If I could have gone away, and left them the space they so unwillingly awarded me, how gladly would I have done so! But there was no possibility of my escaping, buried, as I was, deep in the earth. So I lived on, sunk in my little hole, as far out of sight as I could, quiet and unobtrusive, never speaking unless I were addressed, which did not happen twice in all the ages. My whole existence was a deprecation for my unwelcome presence.

I think they might have been kinder, when they saw how humble I was. However, they were not: and perhaps it was as well, for I was only a scrap of old bone, I kept repeating to myself-only a fragment of a once mighty monster. But such a poor fragment that I very inadequately represented him. It was better I should leave it alone than attempt it, for I should only have met with ridicule and incredulity.

Of course I knew nothing of the flight of time; I only know that it was centuries I lived down there, an old bone, among those aristocratic minerals. And, as the years rolled on, I think they grew to despise me more and more. If I could have done anything to make them improve their opinion of me, I would have done it. But I could only remain quiet, and think back on the grand old days

when we had led such a free, wild life, my master and I.

I don't know why the minerals thought worse of me, as time passed. I think it must have been because they had nothing to do, and it was a little amusement to them to abuse me. Any way, they often called out to me, in injurious tones, that I had lost my only beauty-my fine white complexion; and they wondered I was not ashamed to show my ugly, changed face in their circle. I bore it all in silence; what should I have gained by replying? And if I had lost my complexion, how could I help it, I thought; we none of us improve by age, I supposed, and if they were indestructible and unalterable, I was not conceited enough to think I

was.

You see it was not a happy life I led down there, but it, too, came to an end, as I say I have found all things do in this world, if we only wait long enough.

Great disturbances occurred about us after our long quiet. I, accustomed to such matters, thought they foreboded another convulsion, and, as my position in life could but be improved, I hailed the sounds gladly, rejoicing at the thoughts of release from my neighbours. I was somewhat mistaken. The dis

turbances and noises I heard were caused by men, those beings who were at that time strangers to me, though now they are familiar friends.

A shaft was being sunk in the ground; for the place of our abode had been pronounced a valuable mine, likely to produce copper. Daily the intruders came nearer our dwelling. I could hear them hammering, breaking, and rending. My neighbours grew alarmed; they had not wished to be disturbed out of their even, peaceful existence.

With

At last one day the men penetrated to us. curious eyes I looked upon them. They seemed so tiny to me after the living beings I had been accustomed to, and I thought how one tread of my master's heel would have crushed them to atoms. But they were well-looking, well-formed animals, and I took rather a fancy to them from the first.

How relentlessly they tore away mass after mass of ore! I really felt quite sorry for the minerals, unfriendly though they had been; they seemed to feel the separation so much, and resisted the instruments as long as their strength would allow. The mass in which I had nestled was torn off too, and we were all conveyed into the outer air. Here we were handed over for inspection to a man who divided worthless pieces from valuable, and I was fully prepared when my

turn came to be thrown away as a useless piece of old bone. How could I know that time had wrought a transformation in me?

Judge then of my intense surprise when, having examined me closely and turned me over and over in his hand, the man called out

'We have indeed a find here. See this splendid turquoise I have discovered imbedded in a piece of copper. How beautiful it is! what a lovely blue!'

It really took me some moments before I could realise that I was the object of these praises.

There was no doubt about it, however, for I was handed from one to another, and ardently admired, till at last the finder, folding me carefully in a piece of soft linen, placed me in his waistcoat-pocket, saying he would ask a jeweller about my worth.

I was as curious as he about the verdict. I could not understand what had happened to my poor humble old self, and how I, so long despised, should suddenly have assumed value in every one's eyes. I did wish the copper could have seen my triumph, and witnessed. in what estimation men held me. Then the recollection that after all I was only an old bone rushed over me; I was perhaps unconsciously acting a delusive part, and when the jeweller saw me I should be found out: For how was it possible that I could have become a costly

thing, unless men prized old bones? and that I could hardly imagine.

How glad I was when we arrived at the jeweller's and I was taken out of my envelope and shown to him!

He was a wizened-looking old man, who wore a pair of spectacles, and seemed to look me through and through.

'A very good turquoise indeed,' he said; 'very. I shall be glad to buy it of you.' And he named a sum for my purchase. It was not immediately agreed to; some little bargaining occurred, but it ended in my becoming his property.

'But do tell me,' asked he who had found me, 'how came the turquoise among the copper?'

'Turquoises,' replied the other, 'are bits of old bone, nothing more. By contact with the copper they obtain their exquisite cerulean blue. The ore this has lain among has changed it to a jewel. Who knows as what it began life?'

I was growing more astonished than ever. This was too marvellous truly, that the copper, the mineral that had so despised me, whose taunts and insults I had borne patiently so long, had been the means of changing my whole being into something most precious. It was too curious! It took me days to recover from