About the year 1878 I received a letter from my old friend, Amos Harris, formerly a resident of Centerville, Iowa, then living at Wichita, Kansas, informing me of the death of a man by the name of Loring, who had been a former client of mine, residing at Indianola, Iowa. He stated that Mr. Loring had left a widow and some five little children, all girls, the youngest an infant only a few months old, and that the family was left in a destitute condition; that upon questioning Mrs. Loring she had told him that I had transacted some business as attorney for herself and husband, and had sold a house and lot in Indianola that they had deeded to me, with a promise upon my part that after paying certain debts for the collection of which I was attorney, if there was anything left they should have it. I had realized about one hundred dollars over and above the amount paid out and I immediately sent Mrs. Loring fifty dollars for the relief of her immediate necessities, and afterwards paid her the balance. Some four or five years after this Mrs. Loring came to Des Moines, bringing with her this young child then about four or five years of age, stating that she had a short time before that married a man by the name of Gregory, that he was a man of considerable means but refused to support her first husband's children, that she wished to make some arrangement to have this young child cared for, that she had already disposed of her older girls among her relatives. I introduced her to Mrs. Winkley, then a resident of Des Moines, who kept a school for small children and boarded and cared for them, a lady to whom my son had been going to school and who was held in high estimation by her many friends. Mrs. Gregory, as she then was, arranged with Mrs. Winkley to leave her youngest child with her to be cared for, and left with me some money to pay Mrs. Winkley from time to time, and also any other expenses that might be incurred in the care of the child. Mrs. Winkley lived on Third street within a block or two of our residence, and I frequently had this child visit our home. My wife seemed to be interested in the child and became attached to her, as I did also myself. Along about the first of February, 1882, Mrs. Gregory came into my office in Des Moines, stating that she had come to take her child Susie, as she could no longer afford to bear the expense of her keeping with Mrs. Winkley. I asked her if that was the only objection to the child remaining where it was, and she said yes, she was very well satisfied but she was then separated from her husband and was not able to pay the expense incident to the child's keeping in her present situation. I asked her if she had any home to which she could take the child, and she said no, that she had employment at some sanitary institution but it really was not a home for the little one. Upon the impulse of the moment and without any very considerable thought upon the subject and having no consultation