A Good Investment

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 22, 1883

A Good Investment.

SEVERAL winters ago a woman was coming out from some public building where the heavy doors swung back and made egress difficult. A street urchin sprung to the rescue, and, as he held the door, she said, "Thank you" and passed on.

"D'ye hear that?" said the boy to a companion standing near.

"No; what?"

"Why, that lady in seal-skin said 'thank ye' to the likes o' me."

Amused at the conversation which she could not help overhearing, the lady turned around and said to him, "It always pays to be polite, my boy; remember that."

Years passed away, and last December, when doing her Christmas shopping, this woman received an exceptional courtesy from a clerk in Boston, which caused her to remark in a low tone to a friend who was with her: "What a comfort to be civilly treated once in a while—though I don't much blame the clerks for being rude during the holiday trade."

The young man's quick ears caught the words, and he said: "Pardon me madam, but you gave me my first lesson in politeness."

She looked at him in amazement while he related the forgotten incident and told her that simple "thank you" awakened his first ambition to be something in the world.

He went the next morning and applied for a situation as office boy in the establishment where he was now an honored and trusted clerk.

Only two words, dropped into the treasury of street conversation; but they yielded returns of a certain kind more satisfactory than investments in stocks and bonds.—Congregationalist.