Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1897-06-25

was no ring there.
"Oh, Harry. it's goner' she cried,
nervously clasping her hands.
what has gomez" said Harry Field
ing, what are you talking about,
Adder"
my diamond ring" said poor Ad.
die.
And then she sat down in one Of the
rush-bottomed kitchen chairs aud
began to cry.
Not gonel" said Harry, cheerfully.
MY darling, how should it be gone?
1t had neither wings to fly withal, nor
legs to run. It's here somewhere, l
don't doubt; it must be here.
But it was not. They searched
high and low; they swept the kitchen,
like the woman in Scripture, and still
no sparkling stone rewarded their anx-
ious scrutiny.
81 have itf' cried Harry, slapping
his knees and bursting into laugh.
you've baked it in one of the apple
pies. It's the old story of The Maid
and the Magpie' over again.
And, then and there, the covers were
taken off the apple pies, AMI their fra
grant contents prodded with a silver
fork; and still no diamond appeared
Mrs. Sylvester looked hesitatingly at
her daughter just then.
''What is it, mammal" cried Addie.
''My DEAR" said the old lady, 81
would be one of the last to believe
evil of a fellow creature, but"
''But what, mammal" urged Addie.
According to your own statement"
said Mrs. Sylvester, reluctantly, "there
was only one person in the kitchen
all the time you were making those
apple pies, and that person was"
"Joseph!" cried out Addie, flush
of deep rose-red rising to her fore
heal.
"Joseph?" echoed Harry Fielding,
springing to his feet
"Your father took him from the
workhouse," said Mrs. Sylvester,
against my alNice and consent. His
uncle was transported for burglary to
England; his father died here in
gypsy encampment.
"But, mamma. pleaded Addie, who
had sort of tacit liki ig for the un-
couth creature, we've always found
him honest and truthful in every re-
spect."
"Up to the present moment-yes,
said Mrs Sylvester, cautiously. "But
there must always be first offence.
And if it was not Joseph who took the
ring, who was it?"
There was moments silence in
the room, and thea Addie said. in
low tone
81 don't want to believe it, bat I'm
afraid it must have been Joseph" "
OF course Joseph denied it; but Jo-
seph was not one of those fortunate in
diyiduals whom nature has blessed
with a prepossessing appearance or
ready utterance, and his blusing, STAN
mering denial was nowise in his favor
And Joseph was ignominiously
searched, and the poor little garrett
room was turned inside out, and Jo-
seph himself was taken to the village
station house, there to await the de-
cree of Squire Sam Birdsall, who
dealt out she law and order of the
neighborhood. And, of all the shame
and degradation of the whole bust
ness, one envenomed arrow stung poor
Joseph sharpest.
'',She believes me guilty" said Jo-
seph to himself, over and over again;
"she thinks that | am the thiefl'
/ -, e..
Bob?" said Grandfather Sylvester, the
cheerful, chair-ridden old man, who
was mind, ears and memory for the
whole family. "Your father is away
at market, my dear, and it used to be
7 poor Joseph's business, you know"
'I'll run out and feed him this min
ute, said Addie
For Bob was her cream white pony,
her own especial pet and darling, as
far removed from the drudgery of the
farm horses as Jupiter above glow
worm.
"Oh, dearl oh, dearl [ didn't know
we should miss poor Joseph so!'
Bob whinnied pitifuIly as his mis-
tress' light football sounded on the
stable threshold She went up to him
and laid her cheek against his satin
neck
''Poor fellow!' she said, ''are you
hungry"
And she looked remorsefully into his
emp Y manger, where lay two or three
apple-parings, discarded, for some ex-
cellent equine reason, by fastidious
Bob, aad-what was it that sparkled
like drop of dew in their midst?
Her diamond ringl
The ring ITSELF with its slender
hoop of gold slightly marred by the
prints of Bob's teeth (no wonder that
the sagacious quadruped regarded it
as an indigestible morsel aud rejected
it from the juicy morsels which he had
elected to swallow)-the diamond,
sparkling as bright as ever.
With a low cry she caught it up and
flew back into the house, flushed and
breathless with delight.
Mammal gra i'atherr' she cried,
''it wasn't Joseph after all Look
look it was thrown into Pob's man
ger with the apple pa ings Call
Harry, somebody Tel him to go
and bring Joseph back | declare to
goodness | could kiss the poor fellow,
to think how he has been treated"
She didn't kiss him, but her sweet,
apologetic words were like dew on.the
fever of the poor lads sore heart, when
once more he found himself within the
walls of the Sylvester farmhouse.
at wasn't the Jail, miss, suffered
he, ''nor it wasn't the hard names,
nor it wasn't yet the being suspected
by all the rest of 'em; but l didn't
want you to think evil of me, miss"
'And / never will again, Joseph!"
said Addie, fervently. - Saturday
Night.
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