at first of being _appointed_ guardian to her own
children, as it seemed to her that a mother naturally and necessarily
held that relation to her offspring. But the meaning of the law, in
making a mother the guardian of her children by appointment in such
a case as this, is simply to authorize her to take care of
_property_ left to them, or descending to them. It is obvious
that cases must frequently occur in which a mother, though the natural
guardian of her children so far as the personal care of them is
concerned, would not be properly qualified to take charge of any
considerable amount of property coming to them. When the mother is
qualified to take this charge, she can be duly authorized to do
it; and this is the appointment to the guardianship--meaning the
guardianship of the property to which the appointment refers.

Mary Erskine was accordingly appointed guardian of the children, and
she obtained leave to sell the farm. She decided that it would be best
to sell it as she thought, after making diligent enquiry, that she
could not depend on receiving any considerable annual rent for it, if
she were to attempt to let it. She accordingly sold the farm, with the
new house, and all the stock,--excepting that she reserved from the
farm ten acres of land around her own house, and one cow, one horse,
two pigs, and all the poultry. She also reserved all the household
furniture. These things she took as a part of her portion. The
purchase money for all the rest amounted to nine hundred and fifty
dollars. This sum was considerably more than Mary Erskine had expected
to receive.

The question now was what should be done with this money. There are
various modes which are adopted for investing such sums so as to get
an annual income from them. The money may be lent to some person who
will take it and pay interest for it. A house may be bought and let to
some one who wishes to hire it; or shares in a rail-road, or a bank,
or a bridge, may be taken. Such kinds of property as those are managed
by directors, who take care of all the profits that are made, and
twice a year divide the money among the persons that own the shares.

Mary Erskine had a great deal of time for enquiry and reflection in
respect to the proper mode of investing her money, for the man who
purchased the farm and the stock was not to pay the money immediately.
The price agreed upon for the farm, including of course the new house,
was five hundred dollars. T