THE STORY OF A KING.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2614, 25 May 1877, Page 2

THE STORY OF A KING.

A writer in "Chambers' Journal" gives the following anecdote of a lost. ring :—The night before my eldest son was born, J undressed in my,big. bed-,. room upstairs, and put my rings in a little -' china plate (which contained some, oatmeal used for washing my hands) on my dressing-table. I had only two or three rings at the time, and amongst them was this little blood- stone, which; had been given me by a school-friend before rajMm marriage. My boy James was born the^^ next morning; and so it came about that for the next fortnight or three weeks I neither wore nor thought of my. rings. However, whenl was convalescent and dressed for the first time, I naturally looked for my rings, and found- all there except the bloodstone. Search was made for it through the whole room, and after* wards through the whole house, but with no success; it was not to be found. I never thought for a moment that it "had been stolen, for it is of little value ; and the torquoise hoop which had lain with it would have been much more attractive to a thief. Years passed ;' and James was a sturdy boy of ten, when some alterations being made in the house, the - flooring of my bed-room was removed. Under one of the planks was found the skeleton of a mouse with my bloodstone ring round its * neck. It had evidently ventured upon my toilet table in search of the oatmeal/ had unwittingly pushed its head through' the ring, and had returned to its hole to die—an unintentional thief strangled by its useless prize. ■ -•"■•■:'