Page:Saxe Holm's Stories, Series Two.djvu/226

216 "I want one with a voice like Stonie," she said.

We were so accustomed now to this strange manner of speaking of the stone that we treated it merely as a child's fancy for thinking a toy alive. But there was much more in it than we knew. At last she made her selection,—two of the longest and slenderest crystals, of precisely the same length, one solid green, the other green and red.

"Are these too nice for me to have?" she asked timidly. "They are the best of all you have."

"You generous pussy," exclaimed Dr. Miller, "as if you had n't given us the very gem of the whole."

"Oh, Stonie was n't really mine!—only to keep for a little while," said Ally. "He was king."

The next day Dr. Miller was to set out on a long journey to the West, and he proposed to deliver our precious package of tourmalines, with his own hands, to the Professor.

"I 'd like to tell him, too, about you boys," he said, roguishly. "If I report all your misconduct faithfully, he 'll get your sentence extended another six months."

"Oh, if he only would!" we both exclaimed. "We do hate to go away."

The time was very near—only four weeks more. We could not bear to hear any one mention the days of the month. They sounded in our ears like the notes of a clock striking hour after hour of a happy day. Oh, the marvel of this thing which we