Report on the "Lost and Found Story Competition WE were

justified in our belief that the best true instances of " LoSt:' and -Found -Stories " would be tinqUeitiOnably stranger than any story of the kind which could be invented. The entries for this competition are extraordinarily interesting.

There are stories of rings found by chance by their owners on the ends of walking-Fitieks, of gardening forks, or even of ,

punt-poles.- In one ease a water-diviner is said to have fOtirid a 'ring an a tennis lawn ; in another, a lost jewel has been found by means of the psychic powers of a medium; in another, • the hiding place of a family heirloom was dis- covered by means of a picture in a tea-cup. Brooches and plates of false teeth vie with rings in their elusive qualities. After having been loSt for months, or sometimes for years; they have been known to be found by their owners in cheeses, in the bellies of fish, or, in one case, a ring--lost on a Seottialt moor-was found by its owner in a block of peat burning in her fire. Many of the stories told were 'almost identical, some of them seemed to have nothing very -remarkable about them, some were disqualified for illegibility, some curious instances were capable of explanation, some were not, but most of the entries received were extremely good reading, and for this reason we have decided to publish a representative selection of them. The prize of three guineas is awarded to

Mr. W. Btiehan for the following story :--- - • . A motorist gave. his small son a hedgehog as a pet. One day he

took his son for a drive and the hedgehog went too. After the drive the hedgehog was nowhere to be found. A few. days later the motorist heard queer squeakings behind the dashboard of the car. Imagining it to be the engine, be sent it to a garage. The next day he received a bill from .the garage, for overhauling the car and removing. one large and five small hedgehogs.---W. FIceirsx, Ben More Lodge, Cruline, Ar03,

Other entries which will interest our readers are :-

Some people were having -a picnic tea in one of the bays of Windermere.; not a private bay, but open to all. • Someone asked her host for a donation for a favourite charity. He replied, " TWo years ago we were having tea here, as to-day. I lost belle sovereign. If you tanfind it, it is yours for yOur -Everyone laughed. The girl, _without moving from her seat entire pebbles, scooped up a handful of them, and then, opening !wetland, let them paSs through her fingers: - iIn her palm was the little. tarnished half-sovereign.-- MABEL LAM' CROSSLEY, Aitrincham, Cheshire.

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Some twenty years ago, on an Atlantic liner, two days out from lieW_York, •eightzentlemen lingered over their coffee while one.of their -number, Sir Arthur. told the history of the latest addition to his himens coin c011ectiOn. A brilliant Speakef and an authority on coins, he. made intioh of the tale, while the priceless hit of metal itself. passed from hand to hand for examination. .The story done, the Com was nowhere to be fotind. In vain the table and floor were-a-cabbed t vain napkins were shaken, cups examined. questions asked ; in vain it was-suggested that each man present should be searched : seven assented, but one, a Mr. refused, politely, but firmly. Of course, after That; fof the rest of the trip they cut him Aped : the other passengers, tee : except Sir Arthur, who generously acted as if nothing untoward had happened. The night after land Was sighted', a steward, stooping to pick up a spoon; found the co7.e

on end, betweerz•the carpet and wall. He laid it at once on the table in front. of Sir Arthur, and, as the news flashed through the room,

apologies were made to Mr. for unjust suspicions entertained towards him. "" I will•tell you, now, why I refused to be searched," he said, when the excitement died down. • " Like Sir Arthur, I have made a hobby of coin collecting for some. years, and I should have confessed-as much, the other night, if Sir Arthur's fascinating story had not 'ended- so abruptly with the unfortunate disappearance of his coin. After that I was reluctant to speak because . . . ," he paused, smiling, then reached across the table and laid beside Sir Arthur's coin its exact duplicate, ". . . because this was in my pocket at the time. Even Sir Arthur," he added, " would have found it hard to believe that, with only two coins of the kind in existence, I should have had the other, that evening. in iriy possession."-EDWARD M. VIIRY, Chardonne-sur-Vevey, Switzerland.

