Now came great news! Stunning¹ news--joyous news, in fact. It came from a neighboring state, where the family's only surviving relative lived. It was Sally's relative--a sort of vague and indefinite uncle or second or third cousin by the name of Tilbury Foster, seventy and a bachelor, reputed well off and corresponding sour and crusty. Sally had tried to make up to him once, by letter, in a bygone time, and had not made that mistake again. Tilbury now wrote to Sally, saying he should shortly die, and should leave him thirty thousand dollars, cash; not for love, but because money had given him most of his troubles and exasperations, and he wished to place it where there was good hope that it would continue its malignant² work. The bequest³ would be found in his will, and would be paid over. PROVIDED, that Sally should be able to prove to the executors that he had TAKEN NO NOTICE OF THE GIFT BY SPOKEN WORD OR BY LETTER, HAD MADE NO INQUIRIES⁴ CONCERNING THE MORIBUND'S PROGRESS TOWARD THE EVERLASTING⁵ TROPICS, AND HAD NOT ATTENDED THE FUNERAL.

As soon as Aleck had partially⁶ recovered from the tremendous emotions created by the letter, she sent to the relative's habitat and subscribed⁸ for the local paper.

Man and wife entered into a solemn compact, now, to never mention the great news to any one while the relative lived, lest some ignorant person carry the fact to the death-bed and distort it and make it appear that they were disobediently thankful for the bequest, and just the same as confessing it and publishing it, right in the face of the prohibition⁹.

For the rest of the day Sally made havoc¹⁰ and confusion with his books, and Aleck could not keep her mind on her affairs, not even take up a flower-pot or book or a stick of wood without forgetting what she had intended to do with it. For both were dreaming.

"Thir-ty thousand dollars!"

All day long the music of those inspiring words sang through those people's heads.

From his marriage-day forth¹¹, Aleck's grip had been upon the purse, and Sally had seldom known what it was to be privileged to squander¹² a dime¹³ on non-necessities.

"Thir-ty thousand dollars!" the song went on and on. A vast sum, an unthinkable sum!

All day long Aleck was absorbed in planning how to invest it, Sally in planning how to spend it.

There was no romance-reading that night. The children took themselves away early, for their parents were silent, distraught, and strangely unentertaining. The good-night kisses might as well have been impressed upon vacancy¹⁴, for all the response they got; the parents were not aware of the kisses, and the children had been gone an hour before their absence was noticed. Two pencils had been busy during that hour--note-making; in the way of plans. It was Sally who broke the stillness at last. He said, with exultation¹⁵:

"Ah, it'll be grand, Aleck! Out of the first thousand we'll have a horse and a buggy for summer, and a cutter and a skin lap-robe for winter."

Aleck responded with decision and composure--

"Out of the CAPITAL? Nothing of the kind. Not if it was a million!"

Sally was deeply disappointed; the glow went out of his face.

"Oh, Aleck!" he said, reproachfully. "We've always worked so hard and been so scrimped: and now that we are rich, it does seem--"

He did not finish, for he saw her eye soften¹⁶; his supplication¹⁷ had touched her. She said, with gentle persuasiveness¹⁸:

"We must not spend the capital, dear, it would not be wise. Out of the income from it--"

"That will answer, that will answer, Aleck! How dear and good you are! There will be a noble income and if we can spend that--"

"Not ALL of it, dear, not all of it, but you can spend a part of it. That is, a reasonable part. But the whole of the capital-- every penny of it--must be put right to work, and kept at it. You see the reasonableness of that, don't you?"

"Why, ye-s. Yes, of course. But we'll have to wait so long. Six months before the first interest falls due."

"Yes--maybe longer."

"Longer, Aleck? Why? Don't they pay half-yearly?"

"THAT kind of an investment--yes; but I sha'n't invest in that way."

"What way, then?"

"For big returns."

"Big. That's good. Go on, Aleck. What is it?"

"Coal. The new mines. Cannel. I mean to put in ten thousand. Ground floor. When we organize, we'll get three shares for one."

"By George, but it sounds good, Aleck! Then the shares will be worth-- how much? And when?"

"About a year. They'll pay ten per cent. half yearly, and be worth thirty thousand. I know all about it; the advertisement is in the Cincinnati paper here."

"Land, thirty thousand for ten--in a year! Let's jam in the whole capital and pull out ninety! I'll write and subscribe⁷ right now-- tomorrow it maybe too late."

