I must be going if I'm ever going to! Good-bye, Miss Plummer--good-bye,
Rebecca Mary. All is, I hope Mis' Avery's boarder'll find her diamond,
don't you? But I don't calculate she will. Well, good afternoon. She
hadn't ought to have wore the ring, when she knew it was loose in the
setting like that. Some folks are just that careless! Well--"

But Rebecca Mary did not hear the rest of the Caller's leave-taking.
She had slipped away to Thomas Jefferson out in the sun.

"Oh, come here--come here with me!" she cried, intensely. "Come out
behind the barn where we can talk. I've got to say something to you
that's awful! I've GOT to, you've got to listen, Thomas Jefferson."

It was still and terribly hot in the treeless glare behind the barn,
but it was all in the day's work to Thomas Jefferson. Behind the barn
was a beautiful place for bugs.

"Listen! Oh, you poor dear, you've got to listen!" Rebecca Mary cried.
"You've got to stop hunting for bugs--and don't you dare to crow!
If you crow, Thomas Jefferson, it will break my heart. I don't
s'pose you know what you've done--I don't know as you'vedone it--but
there's something awful happened. Oh, Thomas Jefferson, it glittered--
I saw it glitter!" Suddenly Rebecca Mary stooped and gathered Thomas
Jefferson into her arms. She held him with a passionate clasp against
her flat little calico breast. He was HERS. He was all the intimate
friend she had ever had. He had been her little downy baby and slept in
her hand. She had fed him and watched him grow and been proud of him.
He was her all.

"Oh, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson, what was it that glittered in