"A very funny thing. Do you know I never hear the bell ring without thinking that I ought to go to the door?" "I think you are a real sensible girl, Rhoda," said Matty, in the serious tone with which she usually announced her wonderful discoveries. "Thank you. Why?" "Because you never seem one bit ashamed of having been a servant. I don't know why you or any one should be, of course, but still a great many people are, or would be—you know what I mean," said Matty, who was famous for grammatical entanglements. "There, Rhoda! They are asking for you." "Miss Thurston is wanted in the library," said Annie, putting her head in at the door. "Who is it, Annie?" asked Rhoda. "Two gentlemen—one young and one old. The old gentleman sent up his card, and the name was Francis." "It can't surely be Mr. Francis of Hobarttown? I never knew any other," said Rhoda to herself. She arranged her dress a little and hurried down, to find Mr. Francis himself as well as Mr. Antis in the library with Miss Hardy. "Upon my word, little Rhoda, you have grown a fine young woman," said Mr. Francis. "I should have known you anywhere, however. I suppose I must call you Miss Thurston, now that you are grown-up and an heiress." "She doesn't understand," said Mr. Antis. "No, I suppose not. Probably she has not heard that Mr. Jacob Weightman is dead, and that you and I are his executors?" "You don't mean to say, Mr. Francis, that Uncle Jacob has died and left anything to me!" said Rhoda in amazement. "Even so, my girl. He has left you the lot which was his sister's, and on which he has built a fine mill, and ten thousand dollars besides. The mill is worth ten thousand—I will pay that if you want to sell it; so you see you are really an heiress on a small scale." "I should think it was a pretty large scale," said Rhoda. "But Uncle Jacob! I can hardly believe it. He always hated me from the first time I came to Boonville to live." "He did you great injustice," said Mr. Antis; "and so I always supposed. We found among his papers a will written in Aunt Hannah's hand, but neither signed nor sealed, leaving you her place and all her other property. The will was not legal, of course, but under the circumstances it should have been binding on any honest man; but Uncle Jacob was too fond of money to be right straight." "It always did seem very strange that Aunt Hannah's will should not be found," said Rhoda. "I suppose from the date she had destroyed the first and made another not two hours before she died," replied Mr. Antis. "Jeduthun tells me she had asked him and Kissy to come up that evening, and doubtless she meant they should witness this will." "What has he done with the rest of his property?" asked Rhoda. "He has left five thousand to the Caneota Bible Society and as much to the orphan asylum, and a thousand to missions. The rest goes to the nieces, share and share alike." "How much will their parts be?"