NORTHWESTERN t S
$ s
UNIVERSITY if
LIBRARY
'tíahr.ií spiKii 'nik noY's nanaun, and iiat.teh." (Pase 40.)
Ruby, Pearl, and
Diamond
THE ABINGDON PRESS
NEW YORK CINCINNATI
Copyright by
EATON & MAINS.
1901.
First Edition Printed September, 1901
Reprinted March. 1912; November, 1914; November, 1916
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER 1.
FAGB.
The Campbell Jewels 5
CHAPTER II.
The Orphan 1$
CHAPTER III.
The Runaway 24
CHAPTER IV.
The Washington Picnic 33
CHAPTER V.
The Rescue 42
CHAPTER VI.
A Glad Surprise 5'
ILLUSTRATIONS.
"Earle spied the boy's danger, and halted " Frontispiece.
FACING
PAGB
" Pearl herself lay stretched on the hearth rug " i6
*' Don't," screamed Ruby. 20
" Diamond contentedly curled up in the lap of a young
lady". 28
" Here they are, Earle," said a voice at his side 32
" Pearl, he can't have you ever " 48
Ruby, Pearl, and Diamond.
CHAPTER I.
THE CAMPBELL JEWELS.
Ruby Campbell sat curled up in the
middle of the long-haired Angora rug
before the sitting room grate, gazing into the
fire. Over in the window seat Earle, her big
brother, was stretched comfortably, watching
the rain come steadily down. It was literally
pouring, and the orange trees, with their thick
dark-green foliage, had the appearance of huge
opened umbrellas ; while shining brightly
among the glossy wet leaves were hundreds of
golden oranges, ripe for the market.
" O, I do wish it wouldn't rain any more to¬
day;" and Ruby got up and went over to the
window where Earle was taking life so easily
and not minding the rain the least bit.
' ' Mamma won't let me go out to my playhouse
—and it's just as dry as this room."
6 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
Earle reached up one arm and pulled the
little girl down beside him.
" It is a daisy, that's a fact, and I don't wonder
its mistress is miserable because she can't keep
house in it;" and Earle sat up and looked out
between the row of orange trees at a funny
little house under a drooping pepper tree. It
was, in fact, not a house, but a faded blue and
buff horse car that Ruby's papa had bought of
the street car company when the new electrics
took the place of the old cars on Magnolia
Avenue. With the side seats taken out and the
windows hung with lace and red calico curtains,
a soft rug on the floor, and all the elaborate
outfit for housekeeping of a little girl of ten
years arranged in order, it was indeed a thing
of beauty.
Mamma had helped, part of the day before,
to fix things, and even sister Evelyn had given
an hour from her music—she practiced four
hours a day—to assist in the decoration of
the walls and the adjustment of the brilliant
denim curtains between the tiny parlor and
kitchen.
And now, after she had dreamed about it all
night and invited two little girls to come half
THE CAMPBELL JEWELS. 7
a mile to share the joys with her, it had rained
all day, and the dolls, who had moved in the
previous evening, had to be brought back,
covered up in the clothes basket, to their old
tenement in the corner of the sitting room,
where they had sulked all day.
"O, dear! it's awful to have it rain Satur¬
days ; and I wish Evelyn would ever get
through taking her music lesson," Ruby con¬
fided in Earle's sympathetic ear.
"Yes, I wish she would wind up—I'd like to
play a little myself," said the young man,
reaching for his pet violin. The next moment,
as he saw the bent figure of the delicate-look¬
ing professor pass out of the parlor into the
hall, he began to play Ruby's favorite melody,
"A Hot Time in the Old Town."
" O, Earle! that dreadful thing!" expostu¬
lated Evelyn, coming to the parted draperies
dividing the parlors. " Don't let Professor
Broch hear such chaff, after our hour with
Beethoven."
Evelyn was a tall, stately young woman, not
exactly beautiful, but very distingfuished-look-
ing, and was regarded as a musical genius.
She was fair and sweet as a lily, and wore her
8 RUBY. PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
dark brown hair brushed straight back from
her forehead without a curl.
" Now, Ruby, I'll give you half an hour
with your scales," she said, in a businesslike
way, as the front door closed on Professor
Broch, but the child ran out into the hall, de¬
fiantly, and upstairs, crying :
"I don't want to—I won't play any horrid
old scales ! I never want to leam to play, play,
play, forever, as you do."
"Ruby, dear, what ails you?"called Evelyn,
patiently, coming up and following the little
runaway into grandma's front room.
"Dear me, childie," said sweet Grandma
Barle, looking up from her writing desk, where
she was making out reports for the missionary
society.
Grandma Barle was the dearest, saintliest old
lady, with a fair face but little wrinkled at
eighty, white hair parted and crimped in rip¬
pling waves, and a light in her dear eyes,
" Like the dusk in evening skies."
She lived so close to heaven that she made
the home where she was waiting seem like
Beulah Land.
THE CAMPBELL JEWELS. 9
"I don't want to take a lesson—I don't feel
like it—I'm not going to be a musicianer, any¬
way. One in the family's enough. I'm just
tired of living like grown-up folks and never
having anybody to play with but dolls and cats
and—and borrowed sisters," sobbed Ruby,
burying her head in grandma's lap. " It just
rains, and rains, and rains."
Grandma laughed, and Evelyn began to sing
Longfellow's " Rainy Day,"
"It rains, and the wind is never weary."
She went to the window and looked out upon
the beautiful wide avenue, where palm and
magnolia trees alternated along the sidewalks,
and where green lawns ran down to meet the
white cement sidewalks without any fences to
keep them separate. Up and down the borders
of the driveway and the footwalk were bloom¬
ing rosebushes and calla lilies, drooping with
filled cups in the January storm that was
making California smile like the garden of
Eden.
"O! " cried Evelyn, suddenly, darting away
from the window. ' ' Professor Broch ! he has
fallen on the sidewalk. He was too ill to be
10 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
out to-day—I told him so. Earle ! " she called,
as she was running down the staircase and out
on the veranda, snatching a circular cape from
the rack as she went.
Earle's strong arms easily lifted and bore the
fainting man into the house, laying him gently
on the couch.
"Telephone for a doctor, Ev," he said.
" And send the carriage for his family—or
has he any? "
Evelyn executed his orders promptly, and
then came back.
" I'm afraid it is no use," said Earle, rubbing
the slim white hands with all his might, and
bending his ear to catch a faint whisper from
the man's lips t
" My little Pearl—take care of—my—child."
Earle looked up at his sister.
" He means his little g^rl—^his only child,
and all he has in this country. His wife is
dead. I will go myself and get the poor little
thing," said Evelyn. " Mother, I'll take Ruby
with me—from this sad scene. Come on,
pet."
