perfecting myself in it before acquainting anyone
with it. That idea came later. You see when I was twenty-one, with a
little property which I inherited from my uncle, I went into business
for myself; but I was young and inexperienced in management, and the
consequence was, that in about two years I failed. I found it difficult
to get employment as a clerk, business being very dull at the
time. While uncertain what to do, one of my friends, to whom I had
communicated my power, induced me to give me a public entertainment,
combining with it a few tricks of magic, which I had been able to pick
up from books. I succeeded so well my vocation in life became Professor
Henderson."

"It must be great fun to be a ventriloquist."

"So I regarded it at first. It may not be a very high vocation but I
make the people laugh and so I regard myself as a public benefactor.
Indeed, I once did an essential service to a young man by means of my
ventriloquism."

"I should like very much to hear the story."

"I will tell you. One day, a young man, a stranger, came to me and
introduced himself under the name of Paul Dabney. He said that I
might, if I would, do him a great service. His father had died the year
previous, leaving a farm and other property to the value of fifteen
thousand dollars. Of course, being as only son, he expected that this
would be left to himself, or, at least, the greater part of it. Conceive
his surprise, therefore, when the will came to be read, to find that the
entire property was left to his Uncle Jonas, his father brother, who,
for three years past, had been a member of the family. Jonas had never
prospered in life, and his brother, out of pity, had offered him
an asylum on his farm. He had formerly been a bookkeeper and was an
accomplished penman.

"The will was so extraordinary--since Paul and his father had always
been on perfectly good terms--that the young man was thunderstruck. His
uncle expressed hypocritical surprise at the nature of the will.

"'I don't believe my father made that will,' exclaimed Paul, angrily.

"'What do you mean by that?' demanded the uncle.

"His anger mad