IN A CROWDED THOROUGHFARE.

North Otago Times, 1 November 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

IN A CROWDED THOROUGHFARE.

An amusing incident was witnessed recently in a busy thoroughfare. Two lads, in struggling for the possession of a penny, dropped it down a grating in front of an unoccupied shop. Then a means had to bo found of regaining tho coin. Some pavement repairs that were going on soon inspired one oi the youngsters with a brilliant idea. lie induced one of tho workman to give him a lump of pitch. This he tied to a piece of string and began to fish for the elusive coin below. A crowd gathered to watch tho operation. Three times the penny was brought to within a few inches of the surface, each time to fall. "(Jive me that string !" commanded an elderly man, his hair tinged with ' grey. He was fashionably garbed, and a smile of amusement passed round the growing crowd as the gentleman got down on his knees and tried his fortune. He fished with no better success than the boys. Finally he gave a snort of anger, rose, and surveyed with a frown the grime embedded deep in the fabric oi his trousers, and then smiled.

"I must lie in my second childhood,' 1 lie remarked. ''l'm fifty-live years old-old enough to know better. I've wasted half an hour trying, like some big booby, to recover a penny. Here, boys, is a sixpence m make up for your loss." lie walked away, the crowd dispersed, and after the street had'been ilcared once more, the boys resumed their efforts to regain that perverse penny, hoping to meet with as much success as before,