132 MARTIN RATTLER.

singing along the road, They were dressed in pure
white, their rich black tresses being uncovered and
ornamented with flowers and what appeared to be
bright jewels.

“Hallo!” exclaimed Martin, gazing after them;
“what splendid jewels! Surely these must be the
daughters of very rich people.”

“Och, but they’ve been at the dimond mines for
certain! Did iver ye sae the like?”

The girls did indeed seem to blaze with jewels,
which not only sparkled in their hair, but fringed
their white robes, and were worked round the edges
of their slippers; so that a positive light shone around
their persons, and fell upon the path like a halo,
giving them more the appearance of lovely super-
natural beings than the daughters of earth.

“These jewels,” said the hermit, “were never
polished by the hands of men. They are fire-
flies.”

“ Fire-flies!” exclaimed Martin and Barney simul-
taneously.

“Yes, they are living fire-flies. The girls very
often catch them and tie them up in little bits of
gauze, and put them, as you see, on their dresses and
in their hair. To my mind they seem more beautiful
far than diamonds. - Sometimes the Indians, when