At the first news that he was seized of a mortal illness his near relations, who had been driven from him by his temper and his parsimony, gathered under his roof from far and near, each group hoping to induce him to make a will in its favor.

He lingered on, and so did they--watching each other, trying to outdo each other in complaisance to the humors of the old miser.

And he got a new grip on life through his pleasure in tyrannizing over them and in putting them to great expense in keeping up his house.

He favored first one group, then another, taking fagots from fires of hope burning too high to rekindle fires about to expire.
"How is he ?" asked Hiram.
"_They_ say he can't last till fall," replied Henrietta; "but he'll last another winter, maybe ten.

He's having more and more fun all the time.