Persis jumped up. “Very well, I have finished mourning over the ring. Oh, Annis, if they really are government bonds, college does become a very solid fact. To think of my being a ‘bloated bond-holder’! What in the world did you say to Cousin Ambrose about me?”
“I confess I told him that you were longing to take a college course, and I told him, too, of all your grandmother and you have done for us; how you plucked us from the ‘wall of poverty’ and sat us upon the ‘hill of prosperity,’ and—well—all that kind of thing; but I never dreamed it would bring this result, or I should have told still more.”
“I never would have dreamed that you could be so communicative and diplomatic. After all, then, it is your doing.”
“No; it is the reward of merit. Just as it comes out in books, virtue is rewarded and the evil-doer is punished.”
“Who is the evil-doer in this case? He hasn’t appeared upon the scene so far. We must tell grandma before we go to any one else. Come; she is in her room.”
CHAPTER XX.
WINGS TO FLY.
Persis’s government bonds were indeed a most unexpected windfall, and the family was given an entire surprise, for Mr. Peyton had a sister and a brother to whom all his property would naturally be supposed to go, and conscientious Persis at first rather demurred about accepting the legacy, but as the executors informed her it was a strictly legal matter, and as Mr. Peyton’s sister and brother were not needy, she was glad to set aside her compunctions, and accepted her bonds gratefully.
“You and Annis, grandma, how much you have done for me!” she said. “Isn’t it strange that Annis should have discovered the envelope, and that it was she who put it into Mr. Peyton’s head to remember me? Doesn’t it seem like bread upon the waters?”
“It does, indeed. I have regretted your giving up college more than I can tell you, and now all is made smooth.”