PELEG'S DIAMONDS.

Star (Christchurch), 30 September 1893, Page 2

PELEG'S DIAMONDS.

(Detroit Free Press.) Peleg M. Bivins, taking him altogether, was the provokenest man I ever see. Not that Peleg was not honest and Methodist, pious, and all that, but he did have the shif lessest ways and the caretessest habits of anybody I ever came across. He owned a good;farn_ on the edge of town and •somehow made a living on it, and they did cay he had money in the Bank, but he wasn't thrifty and didn't seem- to know how to make tha odds and ends useful. If he had an old plough or an old suit of clothes, or a pig that didn't exactly suit him, he never could tell what to do with it, and was sure to give it to some of his poor neighbours, and one time he give a man an old horse and the man actually sold him for 60dol. Fifty dollars ! And Peleg M. only laughed that la_.y laugh pf his when he heard of it. Another thing I didn't like about -Peleg M. was that he took, a fancy to me. Me ! • -Mary Kent Colliper, . one of the ' best catches -in the country, and the way he-pestered my daily life out was terrible to contemplate. ' "' " He kept on coming around twx> or three times fi week, ambling up to ■ the front . door from the gate like a. pacing colt, and asking where Mary was. when Mary was busy in the kitchen or doing her housework, and having no time to waste on a man, much less any maa like Peleg ; M. Bivins. But Peleg M. ju.t laughed when I scolded sind eet arouud in the way, talking to mother, for mother thought Peleg M, was the nicest young man in the whole State. One hight Peleg M. came to see •me ex« pressly, bo he said, and mother went over to a neighbour's. "Pd like to know," says Ito him ; " I'd like to know, Mr Bivins, why you annoy me with your attentions r" Tou seal was on my high horse and used high language. "I didn't know I annoyed you, Miss Colliper," aaid he, chuckling kind of mean like. " I thought I only pestered you. That's what you've said all along." "Tou. know what I mean," saidi, "and why do you come to see me .?" " There isn't another girl so handy, Miss Mary," said he. "Oh," saidi, with my nose turned up, "if that's the reason I won't be so handy," and I got .up to leave the room. '"Are you going to leave me here alone?" said he. "There's nobody to leave you with, is> there?" .aid I. " I?ot that I^know of. But I'm rig&it good company for myself, and I think I'd enjoy a quiet evening. So ran along upstairs." "I won't either," said I, finding that he hadn't better sense than to stay there by himself. I didn't say anything more for five minutes and <he didn't. " I like this I" said he after a while. « Like what?" saidi. "Like this quiet evening;. I- didn't think it could be so quiet while you were around." . "Oh, didn't you?" aaid I, " Mary," said he, " I'd like to marry a woman as. quiet as you are. 3. belie .te I could stand married life that way." "Don't talk to me about marrying,'' said I. "I wouldn't marry you if there was a diamond on every hair in your head." ' "It wouldn't do you any good if you did," said he, softening his voice till it sounded nicer than I «ver heard it before; "because, Mary, you are such a good dispositioned girl that you never would pull any of my hair out, and what good would the diamonds do you ?" "I don't know ahout that/ said I, feeling flattered a good deal. "I'm very fond of diamonds and I don't ever expect to have one." Peleg M. chuckled a little..___d reaching in his pocket he brought out a tiny silver box and handed it to me. "What is it?" said I. "Look and see," said he, and I opened the box. " Oh, oh," said I, for there, was the shinlngest, brightest diamond in a ring I ever set eyes on, and it must have cost as much as 40do_s. *" What are you going to do with it ?" said I, handling it as if it was a precious baby. " Going to give it to a girl," saidhe. " What girl?" said I, shutting it up with a snap and holding it tight. " A girl that likes me and that I don't pester half to death;" said he. " I think you might giveit to me," said I, feeling hurt. •' ' I' d rather, have a diamond than anything in the world." '-■'."•''. "But Peleg M; Bivins goes .with that diamond," saidhe. Then I had to laugh a little, yfor I really didn '__ hate- Peleg M. " Well," said I, "I suppose fevery blessing has its drawbacks, and if s a rare apple that hasn't a speck in it somewhere.'* Peleg wasn't saucy a bit whan he spoke next. " Mary, " said he, "do yO*i really mean that 9" - I just nodded and laughed. "Stand up here," said he, grabbing for me, " and let me kiss you." I never would have thoughtdt of myself, hut; would you really believe it, X.got right up and Peleg M. kissed me four, times and I seemed to like it, for I had that shining _$jng on my finger and somehow there was a new (light filling tho room and falling around Peleg M, i Half an hour afterwards when, mother came home I tried to make Peleg M. keep still, but he told her all about it andi she actually kissed Peleg M. Bivins.