Sometimes—indeed, very many times—Ruby
was glad she had such a darling big sister as
THE CAMPBELL JEWELS. 11
Evelyn, although she longed so much and
prayed so often for a little sister to play with.
"Pearl Broch is about your age, dear,"
Evelyn was saying, as she buttoned the little
girl's warm cloth coat. "Once she played a
beautiful sonata at a musicale her father gave
for his younger pupils."
Ruby looked down at the hall carpet.
"I guess I sha'n't like her much, then, if
she's fond of scales. Is her papa going to die? "
" I hope not, dear. Come. Here is the car¬
riage."
They were soon tucked under the robes on
the back seat of the carriage, with the rain
pattering down on the close-buttoned curtains.
" Is it heart disease? " asked Ruby, solemnly.
" I'm afraid it is," said Evelyn. " Poor little
Pearl ! I don't think she has any aunties or
uncles nearer than Germany."
" Is she a little German girl, Evelyn? "
" Her papa is German, you know, but Pearl
was born in New York, only a few days before
her mamma died. Her papa has raised her
very tenderly, and has had to be both father
and mother to her. She is just the sweetest
kind of a little girl, if she is good about
12 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
practicing while you are sometimes naughty
about it."
Ruby rubbed her nose against Evelyn's soft
fur cape penitently.
When the carriage stopped at a tall flat, in
the center of the city, the rain had ceased, and
Ruby followed Evelyn up the stone steps, feel¬
ing sorry for Pearl Broch, because she had no
front yard.
*' They have the double parlors of the lower
flat and board with the landlady," Evelyn
explained, as she rang the bell.
Ruby expected to find a little gfirl with young
lady airs obediently practicing scales and finger
exercises on the professor's beautiful grand
piano; but when they entered the parlor she
was surprised to see before the grate fire a
child's tea table set for the little mistress and
her two dolls, while Pearl herself lay stretched
on the hearth rug playing with the most beauti¬
ful white Angora cat she had ever seen.
Evelyn went to the child and took her in her
arms, turning away her face to hide the tears
in her eyes.
" This is my little sister Ruby, Pearl," she
said. "We came to take you home with us.
THE CAMPBELL JEWELS. 13
for your papa is there and is not feeling well
enough to come home. Now, get your hat and
coat and come with us in the carriage. Ruby
will put away your tea things while you get a
few things to take with you."
Pearl's large blue eyes were lifted to Evelyn's
in anxious inquiry, as she tossed back her
golden curls.
"Is my papa very sick?" she asked, with a
quivering lip. " Sometimes he lies back in his
chair and doesn't speak, or puts his head down
on the piano, when he is playing—and I'm
afraid—"
"Never fear, darling," said Evelyn, softly.
" He is much better now, I hope. Would you
like to take your lovely cat with you? "
"Yes, for I'm afraid he would miss me,"
answered the child, as she went with Evelyn
into the adjoining bedroom to get her wrap
and hat.
As they rode swiftly out of the city to
the beautiful orange groves of the suburbs.
Ruby held the snow-white cat in her arms
admiringly.
" I think he is the handsomest cat I ever saw.
What's his name? " she asked.
14 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
' ' Diamond. Papa named him that because
his eyes are so bright and change color."
" O," laughed Ruby. " Isn't it funny? He's
a diamond, and you're a pearl, and I'm a ruby."
"Yes," answered Pearl. "Papa calls Dia¬
mond and me his two jewels."
THE ORPHAN.
16
CHAPTER II.
THE ORPHAN.
PVELYN'S and Ruby's sweet-faced mother
' stood in the front door as the carriage
came up the driveway. She came down the
veranda steps and took Pearl in her arms, and
the tears on her sweet, fair face told the sad
news to the orphaned child.
" O, my papa! my own darling papa! " she
cried. And then Mr. Campbell took her from
his wife's arms and carried her into the house.
" Little Pearl, / will be a father to you now,"
he said, softly, " for he gave you into our keep¬
ing before he went to God." And he took her
into the quiet room, where she sobbed out the
first bitterness of her grief on the dear, silent
heart. Then he carried her up to grandma's
room, where the dear old lady held her and
rocked her to and fro as she told her of the
time, seventy years gone by, when her father
had left her an orphan ; until at last Pearl fell
asleep in the loving, sheltering arms.
The next day, Sunday, Evelyn took her
16 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
place at the gjeat pipe organ in the church
where Professor Broch had served as organist
for nearly five years, and well she filled the va¬
cancy left by her talented teacher.
"You played beautifully, Miss Campbell;
his mantle has surely fallen upon you, and you
must accept the position as our organist," the
pastor told her, after the morning service.
' ' What of the dear little daughter he left alone
in the world?"
"We have decided to keep her, at least for
the present, as a companion jewel to our lonely
little Ruby, who has so often prayed for a sis¬
ter of her own age," was Evelyn's smiling
reply. " Even now dear little Pearl seems
comforted with the thought of having found
a sister."
" It is a kind providence, her having been
committed to you so unexpectedly," said the
good pastor, brushing the tears from his eyes.
That afternoon the two little girls sat together
before the library fire, with the great white
Angora cat purring softly between them.
" Papa always said that when I was eighteen
he was going to take me back to Germany to
study music," said Pearl sadly. " But now I
"Pearl iiersele lay stretched on tjie hearth rug." (Page 12.)
THE ORPHAN. 17
can't take any more lessons, and I'll never cross
the big ocean and see my dear old granny, who
is poor. Papa always sent her money, because
when he was a young man she worked hard
and helped him to get through the big conserva¬
tory of music."
The tears stood in the blue eyes, and Ruby
snuggled closer to the little orphan.
"I g^ess Evelyn will give you lessons, the
same as she does me—I wish she'd gfive you all of
them, for I'm not going to be a musician ; I just
hate to practice. And maybe Evelyn will take
you with her to Germany when she goes there
to study music for two years; but you must
promise me to come back, sure, for you are
going to be my own little sister, mamma says.
I've needed one for a long time, because I have
no little girl near here to play with. There
used to be two nice girls on the next place, but
their father sold out to an Eastern family, and
they just have a young lady and one little boy.
Mamma says they're strangers and I mustn't
go over there any more ; but the boy plays with
me some out on the front walk. He's real nice,
for a boy, but I'd much rather have you to play
with."
2
18 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
After the first sad days were past little Pearl
was made to feel so much at home in the Camp¬
bell family that she found no time to grieve
over her loss, although she missed her dear
father more and more. Evelyn at once inter¬
ested herself in the musical studies of the tal¬
ented child, and when the music committee
from the church came one day to offer her
Professor Broch's position as organist, at the
same salary, she told them how she meant to
apply the money she thus earned toward the
education of the little orphaned genius.
They were deeply interested in the case, and
before they went away Evelyn went after Pearl
to bring her into the parlor to play for them.
