The Penn's Grove record., 1886-10-02

AS the WOman WlIl Il PleAlihih"AJ
wipe on her apron of her soapy arms,
proceeded to accede to his request, the
girl standing on the threshold allowed
her gaze to rove absently over the scru-
pulously clean little room. 1t wandered
from the ruddy pot of balsam in the
small diamond PANIED window TO a n
robust colored picture traced on the
opposite wall of the childhood OF Ihe
royal family, where H.. r. Ii. the Prlnce
of Wales was represented playing WIN
an orange setter the precise hue OF tne
late Prince Consort's waistcoat TIL II
reached a broken discolored old bone,
with several irregular markings thereon,
lying on a shelf of the overhRlging hre-
place. The science that would peep
and botanic upon its mothers grave"
could not, of course, resist the opportu-
nifty of investigating further.
MAY 1 look at that, if you pleaser'
At this the patriarchal Arcadlan hob
bled up with amazing cerlerlty from MS
post at the door.
"Sartainly, Miss, %sartainly. Betsy,
YOU 90 along and fetch the lady the
wa-ater. dye hear? There be a sight of
money bid for that bit of bone, | 90 as
sure you, Miss. Look well at it, lady,
it's worth it. AT least so says the young
man as came here this morning. lie DO
think a power of 1.-THE cackle at The
remembrance changing into a groan as
he stretched upward to the chimney
shelf "Roomatics, Missl" in apologize
explanation as he handed down the
bone. cts my legs, Miss. I'd be a
/ Young mar if it was Ma for my legs.
THEY'VE got old for the rest of me. I'd
be as gay a young spark as any o. them
if it was ia for my legs, " looking down
with melancholy pride at those Offend
ing members.
"Yes?" family. AS she turned that
broken fragment of an animals horn
J over i'll her hand, her heart, after the
first sudden stoppage, beat with the
sickenlng haste of a great emotion.
'.Did | understand you to say that
that the gentleman wished TO buy this
from you?'
"Jest so Miss. At first he axed me
one 'arf crown, then another 'arf
| crown, then 'arf Il sovereign. But ma,
ma. saws l.. If 1t be of such vallyI amt
| going to part with it to the first bidder.
| knows what doc to myself and it.
I'm keepin' it, with increasing hllarl-
ty, ''till l makes up my mind If It's
worth my whites to let it 60"
"From whence did you get it?"
"Yon big mound, jest after them lot
| who come in vans had left"-so in this
~irreverent bean-feaster fashion desert
bling the respected members of a learned
antiquarian society in their handsome
two-horse w~aggonettes. Il had Just
topped the hill and sat me down for a
little, being a trife blown. | be short
winded, Miss. | stretched out my old
legs" bringing those appendages again
to the front, much to Miss Gorlng's
| secret disgust, land knocks my left 'un
agin summat hard In a lump OF airth
that the folk had loosened, so | reaches
it to me and breaks it open with my
sticks, and l finds this bit of a bone
with the queer little scratches on it
when l peel away the dirt"
Are you sure that these carvings
scratches, L mean," hastily correcting
herself, "were on it when you first dis
covered it? Are you sure, quite, quite
| sure?p breathlessly, yet with the edu-
cational tone of the high school very
~perceptible in each well articulated syl-
liable. "Can you give me your sacred
word of honor that, to the best of your
belief, no one could possibly have
touched that bone before you took it
from the tumulus?"
"Ain't l sure, Miss? Amt / speakin'
gospel truth? Well, here L swears on
the book" bringing his right hand down
with a hearty thump on the well worn
| covero an adjacent Bible, ''that nc one
| could have laid so much as little finger
on this ERE bone afore Ifetched.it out of
| yon mound, or toomlee as the gentry calls
it," promptly and proudly enriching his
vocabulary.
"Thank you," almost inaudibly.
"Well, l will come again and have
another talk about it. In the mean
time don't let any one, nc matter what
they say or promise, induce you to part
with that bone" emphatically.
"You can depend on me, Miss. |
rayther think that 'ere young gent
won't get the inner side of jeremiah
| Muggins-which is me, Miss" lifting a
polite finger to his forelock,
Mechanically bestowing a small silver
coin in Mr.. Muggin's outstretched
palm, and utterly oblivious of the glass
of water coming from the well at the
back, Helen left the cottage. Thirst,
heat, fatigue, all physical sensations
were lost in the tremendous tumult
| evoked by the sight of that old scratched
bone. Was it possible? Did that simple
old peasant indeed hold for the present
what Helen Goring was determined to
obtain for the future, a perfectly unique
| specimen of the carvings of prehistoric
man? A figure etched by a sharp flint
headed instrument on the horn of one
of the prehistoric oxen slaughtered at
the chieftain' funeral feast, whose body
had laid under the harrow at the top
Chadbury Hill A portrait of primit ,
man Of the newer stone age by hims .
Doubtless SO depicted during a pause j
the hideous riot of his blo~od-stained b !.
quet. A severely archaic sketch, NANNY
consisting of straight and horizontal
strokes, yet with a certain rude force in
the upright attitude, with two out
spread arms, terminating in five lines
that represented somewhat dispropor-
tionately large hands; a circle for a face
inclosing two smaller circles for eyes
and a slit for a mouth. What was that
much-lauded prize, the drawing Of the
mammoth on its own tusk by that
Landseer of remoter days, the caveman
of tine Dordogne, to this? The first for
INFLATED forerunner of the frieze of the
Parthenon, the glories of the Renais-
sanee, cut clear and sharp, despite its
begrimed condition, as if it were but
yesterday. Poor prehistoric artist soul,
pent, d%arkened, striving, after its own
manned fashion, TO give utterance to a
divner impulse than the brutal every
day life OF his fellows, the feasting, the
hunting, the slayIngl What would not
the members of that archaeological asSo-
citation who pottered around and above
it., unseeing and unsuspecting, only a
few months ago, Lave given for such a
matchless antiquarian treasurer Oh!
the rapture Of reading a lengthy paper
on her stupendous discovery to a circle
of open-mouth graybeards with all the
alphabet after the world renowned
namesl What a vista of fame it Opeuedl
~. .IaA IL w~a.,1l H. -