THE LITTLE LOAF

New Zealand Tablet, 18 April 1912, Page 61

THE LITTLE LOAF

Many years ago there was a great famine in Germany, and the poor people suffered from hunger. A

rich man who loved- children sent if or twenty of them, and said to them: ‘ln ' this basket there is a loaf of bread for each of you. v. Take it and come back again every day until , the famine -is over ; • I will give you a loaf each day.’ ' ‘ \- :'' The .children were very hungry. ; They seized: the basket and struggled to- get the ; largest loaf. , • They even forgot to thank the man who had + been* kind to them. After a few minutes of quarrelling, and snatching for bread, everyone ran away with - their loaf except one little girl named Gretchen. ■- She stood there altJne at a little distance from the - gentleman: : . Then, smiling, she took up the last loaf, the smallest of all;. and thanked him with all her heart. T %? ::' : v. ; V’ y : ext day the children . came again,. and they 'behaved as .badly as before. Gretchen, who would not push with the rest, received only a tiny loaf scarcely half the size of the others. But when she came home and her mother began to cut the loaf, out dropped six shining coins of silver. . - ; Oh, Gretchen ! exclaimed her mother; ? this must be a mistake; The money does not belong to us. Run as quickly as you can, and take it back to the gentleman.’ . i So Gretchen carried it back but when she gave the gentleman her mother’s message, he said: ‘No, no ; it was not a mistake. I had. the silver baked into the smallest loaf in order to reward you. . Remember that the person who is content to have a small loaf rather than quarrel for a larger one will find blessings which are better than money baked in bread.’