Pearl was propelling her doll carriage up and
down the cement sidewalk under the palm and
magnolia trees, and beside her walked Ruby,
hauling the aristocratic Angora cat in a red ex¬
press wagon, which belonged to the little boy
who lived in the adjoining lemon orchard. The
boy, his position of knight-errant to Ruby
Campbell having been usurped by a golden-
haired girl with a face like a calla lily, was
sulking revengefully out on the edge of the
sidewalk as he whittled a stick.
THE ORPHAN. 19
Evel)m took Pearl into the house to play for
the committee, and Ruby turned her attention
to Sydney Ames.
" Humph! You think you'll play with me
when she isn't 'round," said the boy, digging
his knife into the verbena bed outside the walk.
"Before I'd haul a cat 'round on a cushion!
Girls play so silly."
Ruby snatched the great cat up in her
arms and pushed the wagon away with her
foot.
"You can take your old wagon, Sydney
Ames, if you're so cross," she snapped. " You
ought to be ashamed to get jealous of Pearl.
Suppose your papa should die ? "
Sydney grinned at the improbability of such
a thing, for his big, strong father was over in
the lemon orchard turning up long furrows of
brown soil with his plow, and whistling " El
Capitan."
" I wouldn't like a girl who was smarter'n I
was, Ruby," he said.
" She isn't smarter than I am."
"Yes, she is, too. She can play fifty hun¬
dred times better'n you can—as good as your
sister Evelyn can play. If I was your sister, I
20 RUBY. PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
wouldn't waste any more time giving you
lessons."
" Well, I just wish she wouldn't," said Ruby.
" It isn't my fault if Pearl can play better than
I can, and I don't care if she does. It's her
talent, and not because she's smarter than I am.
She's going to begin school with me next week,
and she's a whole g^ade lower than I am. She
doesn't know a thing about long division ; and I
guess I ranked two in my class, didn't I ? "
Master Sydney shrugged his shoulders.
"I g^ess I ranked one, didn't I?" he re¬
torted, whistling to his dog, a homely little pug
he had inappropriately named "Beauty."
" Don't! " screamed Ruby, as the soft bundle
of fur in her arms began to grow rigid with
fright. " Your beastly little dog will scare
Diamond to death."
"I don't care if he does; he's no more a
beast than that old cat," said Sydney, grabbing
up his favorite and running toward the quiver¬
ing Angora. " If he's scared to death, you can
have his skin made into a cute little fur rug for
your playhouse ; " and with that he thrust the
pug nose of the ugly Beauty into the very face
of poor Diamond, whose long silken hair stood
THE ORPHAN. 21
out like the bristles on a hairbrush. With one
furious hiss and a frantic scratching of Beauty's
unlovely countenace, Diamond leaped from
Ruby's arms and darted ojï up the street like a
flash.
" O, you mean, wicked boy! just see what
you've done. What will Pearl say? "
' ' O, I'm awful sorry, Ruby, and I'll bring
him back," cried Sydney, dropping his pug and
running after the vanishing spot of white.
The dog, believing it to be his duty to avenge
the scratch on his patrician nose, began to run
too, a great deal faster than his little master
could possibly run on two legs.
"Call him back!" screeched Ruby, in an
agony of grief, and Sydney called, but to no
purpose, for he had been too easy a master, and
his dog was not an obedient servant so much as
a pampered pet.
Just at this critical moment, as poor Ruby
stood crying and jumping up and down in dis¬
tress, Earle came spinning home from town on
his bicycle.
" What's up, sis? " he called.
' ' O, Earle ! don't stop ! run on fast and catch
Pearl's cat. That hateful Sydney scared him to
22 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
death with his horrid old dog, and he's running
off like lightning—see him? There! he's turned
the corner," wailed Ruby.
Earlebent forward on his wheel, and away
he flew, calling back :
" He's pretty lively for a cat dead from
fright, but I'll capture the runaway corpse if I
can.
Ruby ran on after him as fast as her feet
would carry her, and when she reached the
comer saw him striding through Mr. Ames's
orchard, tmndling his wheel.
" He cut across lots. Ruby, and I've lost sight
of him," he called. "But I'm going to cap¬
ture the dog and hold him a prisoner, as ran¬
som, and I'll tell Sydney's mother about it.
"Goody," said Ruby, turning to run home
and break the news to Pearl. " He'll get a
good whipping from his father, I guess."
All this time Pearl had been playing for the
committee, who were just going away as Ruby
ran up on the porch. In another instant the
little prodigy, whose playing had entranced the
visitors and caused them to prophesy a great
future for her, was mnning in breathless haste
across the orchard holding Ruby's hand.
THE-ORPHAN. 23
They found Mr. Ames resting on his plow
and argfuing with small Sydney as to why he
should stop work for the trifling purpose of
catching a cat.
' ' But it's not a common cat, papa—it's the
beautifullest white silk Angora, and it's Pearl
Broch's cat ; Pearl's papa died, you know, and
she hasn't got an)rthing left to love but the cat
—except Ruby, of course, only Ruby's new."
Mr. Ames threw his head back and laughed.
" O, well, my boy, here comes the cat's fos¬
ter mother, and I guess she can coax her pet
back better than I can," he said, chirruping to
his horses.
24 RUBY. PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
CHAPTER III.
THE RUNAWAY.
HE children ran on ahead of the horses.
"Are you going to tell papa on me
Ruby? *' questioned Sydney, in a meek voice.
"Well, maybe I won't have to. Earle said
he'd tell your mother, you know," Ruby
answered, with dignity.
"Well, I say, I'm awful sorry; and if the
cat gets lost or killed, I'll buy Pearl another,
and go without candy and ice cream soda for a
whole year," declared poor Sydney.
' ' But you can't get another Angora cat any¬
where—they're imported," said Pearl, using the
big word readily. " They come from Turkey,
away off in Asia. They can't stand so much
as common cats, because they haven't got nine
lives ; and if Diamond was so dreadfully scared,
it may kill him."
"O, I hope not," said Sydney. "And if it
does, I can get one for you at a music store
down town where I saw two big Angora cats
THE RUNAWAY. 25
and three kittens in the big show window.
They're just as pretty as Diamond."
"But they never could be Diamond, because
I've had him ever since he was a kitten. Papa
got him for me at that very same music store.
He knew Mr. Carter, for he bought all his
music there. I used to go with him often, and
play with the big cats ; and then, one day, Mr.
Carter showed me four little Angora kittens
and said I could have one for my own when it
was big enough to take away. They looked so
pretty, running around among the pianos and
organs in the store, or sleeping among the vio¬
lins and mandolins in the show window. One
day the biggest cat was standing up right by
the side of a big bass viol, and Mr. Carter put
an old bow in his paws for a plaything, and
called him Hey-diddle-diddle. A crowd of
people came about the window, and Mr. Carter
said it was a new style of advertising."
