wonder if this summons has anything to do with Jims.”
“I went into town this morning and had an interview with Mrs. Pitman’s lawyer,—a little thin, wispy man, who spoke of his late client with such profound respect that it is evident that he was as much under her thumb as Robert and Amelia were. He drew up a new will for her a short time before her death. She was worth thirty thousand dollars, the bulk of which was left to Amelia Chapley. But she left five thousand to me in trust for Jims. The interest is to be used as I see fit for his education, and the principal is to be paid over to him on his twentieth birthday. Certainly Jims was born lucky. I saved him from slow extinction at the hands of Mrs. Conover,—Mary Vance saved him from death by diphtheritic croup,—his star saved him when he fell off the train. And he tumbled not only into a clump of bracken, but right into this nice little legacy. Evidently, as Mrs. Matilda Pitman said, and as I have always believed, he is no common child and has no common destiny in store for him.
“At all events he is provided for, and in such a fashion that Jim Anderson can’t squander his inheritance if he wanted to. Now, if the new English stepmother is only a good sort I shall feel quite easy about the future of my war-baby.
“I wonder what Robert and Amelia think of it. I fancy they will nail down their windows when they leave home after this!”
