THE NUT MARKET

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 105, 30 October 1937, Page 20

THE NUT MARKET

Lucy..and Tess were twins. They were talking about the -bazaar. "How . would you two like to have • stall called The Nut Market?" asked their mother. "Colonel Forbes has * huge -crop of walnuts and hazels in his park and has offered them to us to sell.". "A Nut Market! Oh, Mummy, what a jolly idea!" cried Lucy. "We shall love ;it. Especially if we can pick the nuts. *'That will be half the fun. you knoytr." On .the day of the bazaar the' village, hall was the scene of much bustle end; excitement, in which the twins chared, as they arranged the bags and baskets of nuts in their market. "where is Miss Forbes, Mrs. Brown?" Tess.: inquired of the woman at the next stall; when the time for the opening of the bazaar drew near. "I thought 1 she was to help you?" "Oh, she'll be here presently," was the reply. ; "She's had to go into the town first. 'I think she has gone to th.e police , station to find out if any* one has found her ring." -'"Ob/ has she lost one?" cried Lucy. . "Yes, a valuable one her grandmother gave her," explained Mrs. Brown. "She's in a dreadful way ybout if." The twins were most upset to hear about their friend's misfortune, and! they asked eager questions when at last she appeared. "No luck!" Miss Forbes replied ruefully. "It was my fault, really, for wearing it' before it had been altered to fit me. 'The trouble is, I can't tell cxactly when it slipped off my finger: I first missed it on Thursday." "The morning we went nutting," Tess remarked. "1 wonder if you stropped it in one of the thickets?" "I wondered too, but, though , I've been over the ground a dozen times at least, there's' no sign of it" ' VPerhaps " Lucy began, "but then a child came up to her stall to bo served. '"Yes, filberts; a quarter of a pound, please," - the customer ■ repeated, and was watching the 1 weighing process with Interest when something -bright caught her'eye., • "Oh,, look, miss!" she cried, pointing -to the bcaped-up nuts on the scales. "Something shiny among them! Whatever is it?" ¥ , Lucy fumbled among the nuts, then gave a shout of delight. 1 h 'T say, Miss Forbes! Here's your ringl It must have slipped off your finger when you dropped a handful of nuts into the basket. ♦ ♦ *