Miz Christy! Miz Christy! The most amazin’ and fantastic thing has happened!”
Christy Huddleston watched from the porch of the mission house as Ruby Mae, Bessie, and Clara sprinted across the field at high speed.
“What’s gotten into them, I wonder?” Christy asked Doctor Neil MacNeill, who was staying for supper.
Doctor MacNeill ran his fingers through his unruly auburn hair. He was a big man, with a big grin to match. “With Ruby Mae and her gang, sometimes I’m afraid to ask.”
The girls rushed up the wooden steps, panting for air. They were grinning from ear to ear.
“What on earth happened to you three?” Christy demanded. “You’re all wet! And your hands are covered with mud! Do you realize you were supposed to be here half an hour ago to help set the table, Ruby Mae?”
“Yes’m, and I’m right sorry, but wait’ll you hear what happened! It all started with—”
“R-R-R-I-B-B-I-T!”
Doctor MacNeill laughed. “Sounds to me like you have a classic case of indigestion, Clara.”
“Ain’t my stomach a-growlin’, Doc,” she said, reaching into her pocket. She pulled out a fat, green frog. “It’s Prince Egbert. I got him for you to learn us science with, Miz Christy!”
Gingerly, Christy gave the frog a pat. She’d been living here in the Great Smoky Mountains for several months now, but she was still getting used to the wild creatures her students befriended. “That was very thoughtful, Clara. And a prince, no less!”
“And we,” Ruby Mae added proudly, “are real, live princesses!”
“Well, you need to head inside, Your Royal Highness, and set the royal table,” Christy said. “And Clara and Bessie, you two had better head for home before your parents start to worry. It’s getting late.”
Ruby Mae winked at her friends. “Don’t need to set no table,” she said. “From now on, I aim to just hire me a maid for doin’ my chores.”
“A maid?” Christy repeated, shaking her head.
Ruby Mae glanced over her shoulder. With a sly smile, she held out her fist and slowly opened her fingers. “And here’s how I aim to pay her!”
Christy and Doctor MacNeill exchanged a glance. Several small, damp yellow stones glistened in Ruby Mae’s palm.
“That isn’t . . .” Christy began. “I mean, it couldn’t be . . .”
Doctor MacNeill picked up one of the stones. He held it between his thumb and index finger, squinting at it carefully.
“My, my,” he murmured. “Where exactly did you find this, if you don’t mind my asking?”
Clara cleared her throat. “Nothin’ personal, Doctor,” she answered, “but we all sort of agreed we’d keep that a secret between the three of us. You understand.”
Just then, Miss Alice appeared in the doorway. “Ruby Mae!” she said sternly. “It’s about time, young lady!”
Ruby Mae jumped at the sound of her name. Christy tried not to smile. Alice Henderson, a Quaker mission worker who had helped start the school, definitely had a way of commanding attention.
“Miz Alice,” Ruby Mae said quickly, “you got to understand, somethin’ mighty important’s happened.”
“I’m listening,” said Miss Alice, tapping her foot.
“Me and Bessie and Clara is goin’ to be richer than the king of England hisself!”
Miss Alice barely hid her smile. “You don’t say?” Her eyes fell to the gold stone in the doctor’s hand. She joined them on the porch.
“Neil? What’s this all about?”
“Well, it seems our three little prospectors may just have found themselves some actual gold.”
“So it is gold?” Clara asked. “Real, live, for-sure gold?”
The doctor shrugged. “I can’t say absolutely, Clara. I’ve never actually held a gold nugget in my hand. But judging from the weight and color, I’d say—”
“We’re rich!” Ruby screamed.
“We’re a-goin’ to be princesses!” Bessie cried.
“Who’s a princess?” called David Grantland, the young minister at the mission, as he rode up to the house on Prince.
Ruby Mae ran over to greet the preacher and Prince. “We are,” she announced.
Clara groaned. “Now, that does it for sure. Nobody else can know about the gold, ’ceptin’ the people right here. Understand?” She glared at Ruby Mae.
“How come you’re lookin’ at me?” Ruby Mae demanded.
“Could be ’cause you got the biggest mouth this side o’ Coldsprings Mountain,” Bessie suggested.
“’Tain’t true!” Ruby Mae cried.
Bessie rolled her eyes. “’Tis so.”
“Ladies,” David interrupted as he dismounted. “For the moment, let’s set aside the question of Ruby Mae’s communication skills. What’s all this about?”
“The girls have discovered some very interesting rocks,” Christy answered. “Neil thinks they might actually be gold nuggets.”
The doctor passed the gold rock he’d been examining to David. “What do you think, Reverend?”
“Hmm. I had an uncle who was a collector of minerals and such. This definitely isn’t ‘fool’s gold.’ Pyrite’s lighter and more brittle.”
“I thought gold deposits were mostly out west,” Christy said, “in California or Colorado— but Tennessee?”
“Gold has never been found in these parts before,” said Miss Alice. “That’s definitely a story I would have heard by now,” she smiled, “a hundred times.”
“Just ’cause it ain’t been found here before don’t mean this ain’t gold,” Ruby Mae said, sounding a bit worried.
David shook his head in disbelief. “I don’t know how it got here, but this is gold, all right, Ruby Mae. As hard as it is for me to believe.”
“Now that we know for certain, nobody more’s got to know about this,” Clara told her friends. “The preacher and the doc and Miz Christy and Miz Alice, well, they’re the kind of folks can keep their mouths shut. But that’s all can know.”
“And Prince,” Bessie added. “And Prince Egbert.”
Clara nodded. “And our mas and pas. But that’s it. Final. Right, Ruby Mae? That’s what we promised each other on the way here.”
Ruby Mae shrugged. “Don’t see why we can’t tell a few folks. Lordamercy, what’s the point in bein’ rich if’n you can’t let folks know it?”
“I think Clara’s right,” Miss Alice said. “When the word gets out about this, this mountain cove is going to change overnight.”
“Just like us,” Bessie said dreamily. “Like plain ol’ frogs turned into beautiful princesses.”
“I fear it won’t be anything quite that magical,” Miss Alice said.
Christy could hear the concern in her voice. “What are you worried about, Miss Alice?”
“The same thing these mountains have seen way too much of. Feuds. Pain. Greed. Even death.”
Ruby Mae held out her hand. The gold nuggets glistened like a wonderful promise. “Ain’t no bad goin’ to come from these,” she said confidently. “We’re havin’ ourselves our very own fairy tale.”
“I hope you’re right, Ruby Mae,” Christy said softly.