Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-01-29

blinking the surplus money in his pocket ?
L" it would be folly to sacrifice our wish
for such trumpery thing. We can get
the horse without that"
And, sure enough, in another years
time, the horse and cow had been we'll
earned. So the man rubbed his hands
cheerfully, and said -
- Another year has passed, and still
the wish is ours, and yet we have all we
want what good luck we have ~
The wife, however, began to be very
impatient, and tried seriously to induce
her husband to wish for something.
" You are not like your old SELF" she
said Grossly; " formerly, you were always
grumbling and complaining, and wishing
for all sorts of things and now, when you
might have whatever you want, you toll
and work like slave, are pleased with
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, have we not so risen in the world
that all men marvel at as So do be SEN
sible, and amuse yourself, if you like, by
thinking what We shall wisk for.
And so the matter was allowed to rest
lor the present. 1t really seemed as If
the ring brought blessings on the house,
for barns and granarjes grew fuller and
fuller, from year to year; and In the course
of time, the poor farmer became rich
and prosperous one. He worked all day
with his men as if the whole world de-
pended 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 wishing " Good
evening the to passers-by. Now and
then. when they were quite alone and no
one near to hear, the woman still reminded
her husband of the ring, and made all
sorts of propositions to him. he always
answered there was time enough to think
about it, and that the best ideas always
occurred to one last. So she gradual 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 far.
mer, it is true, turned the ring on his
finger twenty times day and examined
it closely, but took good care never to ex-
press the slightest wish at the time. 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 re-
NAMED unspoken. At last it pleased God
to show them great mercy, and He took
them to Himself both in one night. Chill
dren and grand children stood weeping
around the collins, and, as one of them
tried to withdraw the ring from the dead
mans finger, his 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 per
haps she gave it him when they both were
young"
So the old farmer was buried with the
ring which should have been wishing
ring, but was not one. and yet had brought
as much good luck to the house as man
could desire. For it is strange, as regards
the true and the false, but bad thing
can be turned to better account in good
hands, than good thing in bad,-Good
Words for the Young.