man can tell, how long they will keep what I give them, or how
long it will be before the stingiest and wisest get their shares away
from the weak; but that is no more reason why I should not give this
money than it is a reason why the Lord Almighty should not furnish us
all with fingers and toes, and our five senses, and our stomachs."

"You might add, our immortal souls, which the parsons say we'll get
snatched away from us if we don't watch out," said Means, with a
short laugh. "Well, Jerome, it is too late for me to attend to this
business to-night. I am worn out, too, by what I have been through
lately. Come to-morrow, and, if you are of the same mind, we'll fix
it up."

Somewhat to Jerome's surprise, the lawyer extended a lean, brown hand
for his, which he shook warmly, with a hearty "Good-night, sir."

"I don't believe he was trying to hinder me from giving it, after
all," Jerome thought, as he went down the hill.

Eliphalet Means, shuffling in loose slippers, returned to his
sitting-room, where were John Jennings and Eben Merritt. There were
no cards, and no punch, and no conviviality for the three bereaved
friends that night. The three sat before the fire, and each smoked a
melancholy pipe, and each, when he looked at or spoke to the others,
looked and spoke, whatever his words might be, to the memory of their
dead comrade.

The chair in which the Colonel had been used to sit stood a little
aloof, at a corner of the fireplace. Often one of the trio would eye
it with furtive mournfulness, looking away again directly without a
glance at the others.

When Means entered, he was smiling, for the first time that evening.
"Well," he said, "I have seen something to-night that I have never
seen before, that I shall never see again, and that no man in this
town has ever seen before, or will see again, unless he lives till
the millennium."

The others stared at him. "What d'ye mean?" asked the Squire.

"I have seen something rarer than a white black-bird, and harder to
discover than the north pole. I have seen a poor man, clothed and in
his right mind, give away every dollar of a fortune within three days
after he got it."

The two men looked at him, speechless. "He hasn't!" gasped the
Squire, finally.

"He has."

"By the Lord Harry!"

"Well," said John Jennings, slowly, "if I had started out on a search
for such a man I should have wanted more than Diogenes's lantern."

"And I should have called for blu