“‘Jenny,’ I says, an’, dear, to be sure, how the voolish maid did jump!
“‘Lard, ma’am,’ says she, ‘you did fray me!’
“‘What be doin’ there?’ I axes her very sharp. ‘What be doin’ with that there ribbon? Where did you get it?’ I says, for I knowed very well she hadn’t a penny of her own.
“She went so red as a poppy, an’ stood still, gawkin’ at I, wi’out making no answer.
“‘You did steal it, I d’ ’low,’ I says, an’ I gives a kind of a scream.
“Then she did go white, and her teeth fair chattered in her head.
“‘Oh, no, ma’am,’ she cried; ‘no, indeed. It be mine, honest. It was give me.’
“‘Give ye,’ says I. ‘Who give it?’
“Then she did begin a-cryin’ and a-rockin’ of herself backwards an’ forrads. ‘It be mine,’ she sobs; ‘somebody did give it to I.’
“‘Somebody!’ I says, an’ the notion come to I all to once. ‘It was never that man as you met on the road yesterday?’