"Almost the first thing I would do," said Mrs. Grimes, "would be to settle a comfortable living for life on poor Isaac Wickersham. That man, George, crippled as he is, lives on next to nothing. I don't believe he has two hundred dollars a year." "Well, we could give him twelve hundred and not miss it and then give the same sum to Widow Clausen. She can barely keep alive." "And there's another thing I'd do," said Mrs. Grimes. "If we kept a carriage I would never ride up alone from the station or for pleasure. I would always find some poor or infirm person to go with me. How people can be so mean about their horses and carriages as some rich people are is beyond my comprehension." It is delightful pastime, expending in imagination large sums of money that you haven't got. You need not regard considerations of prudence. You can give free rein to your feelings and bestow your bounty with reckless profusion. You obtain almost all the pleasure of large giving without any cost. You feel nearly as happy as if you were actually doing the good deeds which are the children of your fancy. George Grimes and his wife had considered so often the benevolences they would like to undertake if they had a million dollars that they could have named them all at a moment's notice without referring to a memorandum. Nearly everybody has engaged in this pastime, but the Grimeses were to have the singular experience of the power to make their dream a reality placed in their hands. For one day George came flying home from the bank with a letter from the executors of General Jenkins (who died suddenly in Mexico a week or two before) announcing that the General had left a million dollars and the country-seat in Susanville to George Grimes. "And to think, Mary Jane," said George when the first delirium of their joy had passed, "the dear old man was kind enough to say--here, let me read it to you again from the quotation from the will in the letter: 'I make this bequest because, from repeated conversations with the said George Grimes, I know that he will use it aright.' So you see, dear, it was worth while, wasn't it, to express our benevolent wishes sometimes when we spoke of the needs of those who are around us?" "Yes, and the General's kind remark makes this a sacred trust, which we are to administer for him." "We are only his stewards." "Stewards for his bounty." "So that we must try to do exactly what we think he would have liked us to do," said George. "Nothing else, dear?" "Why, of course we are to have some discretion, some margin; and besides, nobody possibly could guess precisely what he would have us do." "But now, at any rate, George, we can realize fully one of our longing desires and give to the people the lovely park and library?"