News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-02-11
A PINK DIAMOND.
BY NJ. CARRIE HYDE.
From the Chicago Daily News. I
CHAPTER l.

CHAPTER J.
Old SatanDa was in the best o1
spirits; it was long since she had
felt SO glPeful, so merry. Neptune,
after a wild passion, Il roaring rage,
a fury that made the waters writhe
and twist in vain effort to escape his
angry grasp; after he had beaten
them to shapelessness on the bare
faced powders and they had fallen
limp and lifeless, to be hurled again
and again into the rock lined throats
of gaping caverns-had lashed YES
sci to its dreadful doom and cast it
shoreward, battered, shattered and
storm-tOrn, within her eager reach
and as he settled into gradual calm
and beckoned back the sun, in shy
retreat among the scurrying clouds,
he added to the prize a dozen corpses
and one small child.
Satanna, ten miles from a human
voice, to dispute her right of wreck
age or TO the corpses stretched
bruised and swollen in the sun, was
happy in the possession of Neptun's
| Gift and began at once to appropriate te
it, lest he should repent his generosi-
ty and send the waves for it's return.
The dliftwood she gathered first
and dragged to her tiny cottage on
the cliffs the casks and barrels she
rolled farther up the shore; she swung
| to her shoulders u trunk and with it
clambered, asif laden with a feathers S
weight, to her high home; steamer
chest she carried to the same safe
| place; then once more she returned,
and this time it was to the eorpses.
kGees 9"R9f Re9sfe oYG TifGn fhs4 ssa peGred ihfG hf
their sightless eyes, turned their poor
| bodies from side to side; fumbled for
! their watches and coin: twitched off
their clothing with strong jerks,
wrung out and spread the dripping
garments on the rocks to dry; and,
finally lifting them by turns, carried
these stark dead to a tissure in a rock
on the edge of the sea, and threw
them, one by one, into a seething
caldron of boiling waves.
Its the neatest burial-place that
| know of, is my chopping-tray,
mumbled the old woman loosely to
herself; it requires no tombstones
no graves; and it leaves no chance
for y-snatchinG. Once in, they're
in forever, dead or alive; for the wa
ter chops them and hashes them, and
splashes and dashes them, until
they're churned just right for my
fishes food; and she watched them
as the head of one and the feet OF
another came to the surface; while
the body of third bobbed up and
down, as if made of cork, just as q
breaker swept into a cavern and
casting itself upon them with roar
of thunder, spread over them-a
winding sheet of water, and hid
them from sight with its bubbles and
spray.
In the arms of one of the dead, per
haps it's father, was the child IL 1T
tie girl not more than 2 years of age
her tiny arms still clasped about his
neck, her golden head sunk low upon
his breast and the faint throbbing o.
her heart telling that life was not al
stilled.
Ha! old sea So you have sent 4
baby to me, or is it to my fishes?'
exclaimed Satanna. Il knew it al
the time, but | was busy, and the
fishes could well wait their dainty
treat" and unclasping her little fin
gers, she drew the child toward her
and stripping it of dress and skirts
and smiling grimly as she found it
breathed, she h2stened with it to the
''chopping-tray'', and, raising it
above her head, ready to dash it tC
its death, stood, inhumanity incar
nate
Yet, in this giewsome picture, she
and the child formed The sole human
interest. Up and down the coast
rocky cliffs and powders presented
their bold front to the ocean; inland q
pei spective sallow and unstriking
one or two groups of scrubby busf
and trees, the only proof that nature
tried to have a garden there, and Sa
tanna was the embodied counter
part of hoI surroundings,
Rugged weather-beate old; she
was dressed in dingy brown, a piece
of yellowed canvas pinned, shaw
like, about her shoulders. which the
wind pulled this way and that in use
less effort to tear it from it's fasten
ings at her throat. 1t also flappeC
her short skirt above her ankles anC
showed her feet, stOckingless and il
protected by torn shoes, then, loos
D ening her hair, blewit in gray string,
, across her cheeks and mouth anC
! pushed her head-covering further
: over her wrinkled face, until her deer
set eyes were hidden from view.
"The wind is getting uncommon
ugly exclaimed she, lone woulC
think it wished to blow both me anC
the child into the chopping-tray!
and lowering her arms she pushed
s the headgear one side to better see
j then raising the child second time
! with a swing toward the water, sh,
E halted, hesitated, stopped, for sh
!; had caught heglimmer ofsomethins
I tied about its neck.
What! A pink diamond-my pinI
diamond y cried the old woman, he
voice husky with excitement
"Where were my old eyes that | di,
not see it before?" and, sitting dow
: upon the rocks, she took the chill,
into her lap, and looked long an,
> closely at the ring.
"Once, when my hand was as whit
and soft as this baby's throat,
looked well upon it. Let me try i
now" said Satanna to herself, and
c1onninu, tbo "a,