Sydney laughed.
"My!" he said, "if my dog Beauty'd
been there, he'd have 'laughed to see such
sport.' He's awful smart, my dog is—and I'm
sorry I taught him bad tricks. Will you for¬
give me. Pearl? "
26 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
"Oyes," said the dear, unselfish little girL
" But I do hope he isn't hurt."
They had reached the barn, and running in
and out and up and down, began to call " Dia¬
mond " in the most persuasive tones; but no
Diamond appeared.
' ' Perhaps he's run to the house and gone
into the cellar," suggested Sydney, starting in
a run down the driveway to the pretty modern
cottage. "O—o! if my sister Elsie hasn't got
him; look, there on the porch steps."
Ruby and Pearl ran to catch up with him,
and there, sure enough, they saw Diamond
contentedly curled up in the lap of a young
lady who sat on the upper step of the porch,
under the rose vines, laughing and chatting
with Earle Campbell as though it was not the
first time she had ever spoken to him—which
it was.
" O, Elsie," screamed Sydney. " Where did
you find him? Is he all right, really and
truly?"
Miss Elsie laughed a laugh that was as sweet
and rippling as a bird's song.
"Why, / didn't find him. He found me; he
ran right into my arms, as though he knew I
THE RUNAWAY. 27
was his friend. I was sitting here, sorting out
the sweet pea seeds I am going to plant, when
up flashed a white object and crouched into the
folds of my dress. Then Mr. Campbell came
after him and said Beauty had scared him to
death, and he had run away for fear of being
buried. You should teach Mr. Beauty better
manners, Sydney."
The little boy flashed a look of surprise and
gratitude up into the face of the young man—
he hadn't told on him.
"I—I guess I was to blame," he stammered.
Pearl was hugging her pet and rubbing his
fur against her cheek, calling him fond names
and smiling full and free forgiveness on the
penitent Sydney.
" Nobody is to blame, Syd," said Earle. "I
rather think I shall tender you a vote of thanks
for giving me a chance to get acquainted with
your sister. She has lived here for a year or
more, and has never spoken to me oecause we
had not been introduced. She and Evelyn
have exchanged formal calls, and so have our
mothers, but I don't call that being neighborly.
I think you and Ruby have been the only socia¬
ble ones of us all."
28 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
"I say, Elsie," demanded her small brother,
" he's a dandy, isn't he?"
"Who?" said Elsie, smiling oddly, as she
looked up at Ruby's tall brother. " Mr.
Campbell?"
" No, of course not; I mean Diamond. Isn't
he a beauty? "
" O yes, to be sure. Is the cat's name Dia¬
mond ? Why, what a string of precious gems
—a diamond and a ruby and a pearl ! " and
Elsie drew both little girls close to her as she
stood on the step, and kissed each one of them.
' ' I guess you'd like to take a picture of 'em
all three, wouldn't you?" asked Sydney.
"You know. Ruby, she uses up lots of plates
for her camera taking snap shots at me, and
she's worn me out, she says, and wants a new
subject. She's taken me in my best suit and
my old overalls, and in the swing and on the
grass with Beauty; but she says she's tired
of photographing boys. Take one now,
Elsie, do ! "
"Not to-night, dear; it is too late for a good
picture, but some other day perhaps the little
girls will let me take a shot at them and
Diamond."
9
"Diamond contentedly cukled up in the lap of a young lady." (Pase 26.)
THE RUNAWAY. 29
" O, come and take us to-morrow in our play¬
house," said Ruby, clapping her hands. " Did
you ever see it? "
" No; but Sydney has told me of its won¬
ders, and I'm just as anxious as any little girl
to take tea in it. It isn't so very long since I
was a little girl myself—only five or six years
since / was playing with dolls, and I have two
of them yèt, put away as treasures."
*' I'll invite you for to-morrow afternoon, and
you must be sure to come," said Ruby. " I'll
tell Evelyn about it."
"Well, I'll see," said Elsie, as they all
walked down the drive, and Earle told her,
laughingly :
" If Evelyn owes you a call, I'll send her over
this evening to return it, so that the tea party
may come off."
"How silly big folks are!" declared Ruby.
" When I'm gfrown up I don't mean to be so par¬
ticular about visiting folks and leaving cards."
"O yes you will, dear," said Elsie, sweetly.
" You'll want just as pretty a card case as your
sister has. But please tell her not to bring the
card if she comes this evening, but just to run
over bareheaded, as you have done."
30 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND,
" That's right," said Earle, taking ofiE his own
hat as he said good-night.
"Elsie," said Sydney, the next morning, as
he watched his sister toning prints in a little
black tray, " I want to take something over to
Ruby and Pearl for their playhouse, because,
you see, I scared the cat on purpose and made
him run off. I want to make up for it."
" O !" laughed Elsie. "Well, here is one of
your pictures, mounted—the one taken in your
best suit. Give that to them, and try to re¬
member always to behave as much like a little
gentleman as you look in the picture."
The afternoon tea in the " street-car house "
was a most select affair. Elsie Ames had to
stand outside the front door and focus her
camera as best she could upon the group of
feasters within, while Evelyn looked through
one of the windows and attended to the posing.
After the group was successfully photographed
inside the house another picture was taken on
the outside ; then another of Ruby and Pearl
with their favorite dolls in their carriages ; and
still another of them on the rustic seat under an
orange tree, with Diamond between them play¬
ing with an orange which Pearl held.
THE RUNAWAY. 81
" This picture we will call the ' Campbell col¬
lection of precious gems,' " said Elsie merrily.
" Now, I want one of Diamond, all alone in his
glory, lying on that red denim cushion on the
grass. The picture will be called the ' Great
Mogul Diamond.' "
Such a jolly afternoon as they had ! Mamma
and grandma came out and joined the party,
and Elsie took their pictures. As for Evelyn,
she actually forgot to go back to her practicing.
"Now, Miss Evelyn, it's your turn to be
shot," said Elsie, fixing a fresh plate in her cam¬
era. "Would you mind letting me take your
picture at your piano? You seem associated
with the instrument, to me, for I've enjoyed
your playing at concerts so often."
"Why, certainly," said Evelyn. It's a
shame you've only heard me at concerts when
we have lived so near, and I might have shared
my talent with you as you are sharing yours
with us to-day. Come into the parlor."
"And Pearl, too, please; I want one of her
at the piano—they say she plays so wonderfully,
for a child."
' ' She does, indeed ; and she will play for you,
won't you. Pearl?" answered Evelyn, leading
32 RUBY, PEARL. AND DIAMOND.
the way into the house. " I think Diamond
ought to have a medal for discovering what a
charming neighbor we had right under our
eyes."
