Connecticut western news., 1910-02-03
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three grandnieces and gasped, '"The silver fagon is for you-it. has never been Opened-yOu know the legend" " not one of us really knew to whom the heirloom rightfully belonged. In the library the two executors con- ferred amiably together. In the kitch- en the servants discussed the legacies they had received.
 In the long parlOr Amelia, Fanny and I sat in front of the glowing grate fire. On the white marble mantel- piece above our heads stood a pair of precious Dresden vases, a Wedgwood clock and a Chinese fan. In the cen ter, directly under the painting of Mrs. Dorothy Fabyan, was the silver flag on, fawless in shape and perfect in its chaste design of vine and leaf and clustered fruit. Its polished surface gave back a distorted reflection of our three faces, ruddy in the firelight.
 No mention had yet been made of Aunt Hannah's belated disposition of the family heirloom. It was not men toned in the will, and its ownership must be settled among the three of us.
 It was Amelia who broke the long, awkward silence by reaching up a graceful arm and taking the silver fagon from it's resting place.
 q am the eldest" she apologized settling back in her chair, "and I am quite sure that Aunt Hannah meant me to have it. She looked at me" Amelia's tone was cOolly defiant.
 "She looked at me, too," said Fanny in gentle protest. "I am sure she look ed at me, did she not Esther"
 I shrugged my shoulders helplessly q thou ght she looked at me-" mur- mured feebly.
 "No one could gaze in three different directions at one time," said Amelia impatiently.
 Aunt Hannah could" I announced Loyalty.
 For shame, Esther Fabyan!' they cried in duet, and then they turned their backs upon me and fell into whis- pered converse over the probable con- tents of the bone of contentiOn-of course I mean the silver flagon.
 The tall silver stopper fitted snugly IO lu0 HECK, dIlCl IL was q lulu stream of red sealing wax.
 The silver fagon had once been the property of Mistress Dorothy Fabyan, our sweet ancestress, and tradition had it that within it's polished interior the fair Dorothy had secreted the precious jewels which her rich husband had lavished upon her. When she was dying she had given the fagon to her young daughter, saying:
 Guard we'll the f&gon, daughter, and when you have reached years of discretion you may break the seal and learn the cOntents-rubies and dia- monds and pearls. Let no other woman steal it away from you! It contains what all women desire and but few attain. It will be yours."
 And it belonged to you, mother, dear?' the young girl had timidly ask ed as she stroked the delicate, withered cheek.
 Dorothy Fabyan had smiled proudly ere she closed her beautiful eyes for ever Aye, it was minc for a sea SOIL" she said.
 The young daughter had died in her teens, and the silver flagOn, with its seal still unbroken, passed to a distant branch of the family, gay tOwnspeople, who took small notice of Cousin DOrO- thy's bcqUeSt save to thrust iI away on the top shelf of a cupboard and for get it's existence.
 And thus it had come down to us, the last of a long line. At times it's history had been forgotten, and for years it would remain merely an or nament on sidebOard or mantelpiece. Again some new owner would look lOngingly at the seal, yet hesitate to break in upon the secret it had con- cealed.
 Aunt Hannah had owned it last, and she was so choice of it that never did vandal finger touch its surface or careless dust cloth even approach it's throne on the white marble. No hand save Aunt IIannah's own came in con- tact with the silver flagOn.
 And now Amelia and Fanny turned it this way and that and gently tap ped the stopper, guessing idly at the contents.
 Amelia looked longingly at the red seal. "I believe it contains the old Fabyan jewels-it was never known what became of them after the war. 1 have heard that Dorothy Fabyan stripped the gems from their settings and concealed them somewhere. It is likely she hid them in this flagon. How strange that no one has cared 1 enough about them to investigate it's contents"
 Suppose we leave the seal unbro- ken," I suggested.
 "Why should we do that?" asked Fanny, with wide open eyes.
 Tt never las been opened" I said lamely. "So many of the Fabyan wo- mel have owned the fagOn and re spected the seal of its contents, why should we open it?'
 "Eecause it's ownership must be de ciGed among us," replied Amelia firm i ly. "The Fabyan women passed the flag0n down from mother to daughter,