The lawyers said they would do their best; and, when some further arrangements had been made, with regard to the property, "Cobbler" Horn took his departure, leaving his two legal advisers to assure one another, as they stood together on the hearthrug, that he was the strangest client they had known. CHAPTER X. MISS JEMIMA IS VERY MUCH ASTONISHED. Miss Jemima Horn was sufficiently curious as to the result of her brother's visit to the lawyers, to render her restlessly eager for his return. He came back the same night. He had work to finish in the cobbling line; and besides he had no fancy for any bed but his own. After supper, the brother and sister sat down before the fire, for the talk to which Miss Jemima had been looking forward all day long. "Well, brother," she queried, "I suppose you've heard all about it?" "Yes, in a general way." "And what is the amount?" "I'm almost afraid to say. The gentlemen said little short of a million!" Miss Jemima threw up her hands with a little jerk of wonder, and gazed at her brother with incredulous surprise. "Where is it all?" was her next enquiry. "Some in England, and some in America." "It's not all in money, of course?" she asked, in doubtful tones. "No," said her brother, opening his eyes: "it's in all sorts of ways. A great deal of it is in house property. There's one whole village--or nearly so." "A whole village!" "Yes, the village of Daisy Lane. It was the family home at one time, you know." This was true. The village of Daisy Lane, in a Midland county, had been the cradle of the race of Horn. "Cobbler" Horn and his sister, however, had never visited the ancestral village. "Well?" queried Miss Jemima. "Well, uncle had a fancy for owning the village; so he bought it up bit by bit." "Only to think!" exclaimed Miss Jemima. "And what else is there?" "Well, there's money in all sorts of forms that I understand very little about." "It's simply wonderful!" declared Miss Jemima. "And then there's the old hall at Daisy Lane. Uncle meant to end his days there; but God has ordered otherwise, you see." "And you will go to live there?" "No," answered her brother, slowly; "I think not, Jemima." "But----" "Sister, I don't think we should be happy in a grand house--at any rate not all at once. But there's something else I want to talk about." Of late years the ascendancy had completely passed from Miss Jemima to her brother; and now, though she would fain have talked further about the old family mansion, she submissively turned her attention to what her brother was about to say. "It is probable, Jemima," he begun, "that there has never been a rich man who had so few relatives to whom to leave his wealth as had our uncle." "Yes: father and Uncle Ira were the only members of Uncle Jacob's family who ever married; and the brothers and sisters are all dead now. We are almost alone in the world."