hands.
You know that aunt of Elviry's over to Ostable, the one that died last
week? Well all hands had cal'lated she was kind of on her beam
ends--poor, I mean. When her husband died, don't you recollect some
property they owned over to Harniss was goin' to be sold to auction? All
them iron images Elviry wanted to buy was part of 'em; don't you
remember?"

"Yes, I remember.

"Sartin sure you do. Well, so fur as that goes them images wan't sold
because the widow changed her mind about 'em and had 'em all carted
over to another little place she owned in Ostable, and set up in the
yard there. She's been livin' on this place in Ostable and everybody
figgered she didn't have much money else she'd stayed in the big house
in Harniss. But, by Henry, since she's died it's come out that she was
rich. Yes, sir, rich! She'd saved every cent, you see; never spent
nothin'. A reg'lar mouser, she was--miser, I mean. And who do you
suppose she's left it all to? Elviry, by the creepin'! Yes, sir, every
last cent to Elviry Snowden."

"_No!!_"

"Yes. Elviry's rich. 'Cordin' to Bradley's tell there's a lot of land
and a house and barn, and all them iron images, and--wait; let me tell
you--stocks, and things like that, and over ten thousand dollars cash in
the bank, by Henry! In _cash_, where Elviry can get right aholt of it if
she wants to. Much as thirty thousand, altogether, land and all. And....
What in tunket are you laughin' at?"

For Captain Kendrick had thrown himself into the rocking chair and was
shaking the pans on the stove with peal after peal of laughter.

It was so simple, so complete, and so wonderfully, gorgeously Egbertian.
A little matter of arithmetic, that was all. Merely the substitution of
twenty or thirty thousand dollars and a landed estate for five--no,
three--thousand dollars and a somewhat cramped future at the Fair
Harbor. The ladies in the case were incidental. When the choice was
offered him the businesslike Phillips hesitated not a moment. He was on
with the new love even before he was off with the old. And, in order to
avoid the unpleasantness which was sure to ensue when the old found it
out, he had arranged to be married at Denboro and to be far afield upon
his wedding tour before the news reached Bayport.

Everything was clear now. Elvira's windfall explained it all. It was her
money which had paid Captain Elkanah, and Sarah Macomber, and the livery
man, and no doubt many another of Egbert's littl