Page:Tales of old Lusitania.djvu/56

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THE VALUE OF AN EGG.




There was once a young man who left his home to travel to some foreign country, the name of which I cannot at present recollect. On his way he entered an inn to take some refreshment, and asked the landlady what provisions she had in the house. She replied that there was nothing left but a few boiled eggs. "Well, then," replied the hungry traveller, "let me have a farthing's worth." He ate the eggs, and then gave the landlady a real to change. She said that she had no change, but that it was of no consequence, for he could pay her next time he passed that way.

He set sail, and during his stay abroad he was in the constant habit of giving alms for the repose of the souls in purgatory, expecting that they in return would help him in the concerns of this world, and as he did so, if he happened to see over the money-box in the church a picture of the poor souls with the devil depicted underneath, he would say: "This is for the repose of the souls that are willing to help