He was flying to the writing-desk, but Aleck stopped him and put him back in his chair. She said:

"Don't lose your head so. WE mustn't subscribe till we've got the money; don't you know that?"

Sally's excitement went down a degree or two, but he was not wholly appeased¹⁹.

"Why, Aleck, we'll HAVE it, you know--and so soon, too. He's probably out of his troubles before this; it's a hundred to nothing he's selecting his brimstone-shovel this very minute. Now, I think--"

Aleck shuddered²⁰, and said:

"How CAN you, Sally! Don't talk in that way, it is perfectly²¹ scandalous."

"Oh, well, make it a halo, if you like, _I_ don't care for his outfit²², I was only just talking. Can't you let a person talk?"

"But why should you WANT to talk in that dreadful way? How would you like to have people talk so about YOU, and you not cold yet?"

"Not likely to be, for ONE while, I reckon, if my last act was giving away money for the sake of doing somebody a harm with it. But never mind about Tilbury, Aleck, let's talk about something worldly. It does seem to me that that mine is the place for the whole thirty. What's the objection?"

"All the eggs in one basket--that's the objection."

"All right, if you say so. What about the other twenty? What do you mean to do with that?"

"There is no hurry; I am going to look around before I do anything with it."

"All right, if your mind's made up," signed Sally. He was deep in thought awhile, then he said:

"There'll be twenty thousand profit coming from the ten a year from now. We can spend that, can we, Aleck?"

Aleck shook her head.

"No, dear," she said, "it won't sell high till we've had the first semi-annual dividend²³. You can spend part of that."

"Shucks, only THAT--and a whole year to wait! Confound it, I--"

"Oh, do be patient! It might even be declared in three months-- it's quite within the possibilities."

"Oh, jolly! oh, thanks!" and Sally jumped up and kissed his wife in gratitude²⁴. "It'll be three thousand--three whole thousand! how much of it can we spend, Aleck? Make it liberal!--do, dear, that's a good fellow."

Aleck was pleased; so pleased that she yielded to the pressure and conceded a sum which her judgment²⁵ told her was a foolish extravagance-- a thousand dollars. Sally kissed her half a dozen times and even in that way could not express all his joy and thankfulness. This new access of gratitude and affection carried Aleck quite beyond the bounds of prudence²⁶, and before she could restrain herself she had made her darling another grant--a couple of thousand out of the fifty or sixty which she meant to clear within a year of the twenty which still remained of the bequest. The happy tears sprang to Sally's eyes, and he said:

"Oh, I want to hug you!" And he did it. Then he got his notes and sat down and began to check off, for first purchase, the luxuries which he should earliest wish to secure. "Horse--buggy--cutter--lap-robe--patent-leathers--dog--plug-hat-- church-pew--stem-winder--new teeth--SAY, Aleck!"

"Well?"

"Ciphering away, aren't you? That's right. Have you got the twenty thousand invested yet?"

"No, there's no hurry about that; I must look around first, and think."

"But you are ciphering; what's it about?"

"Why, I have to find work for the thirty thousand that comes out of the coal, haven't I?"

"Scott, what a head! I never thought of that. How are you getting along? Where have you arrived?"

"Not very far--two years or three. I've turned it over twice; once in oil and once in wheat."

"Why, Aleck, it's splendid! How does it aggregate²⁷?"

"I think--well, to be on the safe side, about a hundred and eighty thousand clear, though it will probably be more."

"My! isn't it wonderful? By gracious! luck has come our way at last, after all the hard sledding, Aleck!"

"Well?"

"I'm going to cash in a whole three hundred on the missionaries-- what real right have we care for expenses!"

"You couldn't do a nobler thing, dear; and it's just like your generous nature, you unselfish boy."

The praise made Sally poignantly²⁸ happy, but he was fair and just enough to say it was rightfully due to Aleck rather than to himself, since but for her he should never have had the money.

Then they went up to bed, and in their delirium²⁹ of bliss³⁰ they forgot and left the candle burning in the parlor³¹. They did not remember until they were undressed; then Sally was for letting it burn; he said they could afford it, if it was a thousand. But Aleck went down and put it out.

A good job, too; for on her way back she hit on a scheme that would turn the hundred and eighty thousand into half a million before it had had time to get cold.