" No," said Earle Campbell, who was on the
porch, just home from his business in the city,
" I think I ought to have the medal."
" No, sir," said Sydney, " I ought to have it,
for I own the dog that teased the cat." And he
turned a somersault on the grass, as he rattled
off " the house that Jack built " in a lusty voice.
"Peabl, he can't have you evek." (Page 54.)
THE WASHINGTON PICNIC. 33
CHAPTER IV.
THE WASHINGTON PICNIC.
February 22 the children of one of the
public schools were given a ' ' Washington
picnic." It was held in a beautiful mountain
park, a city reservation tucked away in a ro¬
mantic cafion, some six or seven miles from
town, and people went in crowds on the motor
cars or in carriages.
The Campbells went in their carriage, Evelyn
and the two little girls on the back seat, with
Sydney sandwiched between his sister Elsie and
Earle Campbell, who was driving, on the front
seat.
' ' O my ! it seems as though it must be Fourth
of July," said Sydney, '* only there aren't any
firecrackers. Whew ! back at my gfrandma's in
Minnesota the snow's six feet deep. Guess
they won't believe it when we tell 'em we had a
picnic on Washington's birthday."
"O," said Elsie, "we will send them some
pictures to convince them. I'm going to take
a dozen."
3
34 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
It was nearly noon when they reached the
shadowy cafíon, where thick mosses and ferns
clustered about the rippling stream under the
bare limbs of the willow trees, and the thick
shades of the tall redwoods and the unfading
liveoaks.
"O, how beautiful!" exclainied Pearl, her
face bright with gladness. "I wish"—and
then she stopped and her sweet face grew sad.
"What, Pearl?" asked Ruby, with quick
sympathy, for the two children seemed daily to
grow in closer afifection for each other. "I
gfuess you wish your papa could be here."
"Yes; he brought me up here once, on the
motor ; but it was a hot day in summer and the
hills were all d.ry. We had a drink at the
springs, but we didn't like the water ; and we
looked at the beautiful birds in the aviary, and
the deer over yonder, and the peacocks running
round over the flowery carpets, and we ate our
lunch at the restaurant. But we were almost
alone and we didn't stay very long. It wasn't
a picnic day, like this."
"Well, you'd better believe this is a picnic
day!" cried Sydney, jumping out of the car¬
riage and uttering a screech of boyish delight at
THE WASHINGTON PICNIC. 35
sight of the crowds of school children scamper¬
ing over the acres of natural gprass that were not
infested with " keep-off-the-grass " signs, as
were the blue-grass lawns and landscape flower
beds about the pavilion, where the mineral
waters gushed from silver faucets into a marble
basin.
They all tried to drink a glass of the bad-
smelling sulphur water, but turned away with
wry faces ; succeeded in drinking a little of the
soda water, and ended by taking deep draughts
of the cold "everyday water," as Sydney
called it.
" Now for our picnic spot," said Earle, who
was getting hungry, and knew just how many
patriotic young chickens had laid down their
lives for the occasion and were now lying in
state, temptingly fried, in the huge hamper
under the front seat, together with ham sand¬
wiches, crab salad, and a demoralizing lot of
rich cakes and tarts.
They drove on up the caflon, along the edge
of the jolly, sociable little creek, to an open,
uncultivated spot where the park authorities
permitted camp fires to be kindled. A dozen
were already blazing in rude little furnaces
36 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
made of round stones, under steaming coffee
pots, and Earle soon had another fire in full
blast. In half an hour the party of fifteen
friends and neighbors sat down on the grass to
eat as people can eat only at a picnic—espe¬
cially a winter picnic in California.
"Just wait a minute, everybody," said Elsie,
backing off with her camera, " and let me take
a picture of the table. It isn't necessary to say,
' Look pleasant.' "
After dinner there was a general stampede up
the caflon to the falls on the part of some of the
teachers and the older pupils, and not a few en¬
terprising mothers, armed with garden trowels,
who were eager for maidenhair ferns.
" I'm going too," declared Sydney, " and so
are Ruby and Pearl. I promised to get 'em
some ferns for their playhouse, and there's mil¬
lions of 'em up at the falls."
" Well, I don't care, dear, if you will promise
not to go into any dangerous places," said Elsie,
who was a little too easily domineered by her
small brother.
Evelyn, who was not much given to climbing
an3rthing but her high altitudes in classical
music, expressed a preference for a quiet hour
THE WASHINGTON PICNIC. 37
with a few friends, and suggested that the little
girls stay with her.
" O no ! we want to go," begged Ruby. "I've
never been up to the falls, and we'll promise to
keep close to Earle and Elsie."
"Well, if Earle and Elsie want to be
bothered, I don't care," replied Evelyn.
" O, we can manage them, I'm sure," laughed
Elsie ; and so away the children ran with a hop,
skip, and jump.
The falls were about three quarters of a mile
farther up the cañón, in its most rugged and
picturesque nook, and were reached by a steep
and rocky trail. Some time before they reached
them they could hear the music of the falling
water as it leaped in a veil of spray and mist
over the precipice to the deep pool forty feet
below.
" * Hear the Falls of Laughing Water
Calling to us from the distance,' "
quoted Earle, from Longfellow's "Hiawatha;"
and then he and Elsie became more interested
in each other and in talking of the books and
poetry they had read than they were in the lit¬
tle folks scrambling up the path ahead of them,
now in plain sight and now hidden by the man-
38 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
zanita bushes. When at length they reached
the foot of the falls, and Elsie had exclaimed
with due delight over the beautiful picture be¬
fore them, Earle suddenly exclaimed about
something else. The children were nowhere to
be seen ! There were plenty of other children
about, but they made so much noise, screaming
at the pouring waters like a lot of crazy little
elfs, that it did no good to call "Syd-n-e-y!" in
a high, shrill treble, as Elsie did, or " Ruby!"
in a short, quick shout, as Earle did, at the top
of his strong lungs.
" O, they're lost! " cried Elsie, forgetting all
about taking a picture of the falls.
' ' O no, they can't be lost in this narrow ra¬
vine," Earle said, confidently. " I mistrust
Sydney has been indulging his ambition to
climb higher than the beaten track, and if he
has. Ruby wouldn't be ah inch behind him in
the venture. You see there are people up
there at the head of the falls ; that's where they
have gone likely. Just go on with your picture
and I'll run up and find them."
Every step of the rough way up the rocky hill¬
side Earle stopped to look round and shout, until
he came suddenly into view of a hollow trench
THE WASHINGTON PICNIC. 39
whicli the rains of many winters had worn out,
but which was now only damp and moss-g^rown
and thickly covered with brakes and ferns. In
order to reach the actual top of the falls one had
to cross this hollow notch and walk over a rising
ridge to the brink of the rapid stream which
flung itself over the precipice. On the edge of
the precipice, close beside the plunging water,
a strong iron bar had been placed, so that ven¬
turesome people ran no serious risk in standing
for a moment and looking over the brink. Two
ladies and a gentleman were doing so now, and
down below Elsie was getting ready to take a
snap shot at them.
