WHERE TO BEG AND PROSPER.
Two beggars met one day, and thus they talked as they rested on the roadside: “Ours is but a poor trade, I am getting very tired of it,” said one. “Are you? Well, it is not so with me. I find it a prosperous business, and like it better every day,” said the other. “Strange enough, that,” was the answer. “There are so many things against us. First of all, one dares not go to the same persons too often.” “That is not my experience,” said the other. “I find that the oftener I go, the more readily I am heard.” “You don’t say so!” exclaimed his companion. “I get turned away with, ‘Saucy Fellow!’ or some such name, and am told to take myself elsewhere. As to money or bread, I may knock pretty often before I get sight of it.” “Now I can truly say,” said his companion, “that if I don’t get what I ask for, I have something better instead of it.” “A lucky fellow you are, and in these times, too, when people shake their heads and declare they have need to go begging themselves.” “Ah! that I am never told. I go where riches abound, and where there is enough, and more than enough, for all that ask.” “If I put on a doleful face they call me hypocrite; if I put on a merry air, they say I am not in want; there is no knowing how to succeed with them.” “When I am in trouble, I get pity; when I am full of praise and joy, I get a more abundant blessing.” “Wonderful! wonderful! They grow tired of my story, I find, before they have half heard it, and suspect it is false, without caring much for me, even if it were true.” “How contrary my case! I cannot tell my sorrows and wants too often. I am told to come with every one of them, and, strange to say, so deep is the interest in my behalf, that what I have to tell is better known where I beg than I know it myself.” “Why, what house do you beg at?” asked the astonished beggar. “At the gate of Heaven,” said his companion. “Where do you beg?” “Oh! I beg of the world,” said he. “Then no wonder you are tired of your trade. Come and try my gate. If you make your stand at that, you will never be disappointed, never get an angry or unkind word, and never, never, be turned empty away.”—Sel.