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While travelling in a railway carriage with my small boy, I gave him a cigarette case to play with.- Imagine my chagrin when the deft little hand made my treasured possession disappear into that part of the door which the window occupies when it is lowered. It was impossible to recover the lost. article except by ttirning the carriage upside down. As this was out of the question we had to leave it in its resting place. And now for the sequel. Ten days later I was in a railway smash near Sevenoaks. I found myself in a heap. of wreckage and there before my eyes was -the. cigarette ease which I thought was lost for ever.-Rev. D. M. GRANT, B.D., The Manse, Rhu, Dumbartonshire.

* * * Some years ago my mother was sitting under a copper beech tree in the garden at home when her wedding-ring slipped off her finger. Search was made everywhere, but not a trace of it could be found. A year later my sister and I were sitting under the same tree when suddenly the missing ring fell into my sister's lap from above. There was a magpie's nest in the copper beech.---(Mrs.) J. H. Wean, Windrusli, North Lancing, StiSsex.

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For four dreadful' days last summer our fox-terrier was lost. Lucidly a cousin from Skye was with us at the time ; she was nicknamed Joseph because she was always dreaming "dreamil: At 4 o'clock on the morning of the fourth day we were dragged from bed to follow a dream she had wakened from. Joseph had dreamt of a whin bush, some yards from a rabbit-hole, and " Jock," With no room to turn, barking his life out. 'There was nothing for it but to look for the whin bush and toe found it. " Exactly it," said Joseph, dashing off to look forthe rabbit-hole. She listened and heard a -far-away bark. Three-quarters of an hour later a dusty diminished dog was dug out-nearly demented with delight.- L. MiTcner.r„ 4 Nile Grove, Edinburgh. * * *-

In 1890 my parents with their family of five occupied a large rambling house on the fringe of the business quarter of a large provincial town. I was a young man of twenty at. the time. My elder sister who was engaged to benutnied was notoriously careless in leaving her personal belongings lying about the house in odd corners. Admonishments failed to cure this habit and i determined to teach her a lesson by a. practical joke. One evening, when I was the last to retire, I noticed my sister's engagement ring lying on the dining-room table. I hid the ring in the room intending. to produce it after she bad exhausted her search for it. Next morning at breakfast, when she had -failed to find the ring and was in a state of acute anxiety I left the table to recover it. To my con- sternation I was totally unable to recall its hiding place, and in spite of efforts over years the secret eluded me. We left the house ire ..1400 and the ring had not been found. In 1925 -I had several teeth extracted under an anaesthetic, and as I struggled hack to consciousness I remembered thirty-five • years ago unscrewing a knob in the marble fireplace, depositing my sister's ring in the cavity behind, and replacing the knob. A visit to the house, still in existence, and used as offices, disclosed the fireplace still in use. I unscrewed the knob and there was the ring secreted by me one evening thirty-five years ago. -J. FLETCHY.1{, S Bourne Terrace, Thackley, Bradford, Yorks.

* * tt . Extracts from diary. of Canon H— " May 3, 1889. Unfortunately left umbrella in four-wheeler. Willprobably be returned, as name plate with addrees on handle.

May 20, 1890. Amazing ! and yet again amazing ! ! To-day late for an appointment I hailed four-wheeler. There on the seat lay my umbrella-lost one year ago--name plate and all complete. What of the interval I "- -Miss CHACE AricrNsos-, Hope Rouse, Chalfont Hill, near Stroud, Glos. .

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From Chelsea I took a taxi at 9.30 p.m. to a nun-in_cz home in Fitzroy Square to await result of operation to a relative, and I left my bag in the taxi. At 12.30 p.m. I left the home with a friend and walked into Euston Road, and we stood talking for quite a little time letting several cabs pass before I hailed one to return holy% to Chelsea. To my surprise I found it was the same I had come in, the driver said " Yes, and a good thing too, ma'am, for you left your bag in my cab." I asked where he had been. He said, " Oh half round London since I put you down."--Ls Dv C.UtEW, Ashburn Place, S.W.7.

