p. 15 | The Little Loaf by Ella Lyman Cabot

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 11, 1915

The Little Loaf

By Ella Lyman Cabot

MANY years ago there was a great famine in Germany, and the poor people suffered from hunger. A rich man who loved children sent for twenty of them and said to them: “In this basket there is a loaf of bread for each of you. Take it and come back again every day till 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 at the largest loaf. They even forgot to thank the man who had been kind to them. After a few minutes of quarreling and snatching for bread, every one ran away with his loaf except one little girl, named Gretchen. She stood there alone 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.

Next day the children came again, and they behaved as badly as ever. Gretchen, who would not push with the rest, received only a tiny loaf scarcely the half size of the others. But when she came home, and her mother began to cut the loaf, out dropped six shining coins of silver.

“O Gretchen!” exclaimed her mother, “this must be a mistake. The money does not belong to us. Run quick as you can and take it back to the gentleman.”

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 contented to have a small loaf rather than quarrel for a larger one will find blessings that are better than money baked in bread.”—Ella Lyman Cabot, in “Ethics for Children.”