Year: 1879

AOA AOoA VI OPOA0 e,AooSCS 0CAVSo tAS W0J Then she lit all the gas, put on her wedding gown and diamonds and enjoyed herself.

 must own she looked as lovely as god dess; the comb sparkled like coronet of stars (for it was set starwise in quaint old fashion, in her coiled dark hair, and the brilliants made river of light about her delicate round threat. Diamonds evidently were the proper gems for her They kindled the deep sparkle of her eyes; they illuminated the naughty lit tie head with sort of fitness not describable Her rich soft gown of creamy silk, with falls and folds of rare old lace, delicate as frost work the 1.-the, graceful figure and piquant, high-bred face evidently were meant for dia- monds, or diamonds meant for them.

 Man," said I, ''dsn't sell the :hings. We don't need to; and they are lovely on you"

 Nan turned slowly round and looked ct mo with curious smile.

 ''Oh, Jack Is that your idea of the eternal fitness of things? Shall wear these sparks to church or tea parties? Once year, perhaps, there IS a wedding here that might be blinded with my f1nery, unless everybody looked at the bride, as they ought. And besides, she added, with sudden energy, ''do you want our lives made nuisance with these things? How have we spent the last ten days?'

 l looked back with dismay; not day had passed that we had not racked eur brains for c pldCC L0 Illus IuOSC uldIllOuIS AuCy 1ou been respectively dwellers in the stove under the ashes, down the register pipe, in pickle jar full of bran, deep among piles of sheets in the linen chest, lost in the cedar closet in the crown of Mans Sunday bonnet, and in the pocket of my wedding coat, laid away in a drawer. Once they were twenty-four hours in loaf of bread, all night in an old fashioned foot stove. Time fails me to recount their wanderings. We neither slept quietly nor took needful exercise; and when people came to the house and asked to see them, the very friends of our bosom even, they were treated with subterfuges, and went away disappoint- ed.

 I cannot say we told any right angled and respectable lies; we descended to meaner depths. Our invariable answer to friendly re- quests was, "Did you think we were so silly as to keep them in the house?" wincing retri- butively under the commentators of our sense sure to follow, and the appalling tales of other people who had been so idiotic as to do such thing, and been robbed or murdered, or frightened to death in consequence. Wewent to the expense of two revolvers, and borro a dog, who parked at every mouse in the wall, and awoke us to horrid suspicious and tremers.

 But at last the business which detained me in VI was finished, and 1 could make arrangements for cur journey. And then came the important question, 'Hew should we carry our preciens charge to New York ?'' It would never do to pack them in trunk I proposed to Nan to wear them.

 ''And be murdered, of course," she indig- nantly answered.

 1 thought they could be hidden under her dress and hat, but this she would not hear to she was afraid her very consciousness would betray her. So at last we put them in an or dinary morocco handbag which she never let go of one moment in all the days journey. This was enough to attract attention in itself, but we get safely to the hotel where we were to stay, and drew freer breath.

 It was six o'clock at night We were teo tired to go down town, and having ordered some dinner, Nan proceeded to array herself for that ceremody.

 But what should we dc with the diamonds /? There was but one thing now. Nanon put the comb in her hair and overlaid it with those soft and abundant coils till not star peeped to light, and over all she pinned lit tie black lace handkerchief, out of date as to fashion, but nightly picturesque. The neck lace was worn under her high dress of dark silk, and for fear the shape of the ornament would show, she had tied herself up, as to the throat and shoulders, in scarf of some deli cate sort of lace. She looked like an invalid angel; but who cared? The jewels were covered up, and the cases locked up in our handbag.

 In the evening friends came to see us. They stayed until ten o'clock, perhaps Nanon, very tired, went up stairs before me few minutes When 1 reached our room, found her sitting by the open window. She did not stir for a moment, but when I was partly un- dressed, said she had left her lace handker- chief in the parlor, and must go for it. Pres ently she came flying back.

 "Oh, Jack. Uncle Ward wants to see you. Can't you put your clothes on and come down? p

 ''Why, what made him SO late?" said I, rising hastily, for Mr. Ward was my mothers only brother, and had been like father to me in my early orphanage.

 II don't know" she said, her face pale with excitement, "but hurry, dear; it is so late !'

 I made good speed, as the old ballads say, yet when we reached the parlor there was no Uncle Ward there turned to Nan with sur prise in looks and words.

 Il didn't say he was here, dear; he wasn't. But there is burglar in our room-under the bed, think-and 1 wanted to get you down here"

 Man P exclaimed.

 ''There is, there is! Oh, Jack, I smelled the horriG tobacco the minute went in, but 1 thought he would suspect if I went right back, and l opened the window so 1 could call if you delayed long, and So you would not perceive the smell too and make remarks about it. Please get a policeman right away"

 What could do? Could tell that super cllious and condescending creature, the clerk that my wife smelt burglar and wanted a policeman? Yet 1 had faith to believe that she did, knowing her as did took refuge in the presumed weakness of the sex, told Nancn to sit in the parlor till 1 came back, and with shame On my countenance and lie on my tongue, represented to the clerk that my wife was very nervous, and had an idea not to be reasoned away that there was a burglar in our room. Would he kindly send for po- liceman With mild contempt on every linea- ment he rang bell and gave the needful CT der, and in five minutes the article arrived. We mounted the stairs to 46 and began our search. There was nobody under the bed or in the closet but the policeman signed me to shut the door, and inserting key from his pocket into tho wardrobe door, which I sud denly observed was without the key Nan had used after putting away her cloak and hat, he laid violent hands on slight wiry, ill-looking fellow who tried to slip past him, but submit ted when he saw there were two of us.

 On investigation next day he disclosed that we had been watched all the way from home, my wife's devotion to her hand bag observed and understood, but from her net putting it down an instant, and our transit from the sta tion to the hotel being very brief and in broad daylight, it had been impossible to obtain pos session of the prize, and he had resorted to lying in wait in the wardrobe till we should be safely asleep. The bag had been opened, of course, but only the empty cases found.

 Neither of us slept much that night. The diamonds went to breakfast with us, and in carriage from the hotel stable we conveyed them to the jeweler with whom we had before communicated. They were sold and the money deposited in bank before dinner time, and we went home much happier pair than we left it.

 had weighed in my mind by this time all the advantages and disadvantages of my wife's peculiar faculty and concluded that it's good outweighed it's evil. With satisfied and grateful heart I said again that night, "Bless your dear nose. Nan !"Rose Terry Cooke.

 'Here," said the farmer, as he exhibited a