"Then where WILL you have it, mademoiselle?" asked Dard, sulkily.

"Here, I think, Dard," said Josephine sweetly.

Dard grinned malignantly, and drove in his spade. "It will never be much
bigger than a stinging nettle," thought he, "for the roots of the oak
have sucked every atom of heart out of this." His black soul exulted
secretly.

Jacintha stood by Dard, inspecting his work; the sisters intertwined,
a few feet from him. The baroness turned aside, and went to look for a
moment at the chaplet she had placed yesterday on the oak-tree bough.
Presently she uttered a slight ejaculation; and her daughters looked up
directly.

"Come here, children," said she. They glided to her in a moment; and
found her eyes fixed upon an object that lay on the knights' bough.

It was a sparkling purse.

I dare say you have noticed that the bark on the boughs of these very
ancient trees is as deeply furrowed as the very stem of an oak tree that
boasts but a few centuries; and in one of these deep furrows lay a green
silk purse with gold coins glittering through the glossy meshes.

Josephine and Rose eyed it a moment like startled deer; then Rose
pounced on it. "Oh, how heavy!" she cried. This brought up Dard and
Jacintha, in time to see Rose pour ten shining gold pieces out of the
purse into her pink-white palm, while her face flushed and her eyes