Lost and Found

1916

Ralph was kicking up the dust along the road on the way home from the little corner store. Then he came upon a bundle lying in the road, where perhaps it had been dropped from a passing automobile. It was a long, knobby, interesting bundle, and he picked it up and ran the rest of the way home.

He gave mother the spool of thread, and then took the bundle out to the barn without saying anything about it. Then when he opened it he found a bow and a dozen arrows. Now for a month Ralph had been wanting a bow and arrows, and hinting to the family that they would be an acceptable gift. So far no one had taken the hint.

Yet here they were, almost as if they had dropped out of the sky. He handled them lovingly. He felt there was nothing else in the world he wanted so badly. He fitted an arrow in, and shot at the old straw hat that hung on the barn door. The arrow pierced the hat. It was a fine bow. He wanted to take it to the orchard and put up a mark to shoot at. But suppose the boy that really owned it should see him!

Then Ralph was ashamed. The bow was not his. He was hiding in the barn because he didn't dare let anybody see it. And the real owner probably was wishing for it very much. Ralph hushed that voice that said, "Finders, keepers."

"Things that you find don't belong to you unless you've tried to find the real owner and can't do it," said Ralph stoutly. And he knew that was right. He went outside. Nearly all the boys of that end of town were at the ball game over in Singer's pasture. Ralph went to one group after another. "I found a package in the road," he said. "Whoever lost it can have it if they describe it so I know it is theirs."

In the third group Jamie Rainess jumped up and ran to Ralph. "Say," he whispered, "was it a bow and arrows? I lost one today."

"Yes," said Ralph; "come over to the barn and I'll give it to you."

"That's the one," said Jamie as soon as he saw it. "My! but I felt awful to lose it. I'm glad to get it back. I just didn't know what to do about it."

But such an astonishing thing happened two days later. When Ralph came home from grandma's there was a shout of "Surprise!" and the house was full of boys and girls who had come for his birthday. And the present from Jamie was the same bow and arrows!

Just suppose Ralph hadn't given it back! — Christian Standard.

A Quarter That Returned Seven Times in 29 Years

1900

Interesting Travels of a Mutilated Coin

"Have you ever discovered what a small world this is?" said A. J. Flyshaker, the other day to a New York Telegraph reporter. "I have, and I have found that it is impossible to get away from one's self in it.

"You don't think so? Well, I will give you just one instance of it which you would not believe if I could not prove it to you. You see this quarter," and here the speaker displayed a much worn silver piece upon which were stamped the letters "F. L. Y." "Well, this is the story of how even a quarter can't get lost. It was in March, 1871, I stamped those letters on that coin. It was at the time when there was a general howl over the mutilation of money, and the street car lines in Louisville, where I then lived, had instructed their conductors not to receive anything of the sort. Being young, and eager for trouble, I deliberately stamped the word 'Fly,' which was then as now my nickname, upon this quarter, and after a long row forced the conductor to take it and give me change.

"That was twenty-nine years ago, and during that time the coin has returned to me seven different times, the last being in March last, in this city. The last occasion of its return to me was in San Francisco, three years after I had returned from a tour of the world, which wound up with a long stay in Australia. Before that I had seen it in Detroit, New York, Galveston and Denver. How it traveled around I don't know, but I am sure the story of its wanderings would be full of human interest.

"What I want to tell you about, however, is how I came to get it this last time. I had been in the habit of stopping in at McCoy's saloon occasionally for a drink, and I was usually served by John Kennedy, the head bartender. He comes from Troy, and last March, on his 29th birthday, he visited his home there. Before returning he got a bill changed, and among the coin was this quarter. He kept it in his pocket for two or three days after getting back, and thought nothing more about it until I happened in.

"Then he told me he had a coin with 'Fly' on it. He showed it to me, and I recognized it as the one I had stamped in Louisville, just twenty- nine years before. The coin itself was minted in 1857, so it was fourteen years old when I stamped it. By comparing notes with Mr. Kennedy it further developed that I had stamped it in Louisville on the day he was born in Troy. After the coin had been traveling all over the United States for twenty-nine years, it falls into his hands in his native town on his 29th birthday, and he, a casual acquaintance, brings it to New York and returns it to me."