THE GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY.
we be laid up with the rheumatize." Upon this she laughed with genuine joy, and, taking up her kettle, wished Matilda good afternoon, and hobbled away.
And I knew, though it had never occurred to the old woman, that all this happiness was owing to my penny! If she had not had it to spend, she would not have walked to the post-office, she would not have got her son's letter—that precious letter which had saved her from misery and the workhouse.
How happy I was as we walked home; I seemed to tread on air, and yet I knew of how little value the penny really was; it was only my having been permitted to give it under such peculiar circumstances that had made it such a worthy and important coin.
The lesson taught me by these little events I did not easily forget, and I think their moral is too obvious to need elaborate enforcing. It may, however, be summed up in few words.
First,—Do not expect that in your own strength you can make use of even the best opportunity for doing good.
Second,—Do not put off till another day any good which it is in the power of your hand to do at once.
And thirdly,—Do not despond because your means of doing good appear trifling and insignificant, for though one soweth and another reapeth, yet it is God that giveth the increase; and who can tell whether He will not cause that which is sown to bear fruit an hundred fold; who can tell whether to have even a penny to give under certain circumstances may not be to have no Copper—but a Golden Opportunity.
