“What I have, he shall be welcome to,” said the woman.
“Thanks, mistress,” replied the man. “I sha’n’t forget you; and one day or other—” he paused; and Paulina finished his sentence for him. “One day or other,” she said, “it may be your chance to meet with some poor body even worse off than yourself. Do what you can for them. That will be the best way of returning this good woman’s kindness to us.”
The child said this while she was bustling about, helping the woman to spread the table, and prepare the meal. She trotted about diligently, seeming to know where everything was kept, and making herself quite at home.
She still kept the poor stranger under her immediate protection, providing for his accommodation and comfort, pointing a seat out for him near to the hearth; relieving him of his outer cloak, and hanging it up on a nail; lifting the fur cap from his head, and beating the snow out of it, before she replaced it; hovering about him, and paying him those little fondling attentions, half-cherishing, half-deferential, which mark the conduct of a child toward an indulgent parent.
Presently she came and sat down beside him on the settle. “What a curious ring you have upon this finger. It’s something like one that my father used to wear. But his was an emerald; and this is, of course, a bit of green glass. Still, it’s very pretty,—it looks almost as well. Indeed, it’s larger; and here are some curious characters engraved upon it. Who gave it you?”
“It was my father’s,” said the man.
“Then, of course, not in the worst poverty could you part with it,” said she. “It is a false stone, isn’t it?”
“Having passed from father to son, for many generations, and from my own father’s hands into mine, it possesses a value for me beyond the most priceless gem,” answered he.
“And it really is pretty in itself,” said the child, “and very curious. These characters are like those I have heard my father describe upon the imperial signet; he said his own ring was very like the emperor’s, only smaller, and quite plain. Yours is about the size,—and with just such characters. Perhaps it was made in imitation; but, though it’s an imitation jewel, it’s very bright and pretty. It’s just as good as if it were real.”
