id Miss Lois, mechanically.

They went on with the search, and at last came to a package tied in
brown paper, which contained money; opening it, they counted the
contents.

"Three hundred and ten dollars and eighty-five cents," said Anne.

Miss Lois took a pen and made a calculation, still with the manner of a
machine. "That is about what would be left by this time, at the rate of
the sums you have had, supposing the memorandum is what you think it
is," she said, rubbing her forehead with a shadowy imitation of her old
habit.

"It is a large sum," said Anne.

Nothing more was found. It appeared, therefore, that the five children
of William Douglas were left alone in the world with exactly three
hundred and ten dollars and eighty-five cents.

Dr. Gaston and Pere Michaux learned the result that day; the story
spread through the village and up to the fort. "I never heard anything
so extraordinary in my life," said Mrs. Cromer. "That a man like Dr.
Douglas should have gone on for the last four or five years deliberately
living on his capital, seeing it go dollar by dollar, without making one
effort to save it, or to earn an income--a father with children! I shall
always believe, after this, that the villagers were right, and that his
mind was affected."

The chaplain stopped these comments gruffly, and the fort ladies forgave
him on account of the tremor in his voice. He left them, and went across
to his little book-clogged cottage with the first indications of age
showing in his gait.

"It is a blow to him; he is very fond of Anne, and hoped everything for
her," said Mrs. Bryden. "I presume he would adopt her if he could; but
there are the other children."

"They might go to their mother's relatives, I should think," said Mrs.
Rankin.

"They could, but Anne will not allow it. You will see."

"I suppose our good chaplain has nothing to bequeath, even if he should
adopt Anne?"

"No, he has no property, and has saved nothing from his little salary;
it has all gone into books," answered the colonel's wife.

Another week passed. By that time Dr. Gaston and Pere Michaux together
had brought the reality clearly before Anne's eyes; for the girl had
heretofore held such small sums of money in her hands at any one time
that the amount found in the desk had seemed to her large. Pere Michaux
began the small list of resources by proposing that the four children
should go at once to their uncle, their mother's brother,