Tales from Many Sources | Page 4

matter.
"What is amiss, sister Kitty?" said she. "Have you hurt yourself? Do
you feel ill? Did you know the stone was out?"--"I hope you're not
going to be hysterical, sister Kitty," added Miss Betty anxiously; "there
never was a hysterical woman in our family yet."
"Oh dear no, sister Betty," sobbed Miss Kitty; "but it's all my fault. I
know I was fidgeting with it whilst I was talking; and it's a punishment
on my fidgety ways, and for ever presuming to wear it at all, when
you're the head of the family, and solely entitled to it. And I shall never
forgive myself if it's lost, and if it's found I'll never, never wear it any
more." And as she deluged her best company pocket-handkerchief (for
the useful one was in a big pocket under her dress, and could not be got
at, the parson being present), Church, State, the royal family, the family
Bible, her highest principles, her dearest affections, and the diamond
brooch, all seemed to swim before her disturbed mind in one sea of
desolation.
There was not a kinder heart than the parson's toward women and
children in distress. He tucked the little ladies again under his arms, and
insisted upon going back to Mrs. Dunmaw's searching the lane as they
went. In the pulpit or the drawing room a ready anecdote never failed
him, and on this occasion he had several. Tales of lost rings, and even
single gems, recovered in the most marvellous manner and the most
unexpected places--dug up in gardens, served up to dinner in fishes,
and so forth. "Never," said Miss Kitty, afterward, "never, to her dying
day, could she forget his kindness."
She clung to the parson as a support under both her sources of trouble,
but Miss Betty ran on and back, and hither and thither, looking for the
diamond. Miss Kitty and the parson looked too, and how many
aggravating little bits of glass and silica, and shining nothings and
good-for-nothings there are in the world, no one would believe who has
not looked for a lost diamond on a high road.
But another story of found jewels was to be added to the parson's stock.
He had bent his long back for about the eighteenth time, when such a

shimmer as no glass or silica can give flashed into his eyes, and he
caught up the diamond out of the dust, and it fitted exactly into the little
black hole.
Miss Kitty uttered a cry, and at the same moment Miss Betty, who was
farther down the road, did the same, and these were followed by a third,
which sounded like a mocking echo of both. And then the sisters
rushed together.
"A most miraculous discovery!" gasped Miss Betty.
"You must have passed the very spot before," cried Miss Kitty.
"Though I'm sure, sister, what to do with it now we have found it I
don't know," said Miss Betty, rubbing her nose, as she was wont to do
when puzzled.
"It shall be taken better care of for the future, sister Betty," said Miss
Kitty penitently. "Though how it got out I can't think now."
"Why, bless my soul! you don't suppose it got there of itself, sister?"
snapped Miss Betty. "How it did get there is another matter."
"I felt pretty confident about it, for my own part," smiled the parson as
he joined them.
"Do you mean to say, sir, that you knew it was there?" asked Miss
Betty, solemnly.
"I didn't know the precise spot, my dear madam, but----"
"You didn't see it, sir, I hope?" said Miss Betty.
"Bless me, my dear madam, I found it!" cried the parson.
Miss Betty bridled and bit her lip.
"I never contradict a clergyman, sir," said she, "but I can only say that
if you did see it, it was not like your usual humanity to leave it lying

there."
I've got it in my hand, ma'am!" "Why He's got it in his hand, sister!"
cried the parson and Miss Kitty in one breath. Miss Betty was too much
puzzled to be polite.
"What are you talking about?" she asked.
"The diamond, oh dear, oh dear! _The diamond!_" cried Miss Kitty.
"But what are you talking about, sister?"
"_The baby_" said Miss Betty.

WHAT MISS BETTY FOUND.
It was found under a broom-bush. Miss Betty was poking her nose near
the bank that bordered the wood, in her hunt for the diamond, when she
caught sight of a mass of yellow of a deeper tint than the mass of
broom-blossom above it, and this was the baby.
This vivid color, less opaque than "deep chrome" and a shade more
orange, seems to have a peculiar attraction for wandering tribes.
Gipsies use it, and it