Mr. Gay did as he was requested.
“Now go and get the necklace and the gold,” Mary Louise commanded the gypsy.
The woman struggled to her feet.
“First let me tell you about that necklace!” she begged. Her bony hands clutched Mary Louise’s sleeve, and she looked imploringly into the girl’s face. “It was a precious heirloom—has been in our family for years and years. We held it sacred; it brought us good luck. Oh, I can’t bear to give it up now that I’ve got it again!”
Mary Louise glanced questioningly at her father.
“Sit down again,” he said to the gypsy, “and tell us the story.”
“Thank you, sir!” exclaimed the woman, dropping down on the grass at his feet. “I’ll tell you....
“It goes back fifty years,” she began, talking rapidly, “in my mother’s time, when we used to come here to Cooper’s woods to camp every summer.... I was a child—and so was my little brother. A little fellow of six—my mother’s darling....
“One day he got suddenly sick. A terrible pain in his side. My mother almost went crazy, for she felt sure he was going to die. We couldn’t do a thing for him; the pain got worse and worse and worse. Then, like a burst of sunshine after a storm, Mr. Grant came riding up to us—and stopped and asked what was the matter. I can remember just how he looked—not a bit like his awful daughter Mattie! He promised to help us, to take my little brother to the hospital and get him well.
“My mother agreed, and she went off with Mr. Grant and the boy. They told her there at the hospital that the child had appendicitis, and Mr. Grant ordered the best doctor in the country.... And my brother got well!