In the meantime here is half a crown; your poetry deserves
it."

I took the money almost mechanically; for I was thinking of my mother,
and was scarcely aware of the amount of wealth I was receiving.

On seeing Mr Wells give me money, the other gentlemen did the same, and
some even gave me as much as five shillings; so that I felt as if coin
was raining down on me from the skies. My tears dried up, and, for a
minute, I felt supremely happy; but on a sudden the thought occurred to
me, that if my mother had been alive how happy it would have made her,
and I burst forth into tears again.

Mr Wells on this asked me why I cried; so I told him the truth, and he
believed me; though I believe, from the expression of some of the other
gentlemen's faces, that they fancied I was crying to gain their
compassion: at all events, they gave me no more money, and their
companions returning to the boat, they shoved off and continued their
course down the river.

As soon as they were gone I began to collect my thoughts, and to
consider my best chance of finding the lost ring. As I heard Mr Wells
say that he would not have lost it for a hundred pounds, I believed that
was its value, and though I had no just conception of how much a hundred
pounds was, I knew that it must be a great deal of money. I was
therefore very anxious to restore it to the kind gentleman.

Here I benefited by my good mother's instruction; and I believed her
spirit watched over me to keep me from evil; for it never occurred to
me, as I am sorry to say it did to some of the other boys who overheard
the gentleman's observation, that it would be easier if the ring was
found to sell it and secure its value, than to trust to the chance of
obtaining a small reward by returning it to its proper owner.

I fortunately overheard them plotting to secure the ring for themselves,
and I determined to counteract their plan. Though the water was deep
where the ring had fallen there was no current, as it was in a little
bay in the bank of the river, and what was more, I remembered that the
ground was rather harder than that surrounding it, and that it rose
slightly outside.

These circumstances gave me hopes of finding the ring; so I sat down at
some little distance on the bank, pretending to be counting the money I
had received, but in reality watching narrowly the spot where I thought
it had fallen.

I do not mean to say that I was indifferent to my good fortune, but I