“Butchie must have buried it there,” said Daddy, turning it over in his hands. “The sly little rascal didn’t want us to find it, but Buick outguessed him.”
“Open it! Open it!” Jane cried. “Hurry Daddy, I want to see what’s in it.”
Dad snapped it open and emptied it into Janie’s outstretched hands. It was filled with jewelry. Beautiful, old fashioned jewelry. There were two gold rings and a brooch and a locket. There was a small gold bracelet, such as a child might wear.
“Hm’m’m,” said Daddy. “Quite a little swag that our monkey had tucked away.” Janie was almost too surprised to talk.
“Why, Daddy,” she said, “this must belong to Mrs. Saunders. How do you suppose it got tossed out in the junk that way?”
“I can’t imagine,” Daddy answered. “Come on, let’s go and see what she says.” They hurried over and knocked on the door, but she had gone to the bus station to meet her guests and no one was home.
“Let’s show it to Mom,” said Janie, as they walked back to their cottage.
Mom was amazed. The boys were called in and they stood gaping. Grandma came down after taking her nap and she said, “Oh, so that’s what all the barking was about. I wondered what was going on.”
Butchie was terribly excited about finding the purse. He chattered and danced around and stood up and begged in his most persuasive manner. When he finally saw that he wasn’t going to be allowed to keep his treasure, he just plain sulked. Every one watched for Mrs. Saunders to come home and as soon as her car appeared they all ran over.
She was so happy she almost cried. “Why, bless your hearts!” she kept saying, again and again. Then she sat down and spread the jewelry out in her lap. “They were lost last fall when we were cleaning house,” she explained. “I thought they must have been stolen. I had given them up long ago. They were my mother’s rings and I’ve kept them all these years in remembrance of her. It isn’t that any one of them is worth a tremendous amount of money. It’s just because she wore them. Why, I can remember her wearing this garnet brooch just as if it were yesterday. It used to nestle in a white frothy ruffle at her throat, and when she sang in church it would twinkle like a star. This little locket was mine when I was a baby. Oh! I’m so thankful and so happy about this. How can I ever thank you?”