place
his poor old eyes fell on. He may have been going to give it to you; but
you had company, you remember, in here, and he may have heard voices.
Anyhow, we know that he put it in the tureen because--" here I lifted
the lid--"because--" I was almost as excited and trembling and beside
myself as they were--"because it is here now."

They looked, then gazed in each other's face and bowed their heads.
Silence alone could express the emotion of that moment. Then with
a burst of inarticulate cries, Miss Charity rose and solemnly began
dancing up and down the great room. Her sister looked on with grave
disapproval till the actual nature of the find made its way into her
bewildered mind, then she reached over and plunged her hand into the
tureen and drew out the five bonds which she clutched first to her
breast and then began proudly to unfold.

"Fifty thousand dollars!" she exclaimed. "We are rich women from
to-day," and as she said it I saw the shrewdness creep beck into her
eyes and the long powerful features take on the expressive character
which they had so pitifully lacked up to the moment. I realized that
I had been the witness of a miracle. The reason, shattered, or, let us
say, disturbed by one shock, had been restored by another. The real Miss
Thankful stood before me. Meanwhile the weaker sister, dancing still,
was uttering jubilant murmurs to which her feet kept time with almost
startling precision. But as the other let the words I have recorded here
leave her lips, she came to a sudden standstill and approaching her lips
to Miss Thankful's ear said joyfully:

"We must tell--oh," she hastily interpolated as she caught her sister's
eyes and followed the direction of her pointing finger, "we have not
thanked our little friend, our good little friend who has done us such
an inestimable service." I felt her quivering arms fall round my neck,
as Miss Thankful removed the tureen and in words both reasonable and
kind expressed the unbounded gratitude which she herself felt.

"How came you to think? How came you to care enough to think?" fell from
her lips as she kissed me on the forehead. "You are a jewel, little Miss
Saunders, and some day--"

But I need not relate all that she said or all the extravagant things
Miss Charity did, or even my own delight, so much greater even than any
I had anticipated, when I first saw this possible ending of my suddenly
inspired idea. However, Miss Thankful's words as we parted a