一个天大的消息！这个让人惊喜交加的消息是从邻州传来的，这一家人惟一在世的亲戚就住在那里。那人是萨利的亲戚——不是远房的族叔，就是隔了两三房的堂兄。这位亲戚名叫提尔伯里·福斯特，是个七十岁的单身汉，据说家道殷实，性子倔，多少有点儿古怪。以前萨利曾经写信和他联系过一次，以后就再也没有干过那种傻事。这一次是提尔伯里写信给萨利，说他快不行了，死后有三万块钱留给萨利；这倒不是出于亲情，而是因为一辈子的烦恼大多由钱这东西而来，所以他想死后把这些钱放到一个理想的地方，好让它们继续捣乱。这笔遗产将在他的遗嘱里做出交代，会如数付清。要拿到这笔钱，萨利必须向遗嘱执行人证明三点：一。萨利不以口头或书面方式表露出对这笔赠款的兴趣；二、不过问弥留者迈向黄泉路的进程；三、不参加葬礼。

还没等从这封信掀起的感情风暴中完全苏醒过来，艾莱柯就写了一封信到这位亲戚的居住地去，订阅当地的报纸。

夫妻俩人郑重约定：那位亲戚在世期间，决不向任何人提及这件大事，以免哪个不懂事的家伙拿这件事到快死的人那里去拨弄是非，好像是他们触犯禁令，故意张扬，辜负了馈赠这笔遗产的一番美意。

在这一天剩下的时间里，萨利记账记得漏洞百出，艾莱柯也心不在焉，一会儿端起个花盆，一会儿拿起本书，一会儿又拣起块木头，不知道自己要做什么。两个人都浮想联翩。

“三万块钱！”

整整一天，这四个令人心旌摇荡的字如仙乐一般在他们脑海中回荡。

从结婚那天起，艾莱柯就把钱包攥得紧紧的，除了必须的开销，萨利从来没花过一个小钱。

“三万块钱！”仙乐在继续回荡。一笔巨款，简直不可思议！

整整一天，艾莱柯绞尽脑汁，思量怎么拿这笔钱去赚钱；萨利想的却是怎么花这笔钱。

这天晚上的朗读项目停了。爸爸妈妈一言不发，心情烦躁，一点儿玩的心思也没有；孩子们也就早早地离开了。道晚安时的亲吻像给了空气，没有任何反应；爸爸妈妈根本没有意识到孩子们的吻，一个小时后他们才发觉孩子们离开起居室了。在这一个小时里，最忙的是两支铅笔，夫妇俩一直把它们拿在手里运筹帷幄。最后，萨利打破了沉默，兴高采烈地说：

“太好了，艾莱柯！夏天咱们先拿出一千块钱来，买一匹马，一辆马车；冬天再拿出一千块钱来，买一架雪橇和一副皮雪橇障子。”

艾莱柯的回答既果断又冷静：

“动这笔钱？不行。这笔钱哪怕有一百万也不能动！”

萨利深感失望，涨红了脸。

“艾莱柯！”他气呼呼地说，“咱们苦干了这么多年，一个钱掰成两瓣花；如今咱们有钱了，总要——”

看到她的眼神柔和了下来，萨利就没有说完。萨利的恳求打动了艾莱柯。她柔声细语地规劝萨利：

“亲爱的，咱们不能动这笔本钱，那不是好办法。拿这笔钱的利息——”

“那也行，那也行，艾莱柯！你真可爱，你真好！利息也不少啊，咱们要是能花——”

“不能全花了，亲爱的，不能全花了，不过你可以花一部分。不大不小的一部分。可是那个整数不能花——一分一厘都要拿去生利，利滚利。你说在不在理？”

“啊，在理——在理。当然在理。不过咱们还得等这么长时间，六个月才能拿到第一笔利息哪。”

“对——也许还要晚一点儿。”

“还要晚，艾莱柯？为什么？利钱不是半年一结吗？”

“照那种办法投资——是半年，可是我不愿用那种办法投资。”

“那你用什么办法？”

“赚大钱的办法。”

“大钱。那好啊。接着说，艾莱柯。是什么办法？”

“投资煤炭。投到开新矿、挖烛煤上头。我说，先投一万打底。等咱们做起来了，一股可以送三股。”

“老天，听起来真不错，艾莱柯！到时候那些股值——能值多少钱？要等到什么时候？”

“约摸一年吧。半年利息百分之十，到一年头上就值三万块。我全都清楚，这张辛辛那提报纸上的广告都写着呢。”

“老天，一万块钱一年变成三万！咱们把那笔钱都投进去，拿回九万来！我马上写信，现在就投——明天就怕来不及了。”

他朝写字台飞奔而去，可是艾莱柯拦住他，把他拉回椅子上来。她说：

“别晕头转向了。那笔钱不到手，咱们就买不了股，这你还不知道吗？”

