GOES A LONG WAY

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1934, Page 22 (Supplement)

GOES A LONG WAY

THE TRAMP WHO CAME BACK. This story comes to us from Munice tn Indiana/but it might have happened anywhere. Mrs. B was just finishing her ironing when there came a knock at the baerc door. Another man begging a meal! Really this was becoming a nuisance. Besides, Mrs. B was not sure it did any good, and it meant her own family had to go short. She was just about to turn the man away when something whispered to her that it was hard to find ■ work and her cupboard was not yet quite bare. Mrs. B asked the man in and began : setting food on the table. “Like a wash?” sire asked him. His face lighted up, and by the way he said yes she could see he was no ordinary tramp. As he ate they chatted. When he said times were bad she said they were getting better. Besides, they weren’t really bad. There was no famine, no plague; only bad distribution. With goodwill, vision, and courage, wrongs could' be righted, and they would be. The important thing was to keep going some-. A how. Those who could weather this economic depression would live to se® better times and - a wiser adjustment of things to people. She found him a thoughtful young man. “Would you like these to read? 1 * she said when he was leaving, giving him a parcel of papers and magazines she had finished with. A few weeks later, when Mr. B had forgotten the incident, there came a knock at the door—the front door this time. There stood the young man, hat in hand. “I want to pay for the meal you gave me,” he said, holding out a dollar; “but I can’t ever pay for the encouragement. It put me on my feet. I found work, and they are keeping me on, so I can afford to pay for the food. Money can’t recompense kindness, but I thought you would like to know that yours was not wasted.” With that 'he pressed the note into Mrs. B’s hand and ran off with the edges of his ears a peony pink, .<■