The String of Pearls (1850), p. 143

"'I don't know anything, save they are very unkind to me lately.'
"'They have been very unkind to you, child, and I am sure I don't know why, nor can I tell you why they have not told you of your fortune.'
"'My fortune,' said I; 'what fortune?'
"'Why, don't you know that when your poor aunt died you were her favourite?'
"'I know my aunt loved me,' I said; 'she loved me, and was kind to me; but since she has been dead, nobody cares for me.'
"'Well, my child, she has left a will behind her which says that all her fortune shall be yours; when you are old enough you shall have all her fine things; you shall have all her money and her house.'
"'Indeed!' said I; 'who told you so?'
"'Oh, I have heard it from those who were present at the reading of the will, that you are, when you are old enough, to have all. Think what a great lady you will be then ! You will have servants of your own.'
"'I don't think I shall live till then.'
"'Oh yes, you will—or at least I hope so.'
"'And if I should not, what will become of all those fine things that you have told me of? Who'll have them?'
"'Why, if you do not live till you are of age, your fortune will go to your father and mother, who take all.'
"'Then they would sooner I should die than live?'
"'What makes you think so?' she inquired.
"'Why,' said I, 'they don't care anything for me now, and they will have my fortune if I were dead—so they don't want me.'
"'Ah, my child,' said the old woman, 'I have thought of that more than once; and now you can see it. I believe that it will be so. There has many a word been spoken truly enough by a child before now, and I am sure you are right—but do you be a good child, and be careful of yourself, and you will always
find that Providence will keep you out of any trouble.'
"I hope so,' I said.
"'And be sure you don't say who told you about this.'
"'Why not,' I inquired; 'why may I not tell who told me about it?'
"'Because,' she replied, 'if it were known that I told you anything about it, as you have not been told by them, they might discharge me, and I should be turned out.'
"'I will not do that,' I replied; 'they shall not learn who told me, though I should like to hear them say the same thing.'
"'You may hear them do so one of these days,' she replied, 'if you are not impatient; it will come out one of these days—two may know of it.
"'More than my father and mother?'
"'Yes, more—several.'
"'No more was said then about the matter; but I treasured it up in my mind, I resolved that I would act differently, and not have anything to do with them— that is, I would not be more in their sight than I could help—I would not be in
their sight at all, save at meal times—and when there was any company there I always appeared. I cannot tell why; but I think it was because I sometimes attracted the attention of others, and I hoped to be able to hear something respecting my fortune; and in the end I succeeded in doing so, and then I was satisfied—not that it made any alteration in my conduct, but I felt I was entitled to a fortune. How such an impression became imprinted upon a girl of eight years of age, I know not: but it took hold of me, and I had some kind of notion that I
was entitled to more consideration than I was treated to.
"'Mother,' said I one day to her.
"'Well, Mary, what do you want to tease me about now?'
"'Didn't Mrs. Carter the other day say that my aunt left me a fortune?'
"'What is the child dreaming about?' said my mother. 'Do you know what you are talking about, child?—you can't comprehend.'