Show 1 I S M ge D 0 g II s Q 0 d 5 tori e ef f 0 r G j 10 h G I 1 d r r e ft s N 4 The Story of a Magic Ring Which Brought Fame Fortune and andi i Wife to Basil Huntington there was a witch who had a magic ring ringby ONOE by looking through o which she l could she what was going to happen anywhere on earth A was moving any ev event t tin in n the future and she could plainly Iy see every person land T Y place distinctly so that every fact was perfectly clear to her Of course courBe she was very rich richand richand and powerful with such a ring as this and she might hive been happy but a great wizard envious of her powers continually pestered and annoyed her Det so that nIl all her spells and witchcraft miscarried ai and went wrong until at last she was in despair She knew that the wizard wu waa jealous of her possession of the magic ring and so to appe appease se his anger she decided to get r rid d of the talisman Of course she was not going to throw it away for she be might need it at any moment but knowing that the wizard night might seize it some day she resolved to hide it so carefully that even Il a wizard would be unable to dig dis discover cover it So after much thought she secreted it in a small hole bole in the trunk oi of a pine pin tree on the edge of the then forest and dropping it in m n and placing a fragment of bark in the Op opening D Dg made it impossible for any anybodY anybody bodY to detect the tho hiding place Then as if her good luok luek had deserted her after parting with her ring all manner of misfortunes happened append She was spilled from her night while eros crossing Dg a pond and ducked Then her cat scratched her er most awfully The wizard or per perhaps haps hapa some other envious witch charmed all her hair off her head and then the king locked her up i ipri in prison D for several years Of course during all this time the pine tree in which the magic ring waS was concealed con concealed grew and grew until at last when the witch was released and sought to find it she could not it In vain she climbed trunk after trunk seeking a tiny opening The wood growing to together together gether had cov covered red up the hole and forever eon con cooled coaled the ring She spent years haunting that for forest forest est until one day along came a gang of wood chop choppers choppers pers and cut down every tree Then in despair she Went away roaming the earth and seeking to learn learnt t 1 how hoer to recover her ring Year after year passed and she was no nearer Dearer to her end but she for she sh knew that by p one can accomplish almost anything A DOG DISCOVERED IT Now the tho tree in which the ring was hidden was wasen en owed into lOgs and these into boards and it itao ito ao o happened that the wood growing around the gold goldring ring icing had fo forme a knot so that queerly enough when the tho board was sa sawed there ther was Il a round mound which the golden circle ran for within the ting king the wood had not grown at all T Thus the on en enchanted chanted knothole wu was formed which made Basil fortune The board was sold with others to Mr Joslyn the carp and it formed art of the fence around the Huntington back yard The rhe knothole was only about ten inches from the ground and its magical quality would probably never nover h have ve been discovered but for Basils habit of observing everything that occurred One summer day he noticed d his dog Pickles peep through the hole and suddenly start back with on nn astonished bark Looking over the fence and seeing nothing while the dog showed great excitement excite excitement ment Basil knelt down and peered through the knot knothole hole hIe To his astonishment he saw a sight that made him fall backward All the city was afire He saw the churches schools and stores in flames and in inthe inthe the foreground just as if he were looking at a moving moving ing picture he saw his father mother and himself carrying furniture out of their own house and placing ing Dg it in wagons wagon but somehow they seemed to be loing this several hours before the fire fue started He H e instantly came to the conclusion that what he saw was prophetic and was going to happen so he ran into the house and told his mother that the city wi was going to be burned and that they must remove the household goods She was frightened but told him himo to o wait until his father returned but she gathered up her jewelry at once When his father came home lie he was not so re ready dy to believe Basils tale but a as s his son was so earnest and persistent lie he concluded t to dove inove another house home which ho he to owned in the tho coon coun country try Thus their furniture was saved for in i n two lays B an immense conflagration destroyed the whole i town When Basil came to view the ruins all that was as left of their home was a portion of the back fence Ronce all charred and blackened and the board th the enchanted knothole was the most burnt burntt eth ut t the me are had stopped a few inches from the hole knelt down and looked through it and to his surprise saw men rebuilding the city rapidly and far more beautifully ully Their own house houle was going goinS up tip in great style and so Y vivid vid and perfect was the picture that tUt Basil asil s suddenly en realised th that t there trust must