The fem-gfrown hollow, where Earle so sud¬
denly discovered Ruby's and Pearl's red and
blue felt hats bobbing up and down, sloped dan¬
gerously near the edge of the cañón, not a
dozen yards from the falls, and down its moss-
carpeted, stony floor the little girls were care¬
fully picking their way to where the hollow
ended in a fem-fringed " jumping-off place."
" I say. Ruby, what are you youngsters do¬
ing up here ? " called Earle. ' ' And where is
Sydney ? "
" Why, we just came on ahead, and thought
40 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
you and Elsie were poking along somewhere be¬
hind," answered Ruby. " Sydney's getting us
some maidenhair ferns."
" You're a bad lot," replied the young gentle¬
man as he came up to them, " And where is
Sydney getting ferns—not out there—on the
edge of doom?"
" Sydney's a good climber; he isn't afraid,"
said Ruby, with complacent confidence in her
daring knight. " Those boys over there called
him a ' sissy ' for playing with us girls, and dared
him to go over to the edge and get us some
ferns ; they got a lot there. So he took their
dare."
Earle did not wait to hear more, but strode on
over the rocks to the clump of ferns and brakes,
beyond which he saw, with horror, the reckless
boy lying flat on the rocky verge, peering over
the sheer side of the moss-and-fern grown prec¬
ipice, while his hands were busily digging his
knife under the clinging fern roots. Beside his
right hand lay a heap of the delicate mist-wet
beauties already secured. The moment that
Earle spied the boy's danger, and halted,
frightened, not daring to speak a word, the
child's eager hands reached a little farther down-
THE WASHINGTON PICNIC. 41
ward toward the beautiful cluster of maidenhair
that dangled half-uprooted just out of reach ;
and then, the very next moment, to his horror,
there was no boy there at all ! He had gone
over into the pool thirty feet below, shooting
forward to where the water was deepest.
There was no time to go back the way he had
come up. Earle Campbell was a splendid swim¬
mer. Many a time in summer, while spending
his vacations at the seashore, he had plunged
from the spring diving boards into the baths, or
jumped from the high wharf into the surf for
the fun of swimming back to shore. He did
not hesitate a second, therefore, to strip off his
coat and shoes and follow Sydney over the
brink, head first, his clinched hands thrust for¬
ward to meet the dark waters. Indeed, by the
time Sydney came to the surface from his sec¬
ond trip to the pebbly bottom, Earle was up
from his dive, ready to grab him by the collar
of his blouse.
43 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
CHAPTER V.
THE RESCUE,
Aloud cheer went up from the anxious
onlookers as Earle Campbell swam with a
few strokes of one arm to the brink of the deep
pool and waded out with Sydney's limp form
in his arms.
"O, Mr. Campbell!" cried Elsie, sobbing,
as she took her little brother in her arms.
"He will surely come to, won't he? You
saved him so quickly."
" O, he'll be all right in a few minutes," said
Earle. "Turn him over your lap on his
stomach. There! Now knead the water out
of him—this way." And they both fell to rub¬
bing and thumping the half-drowned little fel¬
low until his breath came back with a gasp.
" Lucky the water was deep," somebody re¬
marked, " or he'd have broken his neck."
" He hit nothing harder than moss and
water," said another, " and he didn't have time
to drown. How deep did you puncture the
spot where you hit, Campbell? "
THE RESCUE. 43
" Rather deep, I imagine, from the time it
seemed before I poked my head out again,"
answered the young man, rubbing away with
all his might. " Hello, there, you little rascal,
wake up. Do you feel refreshed after your
cold bath? "
Sydney began to cry, and Elsie hugged the
trembling body tightly in her arms and kissed
the wet face over and over.
" I don't see how you dared make that brave
leap," she said to Earle, looking up into his
eyes with unspeakable gfratitude. " How did
you know but what you would dash your head
against a rock under the water? "
Earle only laughed.
" O, I've had more than one swim in that old
pool, in my not-very-far-gone boyhood, and I've
sounded its depth by many a dive from that flat
rock there; but I never tried the high-jump
act before. There wasn't any risk to speak of.
Now we must get this little drowned rat down
to the bath house and tog him up in a dry bath¬
ing suit while his clothes are drpng."
He started to lift the boy in his arms, but
half a dozen pairs of willing arms reached for
the little burden, and the hero of the occasion
44 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
was ordered to " move on '* to the bath house
himself, while Sydney was carried by first one
and then another down the trail.
* ' If some one will be kind enough to go up
and get my coat and shoes," began Barle, be¬
fore starting on his run.
"Here they are, Barle," said a frightened
voice at his side ; and there stood Pearl, with
her arms clasped about his garments and in her
hand his watch and chain.
"Why, bless your sweet heart, dear! " and
Barle bent and kissed the quivering lips as he
took the clothes in his arms. ' ' I'd forgotten
all about you girls. Where is Ruby? "
' ' She's back there, crying awfully, for she
thinks she was to blame for killing him,"
sobbed Pearl.
"Killing him? Bless your heart, he's no
more killed than I am. He just got a little ex¬
tra water mixed up with his cake and tarts,
that's all. Tell Ruby to come along. Her
gallant knight of the maidenhair fern will eat
as much supper to-night as she will ; " and
Barle ran on with swift strides to get wanned
up. " I say. Miss Blsie," he called back, " did
you get a picture of the falls? "
THE RESCUE. 45
Elsie stopped suddenly.
" Well, I declare! " she exclaimed. "I for¬
got my camera. Yes, I took my falls—^before
you and Sydney took yours."
Everybody laughed, and Elsie reached up
and kissed once more the sorry face that lay on
the shoulder of the big boy who was carrying
the soaked little one.
"I'll run back and get my camera, dear,"
she told him, "but I'll soon overtake you.
Dear me ! what will mamma say when she
hears about it? I'm afraid she'll have a
nervous chill."
" I'm afraid I've got one, now," said Sydney,
his teeth chattering with cold and nervousness.
' ' Tell Ruby I left a whole pile of dandy ferns
upon the edge, and she can get 'em; and
maybe she can find my knife."
" O, you funny boy! " laughed Elsie, " No,
indeed. Ruby shall not go near that dreadful
' edge '—not for all the ferns in the cañón ; and
as for your knife, I g^ess it's at the bottom
of the pool."
