Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1889-01-10

Il don't ask you to
find it." said Colonel Granger, little
impatiently. 81 don't expect that any
one will ever find it now. But I am
always on the lookout for it. Strange
things have happened.
eyes, / know" shrewdly assented
Sepple. "But when thing has been
lost for hundred years, it don't gener-
ally turn up on the hundred and first
especially little thing like gem"
"You never studied the theory of
chances, did you 2" said the colonel.
"No."
"Humphl thought not. 1 have"
SIT was an Astoria, you say2" asked
Sepple, after few minutes silence.
II don't know anything about your
Asterias, retorted Colonel Granger, I'M
patiently. :'My grandmother always
called it a Star-Sapphire.
''Yes, know the Variety said Sep
pie, nodding the head which, even at
forty, was beginning to be bald on the
crown and slightly silvered with gray at
the sides. ''Aimost as priceless as a
diamond, if only one could lay hold of
it. But mine isn't fashionable hus,-
ness, you know" with little sigh.
"'There aren't many sapphires that 20
| through my hands in the course OF q
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 q
decent custom of clocks and music boxes,
and that sort OF thing; and on the holt
days sell bangles, and brooches, and
silver thimbles. to the shop-girls. I
don't handle gems much, except when
Laurent & 60. are hurried and their
for them. But used to know all about
those things when | was young man,
learning the trade. You don't see many
of those Asterias."
ut had been in our family nobody
knows how many years. said Granger,
leaning idly over the showcase, 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-a 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 wear the sapphire2 Usually,
I meant"
''In ring-yes. But it don't abso-
lutely follow that it was lost with him.
He may have sold it; he was one of those
fellowship breed isn't entirely extinct
yet-who are always wanting money.
Or he may have given it to the girl"
'Who was she2"
II don't know. never knew"
Sepple laughed short laugh as he re-
turned to the magnifying-glass which
commanded such an array of tiny brass
wheels and cogs.
II 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 ut the back
opened softly and pale little woman,
dressed in rusty black, glided in.
Have you any money this morning,
Simon n she asked, almost in whis-
per.
"No," he answered, sadly.
Il though perhaps that gentleman"
"He didn't come in to buy Sepple
interrupted; che only came to talk
Mrs. Sepple ghed.
"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"