萨利的激情减了几分，可他还没有完全平静下来。

“可是，艾莱柯，那笔钱是咱们的了，你知道——而且马上就要到手了。说不定他已经脱离苦海了。百分之百，现在他正打点下地狱的行头呢。我想——”

艾莱柯打了个激灵说：

“你怎么能这样呢，萨利！可别说这种没脸的话。”

“那好，只要你高兴，让他戴个光圈上天堂也行，他怎么样和我无关，我只是随便说说。连句话都不许说啦？”

“可你干吗要说那么可怕的话呢？你还没死的时候，别人这样说你，你高兴吗？”

“不高兴。假如一辈子最后一件事就是送钱害人，他也别不高兴。艾莱柯，别管提尔伯里了，咱们说点儿实实在在的事吧。我看煤矿倒是值得把那三万块钱都投进去，这样做有问题吗？”

“把赌注全押到一边——这就是问题。”

“如果这样，那就算了。另外那两万怎么办呢？你想拿它们做什么？”

“不用着急，我好好想想再决定。”

萨利叹了口气：“要是你打定了主意，就这么办吧。”他又沉思了一会儿，说：

“从现在起，一年之内咱们就能用一万赚两万。赚的钱咱们总可以花了吧，艾莱柯？”

艾莱柯摇摇头。

“不行，亲爱的，”她说，“在咱们分到头半年的红利以前，股票卖不出好价钱。你只能花一部分。”

“哼，就能花那么一点儿啊——还得等整整一年！活见鬼，我——”

“哎，沉住气！也许用不了三个月就分红呢——这完全有可能啊。”

“哦，那太好了！哦，谢谢你！”萨利跳起来，千恩万谢地吻着妻子。“那就是三千块钱啦——足足三千块呀！这三千块咱们能花多少呢，艾莱柯？大方点儿——说定了，亲爱的，你就行行好吧。”

艾莱柯太高兴了，高兴得经受不住丈夫的压力，答应拿出一千块钱来——其实，理智告诉她花这么多钱简直是瞎胡闹。萨利把妻子一连吻了六七遍，即使如此，也表达不了他的兴奋和感激之情。这一轮感激和爱心攻势把艾莱柯逼得远离了节俭防线，在重新稳住阵脚以前，她又批给了亲爱的一笔钱——两千块。按她的想法，这两千块钱是遗产里还没动用的那两万块一年内可赚的五万或六万块钱的一部分。萨利眼中闪烁着激动的泪花，他说：

“哦，我得抱你一下！”于是他就抱了。抱完以后，萨利拿着账本坐下来开始算账，先算第一批他想尽早敲定的大件。“马——马车——雪橇——雪橇障子——漆皮——狗——大礼帽——教堂椅子——上弦的表——镶新牙——嘿，艾莱柯！”

“什么事？”

“还没算完呢，是吗？算吧算吧。那两万块钱投出去了吗？”

“没有，那笔钱不着急，我要先四处看看，再拿主意。”

“那你怎么还没算完呀？算什么呢？”

“嗨，我得想想投资煤矿赚的三千块钱该派什么用场啊，对不对？”

“老天，你瞧我这脑子！我怎么没想到呢。你是怎么安排的？算到哪一年啦？”

“不太远——也就是两三年吧。这笔钱我又安排了两次投资：一次投石油，另一次投小麦。”

“嗨，艾莱柯，真不错！一共能赚多少？”

“我想想——嗯，往少里说，大约能赚十八万，也许还能多赚点儿。”

“喝！太棒了！我的天哪！咱们总算是苦尽甜来了。艾莱柯！”

“什么事？”

“我想一下子捐给教会三百块——有这么多钱，干吗不花呢！”

“这再好不过了，亲爱的，这才是像你这样慷慨无私的人应该干的事呢。”

听了这番表扬，萨利心花怒放，不过他很公道，说这件功德还是要给艾莱何记头功，因为没有艾莱柯，他也拿不到这些钱。

然后他们上床去睡觉，由于高兴得丢三落四，连客厅里的蜡烛都忘了吹灭。等脱了衣服，他们才想起这件事来。萨利说，蜡烛即便值一千块钱，他们也用得起，就那么点着吧。可艾莱柯还是下床去把蜡烛熄了。

艾莱河的这次熄烛行动可谓一箭双雕，因为就在走回床边的路上，她突然想出了一个主意：趁那十八万块钱还没晾凉，把它翻成五十万块钱。