In an increasingly restive world it is heartwarming to read the story of Roberta Langtry, a retired teacher, who died at the age of 89 last year and left $4.3 million to The Nature Conservancy of Canada.

How did Ms. Langtry manage to accumulate a huge nest egg? She did not win a lottery or inherit a sizable fortune, but The Globe and Mail column gives some clues. As a single woman with no dependants, she seemed to have lived well within her means, living in a modest home and hanging on to her car for a long time. She also invested her savings in blue-chip equities and held on to them for a very long time. It is nice to know that the old-fashioned formula of saving regularly and investing the proceeds for the long term works so well. It is even nicer to learn that Ms. Langtry has made our world a slightly better place.