News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-11-29

81 don't ask you to
find it." said Colonel Granger, a little
impatiently. 81 don't expect that any
one will ever find it now. But 1 am
always on the loodout for it. Strange
things have happened"
eyes, 1 know" shrewdly assented
Sepple. 'But when a thing has been
lost for hundred years, it don't gener-
ally turn up on the hundred and first
especially little thing like gen.
"You never studied the theory of
chances, did you?' said the colonel.
"No."
''Humph! I thought not. I have"
at was an Astoria, you say?" asked
Sepple, after q few minutes silence.
81 don't know anything about your
Asterias,' retorted Colonel Granger. i'm
patiently. ''My grandmother always
called it Star-Sapphire
''Yes, l know the Variety said Sep
pie, nodding the head which, even at
forty, was beginning to be bald on ths
crown and slightly silvered with gray at
the sides. almost as priceless as q
diamond, If only one could lay hold of
1t. But mine isn't fashionable busI- /
ness, you know" with a little sigh. /
There aren't many sapphires that go
through my hands in the course of a
year-or of ten years, either, for that
matter. The car-conductors leave their
watches here to be repaired: the trades
men around on the avenue bring me n
decent custom of clocks and music-boxes,
and that sort of thing; and on the hoi-
days / sell bangles, and brooches, and
silver thimbles, to the shop-girls. ]
don't handle gems much, except when
Laurent & 60. are hurried and their
foreman sends me batch of work to do
for them. But used to know all about |
those things when L was young man,
learning the trade. You don't see many
of those Asterias.
sit had been in our family nobody !
knows how many years., said Granger, |
leaning idly over the show case, where /
the morning sunshine corruscated /
among the cheap earrings and plated |
chains and piles of eyeglasses. ''But |
my grandfather was little inclined to /
be wild. He engaged himself to young
actress girl whom his friends couldn't |
recognize. Of course they broke up the (
match, and sent him to Bombay. How /
were they to know that he would be .
drowned On the voyage out p
"Did he WEIR the sapphire? Usually, /.
mean r.
'In ring-yes. But it don't abso-
luDci1 lOliOM tlldb IL WIS IOSb WIFI i4lllI.
He may have sold it; he was one of those /
fellows-the breed isn't entirely extinct !
yet-who are always wanting money. /
Or he may have given it to the girl"
"Who was She"
81 don't know. I never knew"
Sepple laughed short laugh as he re-
turned to the magnifying- glass which |
commanded such an array of tiny brass |
whaeis and COOS
'1 don't think much of your theory of
chances" said he.
Colonel Granger laughed as he went |
out. He rather liked the eccentric |
jeweler than otherwise, in spite of his |
odd, blunt manner.
He had scarcely left the store before |
the curtained doorway at the back
opened softly and pale little woman,
dressed in rusty black, glided in.
''Have you any money this morning, |
Simon 2" she asked, almost in q whis-
per.
''No," he answered, sadly.
'1 though perhaps that gentleman"
''He didn't come in to buy" Sepple /
interrupted; SHE only came to talk"
Mrs. Sepple sighed
''The children need shoes" she said.
Sand my best gown is too shabby to wear
of Sunday any longer But we could
get along somehow if something could
be paid on the butchers account. And
the children are already beginning to
count the days until Thanksgiving.
''They had better let it alone said
Sepple, sharply. eve are not likely to
have any very extensive merry making
this Thanksgiving.
Mrs. Sepple looked wistfully at him
n,oao Eo NV baort cI ooi1
s'to give up all idea of keeping Thanks
giving Day. At home, we always looked
forward to it half the year, and backward /
the other half. ;"
Sepple laid down his magnifying glass,
and rising, came close to his wife and put
his hand kindly on her shoulder, while
an odd spasm contracted his features.
ssYes, I know it, Kitty" he said,
"Don't think, dear, that I've forgotten
how took you away from comfortable
farm house, where no such word as want
was ever known. You've had hard lines
ever since; my girl. The folks are dead,
and the old house is sold, and Thanks
giving has somehow passed out of our
lives. But it isn't my fault, Kitty. If
hard work would have done it, you
should have walked in velvet. and worn
SILK and satin all your days. Luck has
been against me, that's all, Here's o
dollar. did mean to keepit to get that
pane q glass in the window men
ded' Dus IN manage somehow with
piece o. brown paper for day or two ;
-u4tli DeHton pays the bill"
Bue Suppose he doesn't pay it r. ,
linen my Pane of glass won't be put !
In; Run1oqnleAly, now while the baby's l
asleep: 0he 80 iretful with that last ]
tooth that NOBODY can do anything with f
her but you. +
But, even on the thrssbold. Mrs. Sop !
pie met little, wriHEloJ old man /
dressed in a faded olive suit cnt after q ,
most antiquated fashion, al corrv inc =
a shabby leather valise in hs hand. .
''Is this Simon Sepple's plaae a,' saiJ
he. "Yes, you are Kitty RIigLt's .
daughter I" to tho astonished be1so- q
mother. 81 should have known 1 Son in L L