ht, within hands' reach of it, all last
winter! And how lucky that I found it, instead of any of the workmen!
They'd have pocketed it, and never said a word."

"To be sure they would," thought Mercy, "and poor old Granny Jacobs would
have been"--she was about to think, "cheated out of her rights again,"
but with a pang she changed the phrase into "none the better off for it.
Oh, how glad I am for the poor old thing! People always said her husband
must have hid money away somewhere."

Mercy read on. "I was in such a hurry to get the house done before the
snow came that I took hold myself, and worked every night and morning
before the workmen came; and, after they had gone, I found this last
night, and I declare, Mercy, I haven't shut my eyes all night long. It
seems to me too good to be true. I think there must be as much as three
thousand dollars, all in solid gold. Some of the coins I don't know the
value of; but the greater proportion of them are English sovereigns. Of
course rich people wouldn't think this such a very big sum, but you and I
know how far a little can go for poor people."

"Yes, indeed," thought Mercy. "Why, it will make the poor old woman
perfectly comfortable all her life: it will give her more than she had
from the house." And Mercy laid the letter in her lap and fell into a
reverie, thinking how strange it was that this good fortune should have
come about by means of an act which had seemed to her cruel on Stephen's
part.

She took the letter up again. It continued: "O Mercy, my darling, do you
suppose you can realize what this sudden lift is to me? All my life I have
found our poverty so hard to bear, and these latter years I have bitterly
felt the hardship of being unable to go out into the world and make my
fortune as other men do, as I think I might, if I were free. But this sum,
small as it is, will be a nucleus, I feel sure it will, of a competency at
least. I know of several openings where I can place it most
advantageously. O Mercy! dear, dear Mercy! what hopes spring up in my
heart! The time may yet come when we shall build up a lovely home
together. Bless old Jacobs's miserliness! How little he knew what he was
hoarding up his gold for!"

At this point, Mercy dropped the letter,--dropped it as if it had been a
viper that stung her. She was conscious of but two things: a strange,
creeping cold which seemed to be chilling her to the very marrow of her
bones; and a vague but terrible se