ith the clear white radiance which is seen in nothing else save a
dewdrop when the morning sun first strikes upon it. There they lay,--a
handful of stones, a little heap of shining crystals; but enough to pay
off the mortgage on Hartley's Glen and leave the farmer a rich man for
life.

Dame Hartley was the first to rouse herself from the silent amaze into
which they had fallen. "Well, well!" she said, wiping her eyes, "the
ways of Providence are mysterious. To think of it, after all these
years! Why, Jacob! Come, my dear, come! You ain't crying, now that the
Lord, and this blessed child under Him, has taken away all your
trouble?"

But the farmer, to his own great amazement, _was_ crying. He sobbed
quietly once or twice, then cleared his throat, and wiped his eyes with
the old silk handkerchief. "Poor ol' father," he said, simply. "It seems
kind o' hard that nobody ever believed him, an' we let him die thinkin'
he was crazy. That takes holt on me; it does, Marm Lucy, now I tell ye!
Seems like's if I'd been punished for not havin' faith, and now I git
the reward without havin' deserved it."

"As if you _could_ have reward enough!" cried Hildegarde, laying her
hand on his affectionately. "But, oh! do just look at them, dear Farmer
Hartley! Aren't they beautiful? But what is that peeping out of the
cotton-wool beneath? It is something red."

Farmer Hartley felt beneath the cotton which lined the box, and drew
out--oh, wonderful! a chain of rubies! Each stone glowed like a living
coal as he held it up in the lamp-light. Were they rubies, or were they
drops of blood linked together by a thread of gold?

"The princess's necklace!" cried Hilda. "Oh, beautiful! beautiful! And
I _knew_ it was true! I knew it all the time."

The old man fixed a strange look, solemn and tender, on the girl as she
stood at his side, radiant and glowing with happiness. "She said--" his
voice trembled as he spoke, "that furrin woman--she said it was her
heart's blood as father had saved. And now it's still blood, Hildy, my
gal, our heart's blood, that goes out to you, and loves and blesses you
as if you were our own child come back from the dead." And drawing her
to him, he clasped the ruby chain round Hilda's neck.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE TREE-PARTY.

Another golden day! But the days would all be golden now, thought
Hildegarde. "Oh, how different it is from yesterday!" she cried to Nurse
Lucy as she danced about the kitchen. "The sun