Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-06-27

she drew back then I'll kiss your
| hand
But he did not kiss her hand. why
where's the stone in my ring?' he asked
! Lilah looked at her hand. "I-why.
must have lost it this evening" she cried
| TREMENDOUSLY ''but-but IL hadn't missed
it,"
Were you outside the house," he
asked
Only out to the chicken pen with
grandmother to see your Rhode Island
reds" she answered, and I came right
in
Nicholas was much vexed. "11l have
the premises searched tomorrow" he
said. impatiently. but l don't see how
that stone could have lost out. 1t was
very firmly set"
Two months later Nicholas Hopson ap-
peared suddenly before Lilah, sitting
white and anxious. on the wide gallery.
No letter had come from Lynn since he
had reached Alaska. and she had begun
to believe him the victim of some acct
dent.
I've found out where the diamond
went out of my ring Hopson said.
81 went in old Russos on a venture to-
dav. and it's there You took that dia-
mond and gave it to Lynn Lockard to
get money to go to Alaska on. didn't
you. Liiah?"
Lilah rose and her eyes blazed. How
dare you?" she cried. How dare you!
That diamond was Lips own"
prove it," the man said cruelty.
Prove it,,
Il can't, I can'tr' she sobbed. ooh.
Lynn. where are you?
I'm confident she agreed to marry me
only to get hold of my diamond for
Lockardr Hopson concluded, after long
talk with old Alicia and Landon. but
Iii overlook it If you'll consent 10 our
early marriage
IF You'll prove to us, dear. the par
ents soothed the hysterical girl. that
he's accusing you falsely. we won't say
another word about your marrying Mich
olas. You can do as you please, and
marry whom you please, in your own
good timer'
III stave off dat marriage while,
anyhow. I'll git Nick Hopson SO mad he
won't thenk O. nothin' but who stole five
of my chickens
Late that night an exceedingly slim
negress sided through the grove of pc
can trees in front of st. Nicholas Hop
sons long, low plantation house
But eff dat mastiff O. Nick's is united,
Gawd help Skin-an'- Bones!' thought the
girl.
The mastiff was not united and he was
sleeping Skin-Ann crept to the door of
the Rhode Island Reds like a stealthy
shadow She tried the door of the little
henhouSe. II was loCheu. iooI
did not despair There was narrow
board off one side the house. and. though
ordinarily no human being of her age
could have passed through the aperture,
Skin-Ann managed to force her slim
body through the hole
After that her work was easy She
knew very well how to twist a sleeping
chickens neck to render it dumb. When
the fifth fowl was safe and mute In Skin
AIMS coffee sack an idea that well
nigh called forth an undoing yell struck
the little negro. She clapped her hands
over her mouth. 'I,awd Gawd. De
chile mout a scraped huh hand agin de
chicken yahd gate and lost de ring rock
da!" she thought.
When the red glow in the east told that
the day was not far off an utterly ex-
hausted Skin-Ann, wet to the waist, her
bare feet bleeding from the hooked grass
burrs they had encountered. laid her
hand on Lilah's shoulder. Week up,
missy" she breathed, and come wild
me. I believes is on de track o dat
lost diamond
When the sun came up its first rays
fell on a wonderful stone in Lilah's hand
"a big diamond Skin-Ann had drawn
from the inner ramifications of the tenth
Rhode Island Red victim!
And while Lilah looked at it and cried.
a messenger boy rode into the yard and
handed her a bit of yellow paper. 1--WE
struck it rich, sweetheart it read, land
| start home todayn
CrHE END