Page:St. Nicholas, vol. 40.1 (1912-1913).djvu/593

Rh nor how rich I feel with my new set of dishes. I shall treasure each piece as a priceless possession, and shall take the entire care of this china into my own hands. So woe unto him who breaks the first piece, for he shall provide me with an entire new set!” And amid a chorus of groans and laughter from her hearers, Mrs. Gordon resumed her seat.

The new china, duly enthroned on the topmost shelves of the china-closet, seemed destined to a long and uneventful life, for, after its owner’s dire threat, no one ventured to lay hands upon it for many months. Then, on a luckless day, Helen, who was entertaining college friends, was tempted by its dainty beauty, and with her own skilful fingers proceeded to decorate the tea-tray with her mother’s precious china. Just how it happened she could not understand, but in lifting one of the fragile cups from the shelf, there was a spiteful little crack, and the cup remained standing in its place, while Helen’s fingers held only the handle.

With a little cry of dismay, she lifted the cup in her other hand and mechanically replaced the broken piece. How perfectly it fitted into place! One would never guess that it had ever been broken. Struck by a sudden thought, she slowly set away all the pretty dishes, pressed the broken handle into place before she set the cup back among its fellows, and, with her forehead still puckered into a little frown, got out the every-day dishes and returned to her friends.

That very evening, Mr. Gordon, who had misplaced his ash-tray, wandered into the china-closet in search of one—a Christmas gift of the year before. He blundered upon the new dishes instead, and, warned by the same ominous click that had so startled Helen a few hours before, was just in time to catch the handle of one of the new cups as it fell from its place on the shelf. “Well!” he exclaimed in surprise, examining the broken pieces curiously, “this will never do. What will Mother say when she finds that I ’ve been meddling with her new china?” And when Mr. Gordon, wearing a whimsical smile on his good-natured face, returned to the living-room a few moments later, the cup, with the broken handle again pressed into place, stood on the shelf as before.