"Is it in bank-notes?" asked Molly, as she saw how carefully the stranger kept the papers before her covered with her hands.
Alice shook her head dubiously. "They're paper, sure enough," she said, "or Hester wouldn't have found them."
"'Tain't often any of us get such a slice of luck as this," commenced the stranger, "though I has tons of paper through my hands every week."
Molly grew more curious. "Where did you find this treasure trove?" she asked.
But the girl shook her head. She did not understand what was said. "There's only one place I could find it—at the mill," she said.
"My cousin is a paper girl, Miss Molly. She is one of the sorters at Robinson's mill, and it was among the waste that she found this."
"It was a fair find," the stranger hastened to explain.
"Yes, ma'am, Hester wouldn't be doing no shabby tricks to get hold of it," commented Alice.
"Yes, it's just as fair as can be, and I don't mean to be done out of it. The forewoman might think she ought to have her share, if she knowed what I'd got, so I just put it in my pocket and brought it up to ask Alice about it."
"Of course, if you could find the owner, you would take it to him?" said Molly.