THE GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY.
'No doubt! kaleidoscopes, and magic lanterns, and all sorts of trash. But, unfortunately, you have not got it; you have only one half-sovereign to throw away.'
'But perhaps I shall not throw it away; perhaps I shall try and do some good with it.'
'Do some good with it! Bless you, my dear, if you do but try to do some good with it, I shall not call it thrown away.'
I then related what I had been reading, and had nearly concluded when the housemaid came in. She laid a crumpled piece of paper by his desk, and with it a shilling and a penny, saying, 'There's the change, sir, out of your shoemaker's bill.'
My grandfather took it up, looked at it, and remarked that the shilling was a new one. Then with a generosity which I really am at a loss to account for, he actually, and on the spot, gave me both the shilling and the penny.
There they lay in the palm of my hand, gold, silver, and copper. He then gave me another kiss, and abruptly dismissed me, saying that he had more writing to do; and I walked along the little passage with an exultation of heart that a queen might have envied, to show this unheard-of wealth to my mother.
I remember laying the three coins upon a little table, and dancing round it, singing, 'There's a golden opportunity! and there's a silver opportunity! and there's a copper opportunity!' and having continued this exercise till I was quite tired, I spent the rest of the morning in making three little silk bags, one for each
