The Missionary Orange Girl.
Not long since a little girl peddling oranges entered a down town place of business in New York, and offered her fruit for sale. “How much apiece for oranges, sis?” asked a person standing near. “Five cents for the largest and four cents for the smallest ones,” answered the child. The man who accosted her uttered an oath, as he exclaimed, “Why, you don’t ask so much as that for those dried up little things, do you?” “What did you say, sir?” questioned the little merchant, as she turned half away from her customer, and took some fancy colored tickets from her pocket. Instead of repeating his oath the man watched the child, and for some reason was impelled to say to her “Well, I’ll tell you what I will do now. I will give you five cents for a four cent orange if you will throw in one of your tickets in the bargain.” “Done!” said the little orange-seller, joyfully. So the purchaser passed over five cents, and received in exchange a four-cent orange and one of the tickets from the little girl’s pocket. When this man, who had been guilty of swearing in the presence of a child, examined the card he had bought and paid for at his own suggestion, he read upon the one side the word—eternity, and upon the other, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” Does not this incident give us an instance of real missionary work from an unexpected quarter, and does it not seem that the Lord arranged for paying the little missionary on the spot?—Christian at Work.