be a magic power In in this board So exerting till all his force lie he tore it away from tIle the others and Took toek it home There Thera after he had told his father that the o q was to be 00 rebuilt at once ho he sawed off fi the burnt part of the wood leaving A law aw inches around the ho hole for he found that he could see future events through it now just as easily c iy as be tore fore and next he discovered that by looking through it from the other side sido ho he could see seo the past end learn exactly how any event had occurred in sR the world no DO md matter or how distant distantI o 5 I 4 t O r Q c i p t Od Wp G oct s very busy boy now and indeed so interested was he in the past that he peeped very ery little into the future for it was al always always ways very startling you may be sure Bure to view be beforehand beforehand forehand what was going to hap happen en He straight straightened erred ened out many obscure historical events I 1 tell you and made the school books look like ninnies when lie he got through He found out that Washington never cut down any cherry tree at all that William Tell shoot at his son but another er man alto altogether gether that Robin Hood was n a very quiet gentle gentl gentleman man whoso whose memory mem ry has been wronged by calling him a robb robber r that Captain Kidd was compelled by his own crew to become a pirate Romulus and Remus the Roman twins were not suckled by a but were raised on the bottle by Mrs Appendicitis of Tuscany that the Norsemen landed not in Boston after they dis discovered covered America but in New York and hundreds of other facts fully as important and interesting Thus when his first History of the World was published he became famous at once People came many miles to talk with him about his discoveries and learn where and how he had acquired all this information but Basil never told his secret to any anybody anybody body but kept his magic piece of board hidden in ina a drawer of his bureau Gradually mien n came to tobe tobe be aware that he could foresee the future and they sought his advice very frequently so that in time timo timothe the President heard of him and came to consult with him about his chance of another nomination and similar important matters When he learned how gre great t was Basils powers he asked take a place in in his Cabinet but Basil d declined cli ed the honor MARVELED AT HIS KNOWLEDGE Of course it was not long before he ac acquired acquired much wealth for by looking into his knot knothole knothole hole he could discover what stocks were going up or down what the prices of everything from real estate to peanuts would be on the morrow and thus ho held all the markets of the whole world right in his hands You can perceive without much reflection that had he been able to foretell the weather alone he could have made money but lie he knew just what horse or yacht or football or base baseball baseball ball team would win at any time just what enter enterprise enterprise prise would succeed or fail who would be elected or defeated die or get married and thus his power was simply enormous The whole world c came ment at last to marvel at his stupendous knowledge of events both in the past and future but as you may imagine his hiB peering into the future gave gaye no pleas uro to him for he rarely essayed it without seeing that some friend or valued public man was about to todie todie die or some misfortune was to happen somewhere which cast a 8 cloud of gloom over oval the tha boy and made him miserable for days for of course he could not prevent nn anything happening which ho he foresaw through his charred piece of wood Every time he peeped through the tho enchanted knothole he dreaded to see some somo misfortune coming upon his own family nex next so yoU can see that he hated to take any chances KNOWN IN FAR OFF LANDS H He found that he was happiest in studying past occurrences instead d of pr into the future futuro curious as this may seem to an unthinking mind and 4 it was rarely that he turned his has magic board aroUnd to foresee coming events Now as his fame grew until even in lands like the Soudan or in Thib Or Montenegro or oven the m most st ignorant had h hoard ard of Basil Huntington the tho Seer it happened that the witch now a very old rone orone indeed came to over overhear over overhear hear n a discUssion about his powers an two in a distant distan land the She listened lIstene f eagerly cly and then inquired in d w ere this r hl man man liv lived d Th They told her hor that he dwelt in and as aa they o i Iii c J i knew very little more than his name that was all information the Mie he obtained ined but it was enough to conVince her that this B Basil Sil must have found the magic ring and roa learned ed its uses She knew full well that ring did not exist on earth so all she had to do waS to 1 find nd its owner and then recover her property She start started 1 that night for America and arriving in the ilie land of the free she soon learned where Basil i g i His home was wa s a mag magnificent nt palace filled t i all sorts of wonderful w thinS things for as you may have guessed all to todo todo do when lie he wished to learn where some treasure of gold some beautiful ul Greek statue or vase was vas hid hidden hidden den in the ruins of