"Well, I was going to, when Aunt Beswick ketched me at it. She made me tell where I got 'em, and took me over to your house jest now; and Taddy said you was over here, and so she put ahead, and made us follow her." Again, in an agony of impatience, Ducklow demanded to know where the bonds were at that moment. "If Taddy'll give me back the marbles," began Master Dick. "That'll do!" said Miss Beswick, silencing him with a gesture. "Reuben will give you twenty marbles; for I believe you said they was Reuben's bonds, Mr. Ducklow?" "Yes, that is"----stammered the adopted father. "Eventooally," struck in the adopted mother. "Now look here! What am I to understand? Be they Reuben's bonds, or be they not? That's the question!" And there was that in Miss Beswick's look which said, "If they are not Reuben's, then your eyes shall never behold them more!" "Of course they're Reuben's!" "We intended all the while"----"His benefit"----"To do jest what he pleases with 'em," chorused Pa and Ma Ducklow. "Wal! now it's understood! Here, Reuben, are your cowpon bonds!" And Miss Beswick, drawing them from her bosom, placed the precious documents, with formal politeness, in the glad soldier's agitated hands. "Glory!" cried Reuben, assuring himself that they were genuine and real. "Sophrony, you've got a home! Ruby, Carrie, you've got a home! Miss Beswick! you angel from the skies! order a bushel and a half of marbles for Dick, and have the bill sent to me! Oh, Pa Ducklow! you never did a nobler or more generous thing in your life. These will lift the mortgage, and leave me a nest-egg besides. Then when I get my back pay, and my pension, and my health again, we shall be independent." And the soldier, overcome by his feelings, sank back in the arms of his wife. "We always told you we'd do well by ye, you remember?" said the Ducklows, triumphantly. The news went abroad. Again congratulations poured in upon the returned volunteer. Everybody rejoiced in his good fortune,--especially certain rich ones who had been dreading to see Miss Beswick come round with her proposed subscription-paper. Among the rest, the Ducklows rejoiced not the least; for selfishness was with them, as it is with many, rather a thing of habit than a fault of the heart. The catastrophe of the bonds broke up that life-long habit, and revealed good hearts underneath. The consciousness of having done an act of justice, although by accident, proved very sweet to them: it was really a fresh sensation; and Reuben and his dear little family, saved from ruin and distress, happy, thankful, glad, was a sight to their old eyes such as they had never witnessed before. Not gold itself, in any quantity, at the highest premium, could have given them so much satisfaction; and as for coupon bonds, they are not to be mentioned in the comparison.