"Yesterday morning. They wrote at once. The funeral is to take place
to-morrow afternoon, at three o'clock."

"Uncle Herbert was rich, wasn't he, mother?"

"Yes, he must have left nearly a hundred thousand dollars."

"What a pile of money!" said Herbert. "I wonder how a man feels when
he is so rich. He ought to be happy."

"Riches don't always bring happiness. Uncle Herbert was disappointed
in early life, and that seemed to spoil his career. He gave himself up
to money-making, and succeeded in it; but he lived by himself and had
few sources of happiness."

"Then he had no family?"

"No."

"Do you think he has left us anything, mother?" asked Herbert, with
something of hope in his tone.

"I am afraid not. If he had been disposed to do that he would have
done something for us before. He knew that we were poor, and that a
little assistance would have been very acceptable. But he never
offered it. Even when your father was sick for three months, and I
wrote to him for a small loan, he refused, saying that we ought to
have laid up money to fall back upon at such a time."

"I don't see how a man can be so unfeeling. If he would only leave us