The Wish-Ring. (Translated from the German.)

Otago Witness, Issue 1672, 8 December 1883, Page 27

The Wish-Ring. (Translated from the German.)

A young farmer who was very unlucky sat on his plough a moment to rest, and just then an old woman crept past and cried :

" Why do you go on drudging day and night without reward ? Walk two days till you come to a great fir tree that stands all alone in the ioreist and overtops all other trees. If you can hew it down you will make your fortune." Not waiting to have the advice repeated, the farmer shouldered his axe and started on hiß journey. Sure enough, after tramping two days he came to the fir tree, which he instantly prepared to cut down. Just as the tree swayed, and before it fell with a crash, there dropped out of its branches a nest containing two eggs. The egga rolled to the ground and broke, and there darted out of one a young eagle, and out of the other rolled a gold ring. The eagle grew larger, as if by enchantment, and when it reached the size of a man it spxead its wings as to try their strength, then, soaring upward, it cried : " You have rescued me ; take as a reward the ring that lay in the other •^g ;itis a wish-ring. Turn it on your finger twice, and whatever your wish is, it shall be fulfilled. But remember there is but a single wibh in the ring. No sooner is that granted than it loses its power, and is only an ordinary ring-. Therefore, consider well what you desire, so that you may never have reason to repent your choice." So speaking, the eagle soared high in the air, circled over the farmer's head a few tinges, then darted, like an arrow, towards the east.

The farmer took tho ring, placed it on his finger, and turned on hia way homeward. Toward evening he reached a town where a jeweller sat in hia shop behind a counter, on which lay many costly rings tor sale. The fanner showed his own, and asked the merchant its value.

"It isn't worth a straw," the jeweller answered.

Upon that the farmer laughed very heartily, and told the man that it was a wish- ring, and of gi eater value than all tlie rings in the bhop together. The jeweller was a wicked, designing man, and so he invited the farmer to remain as his guest over night. "For," he explained, "only to shelter a man who owns a wiah-riug must bring luck."

So he treated his guest to wine and fair words ; and that night, as the farmer lay sound awleep, the wicked man stole tho magic ring from his finarer and slipped on in its place a common one, which he had made to resemble the wish-ring. The next morning the jeweller was all impatience to haVe tho farmer begone. He awakened him at cock-crow, and said, "You had better go, for you have still a long journey before you. Aa 6oou as the faVmer had departed, the jeweller closed his shop, put up the shutters, so that no one couid peep in, bolted the door behind him, and standing in the middle of the room, he turned the ring and cried—" I wish instantly to possess a million gold pieces ! " No sooner said than the great, shining gold pieces came pouring down upon him in a golden torrent over his nead, shoulders and arms, pitifully he cried for mercy, and tried to reach and unbar the door ; but before he succeeded, he stumbled and fell bleeding to the ground. As for the goJden rain, it never stopped till the weight ot the metal crushed the floor, and the jeweller and his money sank through to the cellar. Tho gold still ' poured down till the million was complete, and the jeweller lay dead in the cellar beneath his treasure.

The noise, however, alarmed the neighbours, who came rushing over to see what the matter was ; when they saw tho man dead under his gold, they exclaimed, " Doubly unfortunate he whom blessings kill." Afterward the heirs came and divided the property.

In the meantime, the farmer reached home in high spirits and showed the ring to his wife. "Henceforth, we shall never more be in want, dear wife," he said. " Oar fortune is made, Only wo must ba careful to consider well just what we ought to wish."

The farmer's wife, of course, proffered advice, " Suppose," &aid she, " that we wish for that bit of land that lies between our two fields?" •'That isn't wttrfch while," her husband

replied. "If we work hard for a year, yfd\\ earn enough money to buy it." So .the two worked very hard, and at harvesttime they had never raised such a crop before. They had earned enough money to buy the coveted atrip of- land and otili have a bit to spare. " See," said the man, "we have the land and the wish as well."

The fanner's wife then suggested th'aE they had better wish for a cow and a horse, lhifc the man replied :—": — " Wife, why waste our wish on such trifles ? The horse and cow we'll get anyway." Sure enough, in a year's time the money for the horse and cow had been earned. Joyfully the man rubbed his hands. "The wish is saved again this year, but yet we have what we desire. How lucky we are ! " But now hia wife seriously adjured him to wish for something at last. " Now that you have a wish to be granted," she said, " you slave and toil, and are content with everything. You might be King, Emperor, Baron, even a gentleman farmer, with chests overflowing with gold ; but you don't know what you want." "We are young, and life is long," he answered.

"There ia only one wish in the ring, and that is easily said. Who knows but some time we may sorely need this wish? Are we in want of anything ? Have we not prospered, to all people's astonishment, since we possessed this ring ? Be reasonable and patient for a while. In the meantime, consider what we really ought to wish for." And that was the end of the matter.

It really seemed as if the ring had brought a blessing into the house. Granaries and barns were full to overflowing, and in the course of a few years the poor farmer became a rich and portly person, who worked with his men afield during the day as if he, teo, had to earn his daily bread ; but after supper he liked to sit in his porch, contented and comfortable, and return the kindly greetings of the folk who passed and wished him a respectful good evening. So the years went by. 1 Sometimes, when they were alone, the farmer's wife would remind her husband of the magic ring and suggest many plans. But as he always answered that they had plenty of time, and that the best thoughts come last, she more and more rarely mentioned the ring, and at last ceased speaking of it altogether. To be sure, the farmer looked ftt the ring, and twirled it about as many as twenty times a day ; but he was very careful never to wish. After thirty or forty yeara had passed away, and the farmer and his wife had grown old and whitehaired, and their wish was still unasked, then was God very good to them, and on the same night they died peacefully and happily. Weeping children and grandchildren hurrounded the two coffins ; and as one wished to remove the ring from the still hand as a remembrance, the eldest son said, "Let our father take his ring into the grave. There was always a mystery about it; perhaps it was some dear remembrance. Our mother, too, so often looked at the ring — she may have given it to him when they were young." So the old farmer was buried with the ring, which had been supposed to be a wish ring, and was not ; yet it brought as much good fortune into the house as heart could desire.— St Nicholas.