"
Which fell out just as the remarkable woman ordained it should.
No. X
THE AMBER HEART
The Lord chooses queer tools to do His purpose and we know that the stone
the builders rejected was took by Him to be head of the corner; but in the
case of the amber heart, it might be too much to say that the way that
particular object worked for good was His almighty idea, for the reason,
there was something a bit devious about the whole matter, and you'd be
inclined to think a woman's craft rather than the Everlasting Will was at
the bottom of the business.
And amber ain't a stone, anyhow, for while some people say 'tis sea-gulls'
tears petrified by sea water, and others, equally clever, tell me it comes
out of a whale, yet in either case you couldn't call it a mineral
substance; and let that be as it will, what sea-gulls have got to cry
about is a subject hidden from human understanding, though doubtless
they've got their troubles like all mortal flesh.
Well, there was four of 'em--two maidens and two young men--and James
White, the farmer at Hartland and Mary Jane White his sister, were two,
and Cora Dene, who lived along with her old widow aunt, Mrs. Sarah Dene,
was the third of the bunch, and Nicholas Gaunter, who worked as cowman at
Hartland Farm, came fourth.
And at the beginning of the curious tale James White was tokened to Mrs.
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