There was not much more picnic for the
Campbells and their party that day. Elsie gave
Sydney a warm sulphur bath in one of the
46 RUBY. PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
blue-and-white-tiled bath tubs in a private room
in the bath house, and then dressed him in a
dry flannel bathing suit, rolled him in a shawl
and held him in her lap, as she sat outdoors in
the warm sunshine, while his clothes were dry¬
ing. Earle gave himself a similar treatment,
and came forth clothed in a poorly fitting suit
of clothes lent him by the superintendent of
the park, who weighed two hundred.
" I guess we are none the worse for going
overboard, are we, Syd?" he said, merrily,
after submitting gracefully to being laughed at
by everybody for his ungraceful appearance in
the big man's clothes.
"I think," said Ruby, who sat beside Syd¬
ney, lavishing attentions upon the distinguished
victim of her capricious fancy for ferns, "that
Earle's getting more glory to-day than George
Washington. I'd almost forgotten 'twas Wash¬
ington's birthday, he's been such a hero. I
just wish I could be a hero."
"Girls can't be heroes," said Sydney, im¬
portantly. "You and Pearl only stood up there
and cried and screamed—^that's all gfirls can do
when anybody's got to be rescued."
" Nonsense, you little lord of creation," said
THE RESCUE. 47
Elsie. " I think a certain boy would have
shown himself much more of a hero if he had
refused to accept the silly dares of bad boys, in¬
stead of risking his life and frightening his sis¬
ter and friends, all for fear of being laughed at.
Girls would do a great deal better than that, I'm
sure. Now, Ruby, you and Pearl run ofiE and
play until the clothes are dry enough for us to
start home, and let this young hero who has
spoiled your picnic reflect upon what selfishness
is bound up in the masculine heart."
The big folks all laughed, although the chil¬
dren didn't understand why.
" I say Earle's a hero, anyway!" stoutly de¬
clared Sydney. "No girl could have done what
he did."
"Yes, Mr. Campbell is a hero, unquestion¬
ably," agreed Elsie, looking up into Earle's
eyes, laughingly. " Still, I think that if some¬
body's big sister hadn't seen him dive down,
like a hawk after a little chicken, just as he did,
she would have jumped in herself and pulled
the boy out by his collar. She can swim, you
know, and she tried to teach the small brother
last summer at the seashore, you remember,
but he was ' afraid he'd get salt water in his
48 RUBY, PEARL. AND DIAMOND.
eyes/ and screamed when she dragged him out
into the big breakers."
Sydney covered his face with the shawl and
thought it was mean in all the big folks to laugh
again.
" But sister is too glad you are safe, darling,
to tease you," said Elsie, gently, as tears of
gratitude sprang to her lovely brown eyes.
" And so are we all, Sydney," declared Barle.
"You want to modify your plans and specifica¬
tions for a hero, that's all—as I have had to do
in the matter of clothes, you see;" and then
everybody screamed with laughter at the ex¬
pense of the droll-looking " hero."
Of course Mr. and Mrs. Ames were very
grateful that night that the accident had not
cost them the life of their little son. Mrs.
Ames was a delicate woman, and, although she
did not have a nervous chill, as Elsie feared,
she held Sydney in her arms and cried and
laughed over him by turns until she was worn
out.
After that day the two families became fast
friends and the most sociable of neighbors.
The Ameses began to attend church with the
Campbells, and Grandma Barle soon had Mrs.
"Here tiiey are, Eari.e," said a voice at itis side. (Page 44.)
THE RESCUE. 49
Ames interested in her beloved missionary so¬
ciety. Elsie, who had a sweet soprano voice,
was induced to sing in the choir, and before
three months the family who had felt so strange
and lonely in their new Western home were
actively interested in church work and winning
friends fast.
" All because your precious cat ran over into
our orchard, Pearl," laughed Elsie one Saturday
evening in the spring, after she and Evelyn and
Earle had returned from choir practice.
"Diamond is a regular home missionary,"
said grandma, who sat on the veranda in the
moonlight, with the pet cat in her lap and Ruby
and Pearl on the steps at her feet.
"No," said Ruby, "he must be a foreign
missionary, because he's a Persian cat doing
missionary work in America."
"You're right. Ruby, he is," laughed Earle,
starting to walk home with Elsie. " It was his
mission in this foreign land to teach us to ' love
our neighbors as ourselves.' "
Mamma Campbell and grandma and Evelyn
all laughed softly, as though Earle had said
something funny, which Ruby and Pearl didn't
think he had.
4
50 RUBY, PEARL. AND DIAMOND.
"Why, he just said a verse, mamma—the
one I learned at prayers this morning," said
Ruby solemnly.
"Yes, dear," said mamma, sweetly, "and
Earle is just learning it over again. Now you
children must go to bed."
Ruby and Pearl were almost asleep in their
white-enameled beds, side by side, when Earl
came up stairs whistling a strain of music from
Elsie's solo in the anthem.
" I think it took Earle a long time, didn't it? "
said Pearl, sleepily.
"Yes ; Earle's always kind of poky," drawled
Ruby, as she floated off into dreamland.
A GLAD SURPRISE.
51
CHAPTER VI.
A GLAD SURPRISE.
'^HE Campbells and tbe Ameses spent the
* summer at the seacoast, living side by side
in two dear little cottages facing the white-
capped breakers that rolled up on the long
stretches of white sand where the children
played all day. In the Campbell cottage there
was a piano, and Evelyn kept up her practice
almost as faithfully as she did at home, while
Pearl was never so engrossed with her play on
the sands or her morning dip in the surf as to
forget to spend an hour over the keys that
responded so sweetly to the touch of her
small fingers.
"I can't see how you can bear to sit there
and play, play. Pearl Broch, when we're at the
coast," said Ruby with contempt. "I'm glad
mamma's giving me a rest on my music."
" O," said Pearl, "I can't keep away from
the piano after I've been out on the rocks,
listening to the sea. I just sit down, and the
music comes of itself. Listen, now; doesn't
this sound like a wave coming in, and breaking.
52 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
and rolling out again—and the pines moaning
on the shore?" and the hands of the little
genius raced each other up and down the key¬
board in a way that almost took the breath
away from a strange gentleman who stood in
the parlor door with Evelyn, unobserved.
Evelyn had just returned from the city on the
Monday morning train. She went home every
Saturday to play the organ in church on Sun¬
day, and this time a stranger, a German who
spoke English brokenly, had spoken to her at
the close of the service. He was a scholarly
appearing man, who introduced himself as
Professor Broch, of one of the smaller uni¬
versities of the kaiser's empire.
"Broch?" said Evelyn, "a relative of our
late organist, my little Pearl's father? "
' ' Y es—his brother, " was the answer. ' ' Ever
since you wrote us of his death I have planned
to come for the child and relieve you of the
burden of her education. We are none of us
rich, and our families are large, but the little
cousins in Germany will gladly share with her
their simple comforts. You have surely done
your duty in great kindness, and I am come to
relieve you."
