Country life -- Juvenile fiction; Girls -- Juvenile fiction; Grandparents as parents -- Juvenile fiction
"No, indeed. Anne has fought out many little fights of temper and
wilfulness right here in this little room--she is a dear child."
"Indeed she is," agreed Judy, glancing at the serene face on the pillow.
"But Anne has learned to think for others. That is the secret, dearie.
Think of your grandfather, think of your friends, and it will be
wonderful how little time you will have to think of Judy Jameson."
"If I had my mother." Judy's lip quivered.
The little grandmother laid her old cheek against the flushed one.
"Dear heart," she said, "I can't take her place, but if you will try to
talk to me as Anne does, maybe I can help--"
"I will," said Judy, and kissed her; but when the little grandmother
had gone away, Judy could not sleep, and finally she got up and put on
her red dressing-gown and sat by the window and looked out upon the
waking world.
The robins were up and out on the dewy lawn, safe for once from
Belinda, who was curled up sound asleep on the foot of Anne's bed.
Becky with her head under her wing was on top of the little bookcase,
and the house was very quiet.
Suddenly through the mists of the morning Judy saw a carriage coming
down the road.
It stopped at the gate and Launcelot leaped out.
Judy spoke to him from the window. "Hush," she said, "every one is
asleep. I will come down."
As she met him at the lower door, he swung something bright and shining
in front of her eyes.
"We found it," he whispered, excitedly, as Judy took her chain with a
cry of delight. "We came across the gipsies on the Upper Fairfax road.
The man tried to bluff it out, but the girl gave him away. While he
was talking to Dr. Grennell she told me that he had it. I think she
was mad at him about something, but she said he would kill her if he
knew she told. So I just went on about the Judge and how he intended
to put the police on the case if we didn't bring back the chain, and
that he would be willing to hush it up if we got it, and so he handed
it out--said it had been found on the ground after you left."
"Where is Dr. Grennell?" asked Judy.
"I dropped him at the manse," said Launcelot, "but I couldn't wait to
bring this to you. I thought you would want to know about it."
"I couldn't sleep," explained Judy, "I was so afraid I had lost it."
"It's a funny coin, isn't it," said Launcelot. "Dr. Grennell knows a
lot about such things, and he says it is a very old one."
"Yes," she told him. "Father found two of them on the beach in front
of our house, 'The Breakers.' There have been others found on the
Maryland coast near it, and they say that a Spanish vessel was
shipwrecked off there years ago, and that now and then some of the
money washes in. The fishermen along the shore dig holes in the sand,
and occasionally they find one of these."
"Well, you had better leave it at home the next time you go on a wild
goose chase."
"There won't be any next time," said Judy, with a sober face.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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