Taking up a shingle
which lay upon his work-bench, and producing a piece of chalk, with
a feeling of conscious pride he made an exhaustive calculation.
"Exactly forty-three dollars and eighty cents," he replied, wiping
the perspiration from his heated brow, while his face flushed with
honest enthusiasm.
"Well, sir, if you saved three cents a day, instead of wasting it,
you would now be the possessor of a new suit of clothes, an
illustrated Family Bible, a pew in the church, a complete set of
Patent Office Reports, a hymn-book, and a paid subscription to
Arthur's Home Magazine, which could be purchased for exactly forty-
three dollars and eighty cents; and," added the Judge, with
increasing sternness, "if you calculate leap-year, which you seem
to have strangely omitted, you have three cents more, sir; THREE
CENTS MORE! What would that buy you, sir?"
"A cigar," suggested John Jenkins; but, coloring again deeply, he
hid his face.
"No, sir," said the Judge, with a sweet smile of benevolence
stealing over his stern features; "properly invested, it would buy
you that which passeth all price. Dropped into the missionary-box,
who can tell what heathen, now idly and joyously wantoning in
nakedness and sin, might be brought to a sense of his miserable
condition, and made, through that three cents, to feel the torments
of the wicked?"
With these words the Judge retired, leaving John Jenkins buried in
profound thought.
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