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Show WHAT TWO PENNIES DID. The day was warm and the sermon long; yet such was the eloquence of the preacher that the large congregation which filled the Church of St. Thomas, Paris, gave no 6ign of impatience or fatigue. fa-tigue. One stout old gentleman, however, was a solitary exception. Seated in a distant corner, the words of the text had, indeed, reached his ear, but his attention had wandered from the pulpit to the red and blue dots which danced through the stained windows, thence to the motley crowd which surrounded sur-rounded him, and lastly to a small urchin who stood leaning against one of the pillars. This boy was the picture of poverty, from the crown of his rimless hat to his hobnailed boots boots which would have fitted one twice his size. But the crowning feature of his attire was his coat, which was one mass of patches, each of a different hue; and the onlooker fell to wondering whether anything of the original material yet remained. The lad himself seemed totally unconscious of the oddity of his appearance and stood listening to the sermon with such rapt attention that the stout old gentleman felt tacitly rebuked, and finally made an earnest effort to catch the purport of the preacher's preach-er's words. The sermon, however, was drawing to its close; and a few minutes later the congregation had broken bro-ken up and was streaming out of the church, the stout old gentleman himself being caught up in the vortex and deposited outside. As he started, walking briskly toward the Tiiver Seine, he saw the ragged urchin stop before a beggar and drop a penny into his hat. The next minute the boy had sped onward, until, meeting a second beggar, he again drew a copper from his pocket. This time the gentleman was unable to restrain his curiosity. "Look here, youngster! What is your namcf" "Jean Pierre, monsieur." "Well, Jean Pierre, you don't look overburdened with this world's goods, yet here you are throwing away your money right and left." The urchin thus addressed hesitated only a second. sec-ond. The Paris street boy is not shy, and the old gentleman did not look so very formidable. "You see, monsieur, this is how it is. I want a new coat very badly, and mother can't afford to buy me one; and the priest told us just how that what we gave to the poor God would return to us many times over; so I thought that for my two pennies God would perhaps give me a coat. They were my own pennies, monsieur; I earned them this morning morn-ing by carrying a lady's parcel!" The old gentleman had stood an amused and interested listener to this quaint explanation. As he met the boy's artless gaze his face softened. "You will get your coat, youngster, never fear; and, to lose no time, we will go and choose one this very minute. Come along !" Selected. |