THE SUSPICIOUS JACKDAW.
going to cry. But at last, as her mistress sat in her chair, and did not say another word, she began to steal away till she was arrested by her mistress's voice.
'Come back again, you poor misguided child—come back, and show me what you have got in your apron.' As Madame Mortimer spoke she started, for the evening was growing dusk, and when Patience turned, a light, a decided light, gleamed through her white apron.
'Please, ma'am,' she said, now holding it open, 'it's some glow-worms that old gardener gave me—three glow-worms, and some leaves that I got for them.'
'Bless me!' exclaimed Madam Mortimer, when she saw the shining insects slowly moving about on her little maid's apron; but she looked so much less angry than before, that Patience, by way of peace-offering, took up one of her treasures, and placed it, with some leaves, upon the open page of her mistress's great Bible, which lay on a little table by her side. 'You may go, now, Patience,' said her mistress, quite calmly, and the little girl left the room, while her mistress sat so long, lost in thought, that it grew quite dusk. 'After all,' she thought, 'that poor child must have been the thief; nobody else could have stolen the necklace; but I will still give her time to confess and restore it.' As she said this she turned towards the Bible, and the glow-worm on the page was slowly moving along it; the darkness hid every other word, but she read by the light of her little maid's gift, as it went on, this verse: 'We—do—all—fade—as doth—a—leaf.'