* * I lay in may cot, my ear bandaged up, eyes drowsily fixed on a shining brass knob, thinking the immense thoughts of chikiltood . . . What was the use of pain I . . . What Woulld happen if the Devil was converted 2.. . Then the crookedness of the • knob annoyed me. I tried to fix it. but. the screw was worn. Ali ! there was a crinklycrinkly-bit of paper ! It just fitted in and made the 1Moh -straights . . . In my -sleep I heard the voice of my- uncle : My £5 note-! Where can I have druliped it ! " Twenty years later. A base hospital : I lay in bed, my head bandaged, eyes drowsily fixed on a shining brass knob' . . . -This one was straight . . . no need of paper . . . What a funny bit of paper that was !—crinkly, white with queer black marks on it .. . . Two young doctors strolled by : " I'd bet you a £5 note if I had it . . . " Suddenly light, piercing light, shot through my brain.

Six months later : I stood in a drawing-room, awkwardly apolo- gizing to a strange lady, " Might I look over the house in which I was born ? " . . . A hare deserted nursery, dark and still, but I could see my little cot in its accustomed corner. The lady crossed the room to draw back a curtain while I moved hurriedly to the cot, unscrewed the knob and found Uncle Johnny's £5 note.— Miss CIIRISTOBEL LR FEAVER, Holy Rood, Worthing.

* * • * This story was a favourite one of an old cousin, who vouched for

its truth. A party of " young men and maidens " were boating on a lake, and as one girl was drawing her hand through the water, a ring slipped off her finger, and sank out of sight. A day or two later the same party took out the boat again, and on passing over the place where the ring had disappeared, one of them saw something sparkling in the cup of a water lily.. There lay the lost ring, which must have dropped into the half open bud below the surface.— LADY CHITTY, " Balmoral," 37 Queen's Gate Gardens, S.W.

In the summer of .19— an Oxford man who -had just. taken " Greats " went on a cycling tour in Allendale. A friend who was spending the Long Vac. in Oxford promised to post him the examina- tion results as soon as they appeared, the exact date being uncertain. A carefully dated itinerary was prepared. According to plan, on July 19th, the tourist reached a remote village ; and on the 20th the letter arrived. " Dear it ran, the Greats Lists are out— " at. that moment the letter was whisked from his hand on to the open kitchen grate by the apron of a maidservant who hurried through the room. Before be could rescue it, the message was undecipherable.. Two days later he dismounted to disentangle from his front wheel a half-sheet of newspaper which had blown up against him in 'the main street of the little village, Allenheads. It was from the Times, July 20th, and the first words his eye lighted on were " University News." There followed the Honours List for the examination in Literae Humaniores. His own name was in the First Class.—J. C. DENT, The Chestnuts, Grosvenor Road, East., St. Albans, Herts.

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A young seaman who had sent home no word of his existence for some years, in a moment of idleness had cut his name on a piece of wood which dropped into the sea off Tampico. It was washed ashore the other side of the Atlantic, .and found by his mother below her cottage in the Hebrides, and some time after the lost one re- turned himself.—E. M. PATERSON, Old Court., Newent, Glos.

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A man sitting, next to Miss A. in a bus attempted to pick her pocket. (She was wearing a • " Burberry." with side pockets).. Becoming aware of what he was doing she was about to raise an alarm when he hastily got up and jumped off the bus. She put her hand in her pocket and discovered a signet ring with crest and coat of arms. This she took to Scotland Yard where it stayed for many months and was then returned to her unclaimed. Eventually she gave it to her brother, Capt. A. During the War he was dining one night somewhere in France with a few other officers. Suddenly Colonel S. said, " Will you show me that ring you are ? By- Jove ! its my own crest and this is the.very ring I had stolen from• me by a fellow I had in my employment ! ' Explanations followed, and the ring was returned to its rightful owner.—E. llonsanvon, 11 Pembroke Square, W.

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Dr. M. dining in London- recognized a peculiar ring on the hand of the man opposite. " May I ask," said Dr. M. handing him a paper, " if that ring has this Urdu motto inside as a ' posy ? if so,. it is-a ring I had made in India for my wife, and lost while fishing in Norway some years sgo." •In great amazement the stranger replied, " Yes, it has ! ' and related the following : " I was salmon fishing on the Wye and secured a fine fish and inside it the cook found this ring. It is obviously yours, so please take it."—Miss POWELL, Southbridge House, Bury St. Edmunds.