Page:The Black Cat v06no11 (1901-08).djvu/34

28 stone, took up the bucket of blackberries, and was about to resume her walk homeward when her glance wandered to the field across the way. Then she gave a little gasp, and stood staring into the field for a full minute; and, finally, she set her bucket down again and said, weakly:

"Great hat!"

For there, outlined on the dark green earth, was a gigantic Sphinx, made by the shadows of an irregular cluster of trees and bushes; more than that, Silver Brook emerged from the shadow at the top of the great head, ran downward jon the east side, doubled on itself, wavered across the field, and was lost to view in the northeast corner, which corresponded exactly to the upper right-hand corner of the stone. Ann compared the shadow Sphinx with the stone one, giving way to little bursts of joy as the points of interest proved similar to one another. She ran into the field back and forth over the shadow, and followed the brook to the edge of the field.

"To think that I should be the one to guess it! Oh, how surprised and glad everybody will be!" And Ann laughed aloud out of the fulness of her heart. But, as she turned homeward, the thought came that, after all, she had learned nothing definite; that she had nothing to tell except that the picture on the stone was apparently a copy of the shadow on the ground. If there was a "deeper" meaning to it she had not fathomed it; she firmly believed that there was something more, though what it could be she did not even attempt to guess; but no one else would believe it unless she could prove it. So, though she was almost bursting with the secret, she determined to say nothing about the matter to any one until she had investigated it further.

It was not surprising that Ann should employ original methods in the performance of her duties that evening, though her vagaries were rather trying to Mrs. Seabrook's already overburdened nerves.

"I didn't mind her salting the blackberries so much," she told her husband, plaintively, "but she had no excuse for putting birdseed in the biscuit. I found a dab of flour in Blackwing’s feedcup afterward! And there she sat all through supper like one in a trance, her eyes as big as saucers. And after supper she kept