A GLAD SURPRISE. S3
Evelyn's eyes were filling with sudden tears.
"Relieve us?" she repeated, "of our
precious Pearl? O, indeed, we can't give her
up. What gave you an idea that we did not
want to keep her? I surely wrote'you that her
presence in our home was most welcome."
" Yes, I know you did. You have been most
kind. But our old mother has grieved sorely
over the death of her youngest son and yearns
to see his little child, especially as she inherits
his great talent."
" I cannot blame you, certainly, for I know
that family ties are strongly knit together
among you loyal Germans ; but it seems to me
it will almost break my heart to give Pearl up.
She is such an unusual child—such a rare little
genius and yet so sweetly childish and unself¬
ish. I had planned to go abroad next year
myself, for study in Germany, and it was my
purpose to take Pearl with me. I wish we
could persuade you to leave her and let me
bring her then."
And so this was the strange gentleman who
had come to the seaside cottage with Evelyn
the next day, and stood listening to Pearl's
little original idylle.
54 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
"It just sounds like scales to me," com¬
mented Ruby. "I wish you'd come and help
us make the sand fort. O, here's Evelyn ! "
and Ruby ran to greet her sister.
" Don't run away, children," said Evelyn.
"This gentleman is Pearl's uncle, and he has
come all the way from Germany, for—well,
what do you suppose? "
Ruby could not answer. A sudden fear
smote her loving heart, and she ran and flung
her arms about Pearl.
"If he's come to take you, Pearl, he can't
have you, ever, ever ! " she sobbed.
The spectacled professor evidently had girls
of his own far away in the fatherland, for he
knelt down and put both arms about these
loving little friends and kissed them.
" Don't be alarmed, dear children," he said,
kindly. "It is arranged with Mr. Campbell
that his daughter shall go to Germany next
May and bring Pearl with her for a visit of two
years. They will both study under a master,
and if, at the end of two years, Pearl loves the
work so well she does not care to give it up,
and becomes attached to us all, as we hope she
will, she is to stay until she is grown. But
A GLAD SURPRISE. 5S
if she prefers to return with Miss Camphell and
go on with her study under her instruction, she
can do so, and return to Germany when she is
eighteen, to finish. So for one year, nearly, the
Ruby and the Pearl shall not be separated, and I
will go back across the sea to tell dear old grand¬
mother what a precious pair of gems you are."
The two little girls looked at eaeh other with
smiles of relief and then threw their arms
about each other.
' ' O, Pearl ! I'll sit and listen to you play
sea-music for hours if you want me to,"
declared Ruby.
" And I'll dig in the sand and sail chip-boats
all day with you. Ruby," responded Pearl.
How fast the months seemed to fly after that !
Before they knew it, almost, it was winter
again, and the rains came back to freshen the
dry land. For Pearl's sake Ruby practiced her
music faithfully, and for Ruby's sake Pearl
sacrificed many a dreamy hour at the piano to
play games. It was seldom that the children
were separated, and Mrs. Campbell found her¬
self worrying about what poor Ruby would do
when she was left alone.
66 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
" You must make up your mind to be brave
and unselfish, dear," she said to her one day.
' ' Look about you and see where you can make
some one else as happy as you have made Pearl.
There are enough who need love and sympathy
to take her place."
' ' But, mamma, nobody can ever take Pearl's
place," declared Ruby.
" Perhaps not, in one sense, dear. In an¬
other you can always find some one who needs
the bright look and loving word you always
have for dear Pearl."
"Yes," said Ruby, thoughtfully, "but won't
we miss Evel3m terribly, too? "
" We shall miss her, indeed; but mother is
glad Evelyn can have the opportunity. Perhaps
we can find some one to fill Evelyn's place—
some one whom we already love very dearly,
who will be so happy and sunshiny we can't find
time to be lonely."
" Who, mamma? Somebody to live here in
the house with us? "
"Yes."
" Who is it ? "
"Well, dear—go and ask Earle."
Earle was in the sitting room, intently read-
A GLAD SURPRISE. 57
ing the newspaper. He laughed with a joyous
note of manly pride in his voice at Ruby's
question.
" I'll tell you what, little one—run over and
ask Elsie Ames who it is ? She knows."
Elsie was sewing over in her mother's sunny
sitting room, and her face flushed the sweetest
pink in the world at Ruby's inquiry. She
dropped the cambric and lace into her lap and
hugged both little girls, for Pearl had gone, too,
of course.
" Why, Ruby, dear, I'm going to be your
sister; didn't you know that? "
The truth suddenly dawned upon Ruby
and she jumped up and began to clap her
hands.
" Why didn't I ever think of that before?"
she cried, throwing her arms about the beauti¬
ful girl's neck and kissing her. " I think you
will make a lovely sister. When are you going
to have the—the wedding, you know?"
" In May, dear, just before Evelyn and Pearl
go abroad," said Elsie, blushing like a sweet
pink rose, for Earle had followed the children
across the orchards and was standing beside her
chair. " I want you to love me as well as you
58 RUBY, PEARL, AND DIAMOND.
do both of them put together, so that you will
not be lonely."
• •••••• ••
" And now, Ruby and Pearl, I have a secret
to tell you," said Mamma Campbell, that won¬
derful May day after her tall son and her sweet,
new daughter had kissed her good-bye. The
big house was dim and still when they came
back from the Ames cottage, where the recep¬
tion had been held after the church wedding.
" I haven't told you, because you have been so
excited, as little maids of honor for dear Elsie,
and I didn't want to get your happy times all
mixed up," went on mamma, mysteriously, as
she looked down smilingly into the eyes of blue
and brown. "It is this. Ruby, you and I are
going East with Evelyn and Pearl, as far as
New York, to see them sail; and then we will
spend the summer with friends. Grandma and
papa will stay here, and Earle and Elsie will
come home in a few weeks to keep them com¬
pany until we return in the fall. There, there,
don't go into fits with joy," mamma concluded,
as the little girls went spinning around the
room together in a perfect whirlwind of delight.
" I think. Ruby," said Pearl that night, "my
a glad surprise, 691
papa must be very happy in heaven to know I
am so happy here,"
Two weeks later one of the great ocean steam¬
ships sailed out of New York harbor with Eve¬
lyn and her little charge on board, both under
the protection of friends of Mr. Campbell,
" Good-bye, Ruby," sobbed Pearl, as Evelyn
and her mother unwound the two pairs of cling¬
ing arms at the last moment, "I'll write to
you every week,"
"Good-bye, Pearl,"answered Ruby, bravely
choking back her tears, " Elsie will take pic¬
tures of me every few weeks and I'll send them
to you ; and we'll take good care of Diamond
until you come back,"
The End.
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