Anna, is the cosiest spot in the world."

"When did you get home from Maitland?" asked Mrs. March. "Did you
have a pleasant time? And how did you leave Emily and the children?"

Mrs. Stapp took this trio of interrogations in calm detail.

"I came home Saturday," she said, as she unrolled her knitting. "Nice
wet day it was too! And as for my visit, yes, I enjoyed myself pretty,
well, not but what I worried over Peter's rheumatism a good deal.
Emily is well, and the children ought to be, for such rampageous young
ones I never saw! Emily can't do no more with them than an old hen
with a brood of ducks. But, lawful heart, Anna, don't mind about my
little affairs! The news Peter had for me about you when I got home
fairly took my breath. He came down to the garden gate to shout it
before I was out of the wagon. I couldn't believe but what he was
joking at first. You should have seen Peter. He had an old red shawl
tied round his rheumatic shoulder, and he was waving his arms like a
crazy man. I declare, I thought the chimney was afire! Theodosia,
Theodosia!' he shouted. 'Anna March has had a fortune left her by her
brother in Australy, and she's bought the old Carroll place, and is
going to move up there!' That was his salute when I got home. I'd have
been over before this to hear all about it, but things were at such
sixes and sevens in the house that I couldn't go visiting until I'd
straightened them out a bit. Peter's real neat, as men go, but, lawful
heart, such a mess as he makes of housekeeping! I didn't know you had
a brother living."

"No more did I, Theodosia. I thought, as everyone else did, that poor
Charles was at the bottom of the sea forty years ago. It's that long
since he ran away from home. He had a quarrel with Father, and he was
always dreadful high-spirited. He went to sea, and we heard that he
had sailed for England in the _Helen Ray_. She was never heard of
after, and we all supposed that my poor brother had perished with her.
And four weeks ago I got a letter from a firm of lawyers in Melbourne,
Australia, saying that my brother, Charles Bennett, had died and left
all his fortune to me. I couldn't believe it at first, but they sent
me some things of his that he had when he left home, and there was an
old picture of myself among them with my name written on it in my own
hand, so then I knew there was no mistake. But whether Charles did
sail in the _Helen Ray_, or if he did, how he escaped from her an