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Show JUST A SHOE BUTTONER. Willie was an honest boy, and all good people who knew him loved him. One day his mother gave him two dollars and sent him to the store to buy a pair of shoes. When the merchant tied up the bundle he put in two buttoners instead of one. As soon as Willie reached home and opened the box he found the extra but toner, and asked his mother if she thought he ought to carry one of them back. She said she supposed the merchant intended for him to keep both of them, but to go and see. Onhis way back to town he met some of his boy acquaintances, who asked where he was going. He told them how the merchant had made a mistake mis-take and that he was going to return one ofthc buttoners. One of the boys said: "What's an old shoe buttoner? They don't cost a cent. The storekeeper will laugh at you." Willie wont on his way and returned the but-toner but-toner to the merchant, who told him it was put in by mistake, but that he need not have troubled to return it. Next morning at school several of the boys when they met Willie, said: "Hello, old Shoe Buttoner!" At first he thought he would cry, but he said to himself: "I did right, and there is no use in crying about doing right." The vacation came; the same merchant from whom Willie had purchased the shoes some months before advertised for a boy. Willie was anxious to make ,some money of his own, and his mother allowed him to apply for the place. When he walked into the store one of the boys, who was waiting his turn to see the proprietor, said to another an-other boys : "Well, here conies 'Shoe But toner' " The merchant looked around and recognized the honest fact of his former customer, and employed him immediately. He was so faithful and honest that he has been in that store from that day till this,, and is now one of the proprietors. One of Wjllie's old friends, who recalled the-circumstances the-circumstances which I have just related, said the other day: "Will, didn't it make you feel good when you got your position because you had returned a shoe buttoner?" Mr. Will replied: "Oh, of course, I was glad to get the position, but most of my feeling good over it was because I knew I. had done right." Selected.' |
