“O, what’s this?” cried Jo, turning up something near the pine tree from which they were about to measure. The three little girls dropped on their knees as Jo pried up from the ground an old-fashioned brooch set with a small garnet. It was well packed with dirt and took some cleaning and blowing on Jo’s part to make it apparent what jewel it contained. It was, however, remarkable, considering how long the pin must have been there if dropped by Captain Kidd, how little spoiled it was by wind and weather. The little girls looked soberly at each other and began to examine the place.
The next find was made by Dot and was a little silver coin, too worn for any marks of identification to be distinguished. This time the older girls sat down on the ground to examine it. “See how crusty it is with dirt!” exclaimed June excitedly. She was sitting at the foot of one of the larger trees and lifted a little mat of pine needles where the curving root showed a little hollow.
“O, look here, I feel something hard!” Slipping her hand down further, she fished out a queer-looking metal case of some sort, all battered and dingy, encrusted with dirt and rattling with its contents as June held it up. “H’m,” said she, “I guess it looks old enough for Captain Kidd’s time, or maybe the Indians put it there, or some hunter. Beads or pearls, which?”
The girls had quite a time in getting off the cover, which was at one end, but finally it flew off.
“Just beads.”
“Probably for Indians.”
“Take ’em out and see what’s underneath.”
“Empty the whole thing out into your lap!”
The last bit of advice was followed, and there came tumbling out of the funny old long case a stringy little mass of beads and jewelry. This they began to disentangle at once.
“Here’s a coral necklace.”