It has increased some in value. Will you consult her on the subject?"

Claire promised to do so; and, at the same time, asked as to the
amount of Fanny's property.

"The total value will not fall much short of eight thousand dollars,"
replied Jasper. "There are two houses and lots that would sell at any
time for six thousand dollars. You live in one of these houses, and
the other is rented for two hundred and fifty dollars. Then there are
nearly two thousand dollars in six per cent. stocks. When her father
died, his estate consisted of these two houses, and a piece of poor
land which he had taken as satisfaction for a debt. At the first
opportunity, I sold the land and invested the money. This sum, with
accumulations of interest, and rents received for several years,
beyond what was required for Fanny's maintenance, has now increased
to within a fraction of two thousand dollars, and is, as just said,
invested in stocks. I think," added Jasper, "that you had better
assume the management of this property yourself. Get from Miss Elder a
power of attorney authorizing you to settle the estate, and the whole
business can be completed in a very short time. I will make you out an
accurate statement of every thing, so that you will be at no loss to
comprehend the accounts."

To this there could, of course, be no objection on the part of Claire.
He promised to confer with Fanny, and let Jasper know, in a day or
two, the result.

Now came a new trial for Claire and his wife. They had taken Fanny,
when only four years of age, and taken her so entirely into their home
and affections, that she had almost from the first seemed to them as
one of their own children. In a brief time the earlier memories of the
child faded. The past was absorbed in the present; and she loved
as parents none other than those she called by the tender names of
"father" and "mother." The children with whom she grew up she
knew only as her brothers and sisters. This thorough adoption and
incorporation of the child into their family was not, in any sense,
the work of design on the part of Claire and his wife. But they saw,
in the beginning, no reason to check the natural tendency thereto.
When little Fanny, of her own accord, addressed them, soon after her
virtual adoption, as "father" and "mother," they accepted the child's
own interpretation of their relative positions, and took her from that
moment more entirely into their hearts.

And so Fanny Elder