Yes, he might
guess that it is something of value that you have lost, such as a
bracelet of gold, or the thing that ticks, on which you white people
read the time. Nay, be silent and do not let your face move lest I
should read it. Now let us see what it is that you have lost."
Then he turned to his confederates, as Thomas called them, and began to
ask them questions which need not be set out in detail. Was it an animal
that the Little Flower had lost? No, it was not an animal, the Spirits
told him that it was not. Was it an article of dress? No, they did not
think it was an article of dress, yet the Spirits seemed to suggest that
it had something to do with dress. Was it a shoe? Was it scissors? Was
it a comb? Was it a needle? No, but it was something that had to do with
needles. What had to do with needles? Thread. Was it thread? No, but
something that had to do with thread. Was it a silver shield which
pushed the needle that drew the thread?
Here Tabitha could contain herself no longer, but clapped her hands and
cried out delightedly:
"Yes, that's it. It's my thimble."
"Oh! very well," said Menzi, "but it is easy to discover what is lost
and hard to find it."
Then followed another long examination of the assessors or acolytes, or
witch-doctor's chorus, by which it was established at length that the
thimble had been lost three days before, when Tabitha was sitting on a
stone sewing, that she believed it had fallen into a crevice of rocks,
and so forth.
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