Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1873 — THE WISHING-RING. [ARTICLE]

THE WISHING-RING.

A young farmer, whose farming did mot prosper particularly well, was sitting resting on his plow for a moment as he Wiped his brow, when an old witch crept HP to him and said “Why do you toil so hard, hnd all for nothing ? Walk straight before you for two days, and you will come to a large fii tree, which stands ' alone,-towering ovei all the other trees of the forest. If you can but fell it your fortune is made." The farmer did not wait to be told twice, but, taking his axe on his shoulder, started on his way. After walking two days, he came to the fir tree, and immediately set to work to fell it. Soon it toppled and crashed to the earth, when from the top branches dropped a nest containing two eggs. The eggs rolled on the ground, and brolfce ; as they broke, forth came a young eaglet from one, and a small golden ring from the other. The eaglet grew visibly, till it reached half the height of a man, shook its wings, as if to try them, raised itself from the ground, and then cried : “You have released me ! As a token of my gratitude, take the ring the other egg contained—it is a wishing-ring. Turn it on your finger, sneak your wish aloud, and it will be immediately granted. But the ring has only one wish; when that is accomplished, it will lose all power, and become no more than any other ring. Therefore, reflect well on what you wish for, so that you may not have to repent afterward."

Having so spoken, ttie eagle rose high into the air, swept, for some time, in wide circles over the farmer’s head, and then, like an arrow from the bow, shot swiftly toward the east. The farmer took the ring, put it on his finger, and started homeward. Toward evening he rescued a town. At the door of his shop a goldsmitlxstood, who had many valuable rings for sale. The farmer showed him his ring, and asked him what was about the value of it. “ “Mere trumpery," answered the goldsmith. The farmer laughed heartily, telling the man it was a wishing ring, and of more value than all the rings in the shop put together. Now the goldsmith was a false, designing man, so he invited the farmer to stay all night at his house, saying: “It must bring one good luck to entertain a man who is the possessor of such a precious jewel, so .pray remain with me.” He accordingly entertained him well with plenty of wine and civil wordp, A»at when he went to sleep at night he drew his ring stealthily from his finger and put on it instead a common ring quite like it in appearance. The next morning the goldsmith could hardly wait with any degree of patience till the former had taken his departure. He awoke him in the early dawn, saying: “You have far to go, you had better start early.” As soon as the farmer was safe on his journey, the goldsmith went into his room, and, having shut the shutters that no one might see, he bolted himself in, and standing in the middle of the room, and turning the ring on his finger; exclaimed: “I wish to have a hundred thousand silver crowns immediately.” Hardly were the words spoken, when bright five shilling pieces began to rain down from the ceiling; shining silver crowns poured down so fast and hard that at last they began to beat him unmercifully about the head and shoulders and arms. Calling piteously for help, he tried to rush to .he door, but before he could reach it and unbolt it, he fell bleeding to the ground. Still the rain of silver crowns did not cease, and soon, under the weight of it, the flooring gave way, and the unfortunate goldsmith and his money fell down into a deep cellar. And still it rained on, till the hundred thousand silver crowns were completed, and then the goldsmith lay dead in the cellar, with the mass of money upon him. Attracted at last by the noise, the neighbors rushed to the spot, and, on finding the goldsmith dead under his money, exclaimed, “It is really a great mistake, when blessings rain down like cudgels." Theh the heirs came and divided the spoil Meantime the farmer went happily home, and showed the ring to his wife. **We qhall now never want for anything, dear wife,” he said; “our fortune is maae. But we must consider well what we must wish for." The Wtfo had a bright Meas at hand; ‘ “Let us wish ourselves some moreland," said she, “we have so little. There is just a nice strip which stretches into our field. Let ns wish for that." “That would never be worth while," replied the husband; “we have only to work well for a year, and have a moderate share of good luck, and we can buv it for ourselves.” FAnd the man and his wife worked hard for a whole year, and the harvest had never been so plentiful as that autumn, so they were not only able to buy the strip of land, but had money to spare. r- “You see," said the husband, “the land is ours, and the wish too.” Then the good woman thought it would be a capital thing to wish themselves a and a horse. “Wife," answered the husbsnd, againClinking the surplus money in his pocket, ‘it would be folly to sacrifice our wish for such a trumpery thing. We can get the cw and the horse without that.” Anti, sure enough, in another year’s time the horse and the cow had been well earned. 8o the man rubbed his hands cheerfully, and said: .. “Another year has passed, and still the wish is ours, and yet we have all we wantwhat good Iqcfc we have!" The wife, however, l>egan to be very impatient, and tried seriously to induce her husband to wish for something.’ "Ypu are not like your own eels,” she crossly ; “formerly you were always grumbling and complaining, and wishing

for all sorts of things; and now, when you might have whatever you want, you toil and work like a slave, are pleasedwith everything, and let your best years slip by. You might be King, Emperor, Duke, a great rich farmer with loads of money, but no—you can’t make up your mind what to choose?’ “Pray do cease continually worrying and teasing me," Cried the farmer; “we are both of us young, and life is long. The ring contains but one wish, and that must not be squandered. Who knows what may happen to us, when we might really need the ring? Do we want for anything now? Since the ring has been ours, hav we not so risen in the world that all men marvel at us? So do be sensible, and amuse yourself, If you like, by thinking what we shall wish for.”

And so the matter was allowed to rest for the present. It really ’seemed as if the ring brought blessings on the house,for barns and granaries grew fuller and fuller, from year to year; and, in the course of time, the poor farmer became a rich and prosperous one. He worked all day with his men as if the whole world depended upon it; but in the evening, when the vesper bell sounded, he was always to be seen sitting, contented and well-to-do, at his threshold, to be wished “Good evening” by the passers-by. Now and then, when they were quite alone and no one near to hear, the woman still reminded him of the ring, and made, all sorts of propositions to him. He always answered there was time enough —to —think about it, an that the best ideas always occurred to one last. So she gradually fell into the way of mentioning it less often, and at last it rarely happened that the ring was ever alluded to at all. The farmer, it is true, turned tire ring on his finger twenty times a day, and examined it closely, but he took good care never to express the slightest wish at the lime. And so thirty and forty years went by, and the farmer and his wife grew old and their hair snow white, and still the wish remained unspoken. At last it pleased God to show them a great mercy, and He took them to Himself both in one night. Children and grandchildren stood weeping round the coffins, and, as one of them tried to withdraw the ring from the dead man’s fingers, the eldest son said:

“ Let our father take his ring to the grave. There was some mystery about it. Probably it was some love token, for our mother often looked at the ring too; perhaps she gave it to him when they both were young.” . So the old fanner was buried witli the ring which should have been a wishingring, but was not one, and yet had brought as much good luck to the house as a man could desire. For it is strange, as regards the true and the false, but a bad thing can be turned to better acount in good hands, than a good thing in bad.— Good Things.