a forgotten city or buried in some unknown mound with the bones of a long forgotten king or warrior was to search the past through his knothole until he found the secret hiding hid hiding ing place Thus he recovered the marv marvelous lous marbles of Phidias many lost paintings of Michael Angelo and other masters silver and gold works of Benvenuto Cellini the lost riches of Caliph AI th the buried treasUre of Atilla wrecked gall galleons ons on remote beaches long forgotten gold and diamond mines and countless other concealed and aud unknown stores o of wealth that nobody would have discovered perhaps for centuries He had also filled the museums of his l land with these things but the rarest and most wonderful he had placed in this beautiful home and the witch decided that her herbest herbest best plan would be to obtain employment in this house where she could discover just where he kept the ring Of course she knew nothing of the pe pc peculiar culiar accidents that had combined to secure it in ina a plain charred slab of wood but she naturally sup supposed supposed posed that Basil would be either wearing it or placing placing ing it for security in a safe hiding place Thus the task she had set herself was far more difficult than she supposed By her arts she soon secured a position position tion as a servant in Basils house and then beg began n her long search Of course she had many opportunities opportunities of watching him but she never detected him either wearing or even having a ring of any kind in his hand After a long time she began to think that perhaps he had some other sour source e of power A BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS When she had hod by patient application of all her arts gained the good heart of Basils fond mother and had come to be quite intimate with the simple kindly woman she led her to talk of her het hetson herson son in the hope that she would betray his secret but as Mrs Huntington knew nothing of the magic ring she learned nothing She crept completely into the mothers confidence and soon was her favorite servant for by her magic she cured her rheumatism drove away corns stopped hair falling out removed d iron rust from pillow shams taught her the secret oi of making a skirt hang per perfectly kept moths from entering the house charmed theother the theother other servants so that they forgot to take their days out or break dishes and brought both Mr Huntington and Basil home exactly on time for meals gave her a talisman so that she perspire on the very hottest days kept her accounts straight kept the silver from irom tarnishing and in tl a thousand other little ways managed to tomake tomake make herself so useful that Mrs Huntington said she was a jewel and a treasure But she failed to discover the secret she was after and she began to fear that she might die before she had d her object One afternoon his historical studies looked through his ma c c board and took a through the lag ing sIde Ho He wasa was about ut to tUrn it over when his hig higy y caught nug t a g glimpse of bright color among the iol of a unfamiliar to h him mf and 19 looking longer he saw an army of m men n I beSide a wood and doWn n a vall valley y toward V a city if 1 1 H Ha a c f I How a Witch Hid the Ring So Securely She Could N Not Find t It How Basil Secured It 37 i i a I i tt tty y i ii i rr f 1 ti 1 y a aI I r rr r v Q J When he fully appreciated this fact he resolved to be become become come a historian and write down correctly all the hap happenings of the world many of which are very much confused He became a rT which was unknown to hum him himin humin in spite of his observations He Hc followed the army in its march and saw it attack the str strange city with cannon and batter down a part of its w wall Then just as it seem e w wall Then just as it seem e seemed seemed ed to be on the point of being captured out from the breach issued another army with a King Bing nt at its head which drove the invaders into the forest Basil wondered where all this was to occur and he spent an hour peering through his knothole in inthe in inthe the endeavor to locate the strange city Finally he found it in the Kingdom of a small and faraway land not often placed on the maps which was governed by Ting King Rastus the Ninth Basil discovered by his glimpses into futurity that ho he was to be invaded within the month by another King who would be at first defeated but who would finally conquer and drive King Rastus from his throne and kingdom Then after a lapse of time the people of would in turn force King the invader from the throne and call for Rastus to return He also learned that Rastus had hada a beautiful daughter to see Bee whom it was to fall madly in love with her but this did not deter him from resolving to go at once to and warn warn King Tung Rastus THE PRINCESS IDEAL He took steamer that very day and after three weeks had arrived at the city of where the King held court It was not difficult It for the great Seer Basil Huntington to get speech with the King although many people were waiting including the Ambassador from Kung King for Rastus had often heard of Basil and he was very glad to meet him Basil did not tell him all of the future but merely that would soon attack him in the manner he had seen pictured within the |