THE FISH AND THE RING 107 



took to the sea, finally settled in a colony, made 

 a large fortune, came back after many years, and 

 bought the estate on which he had been servant. 

 One day on walking over his land with a friend, 

 he came to the plank bridge, and there told his 

 friend the story. " I could swear," said he, 

 pushing his stick into the mud, "to the very 

 spot on which the ring dropped." When the 

 stick came back, the ring was on the end of it. 



In Brand's " History of Newcastle " occurs the 

 following ring story: "A gentleman named An- 

 derson, fingering his ring as he was one day 

 standing on the bridge, dropped the bauble into 

 the Tyne, and of course gave it up as lost. After 

 some time a servant of this gentleman bought a 

 fish in Newcastle Market, in the stomach of 

 which the lost ring was found." 



Now let me tell a story the truth of which I 

 can absolutely vouch for, seeing that the ring was 

 my own. I was trout fishing in a boat on a large 

 lake, not far away from Aldershot. Lady S. was 

 rowing. I hooked and landed a nice trout in the 

 boat. After releasing him from the hook I put 

 both hands over the side to wash off the slime of 

 the fish, and in doing so my signet ring a valu- 

 able and much valued ring slipped off my middle 

 finger into the water, ten feet deep, and into a 

 bottom layer of mud. We marked the spot as 

 well as we could, it being far out from the shore. 

 So far the loss of the ring is certain. I wish I 



