sixty-five as the mean. Not for twenty years, then, will this
institution receive the benefit of your good intention. It costs, I
think, about fifty dollars a year to support each orphan child. Only
a small number can be taken, for want of liberal means. Applicants
are refused admission almost every day. Three hundred dollars, the
interest on five thousand, at six per cent., would pay for six
children. Take five years as the average time each would remain in
the institution, and we have thirty poor, neglected little ones,
taken from the street, and educated for usefulness. Thirty human
souls rescued, it may be, from hell, and saved, finally, in heaven.
And all this good might be accomplished before your eyes. You might,
if you chose, see it in progress, and comprehending its great
significance, experience a degree of pleasure, such as fills the
hearts of angels. I have made up my mind what to do."

"What?"

"Erase the item of one thousand dollars from my will."

"What then?"

"Call it two thousand, and invest it at once for the use of this
charity. No, twenty years shall stand between my purpose and its
execution. I will have the satisfaction of knowing that good is done
in my lifetime. In this case, at least, I will be my own dispenser."

Love of money was a strong element in the heart of Mr. Steel. The
richer he grew, the more absorbing became his desire for riches. It
was comparatively an easy thing to write out charitable bequests in
a will--to give money for good uses when no longer able to hold