A poor man went into a wealthy merchant’s counting-house one
day and saw piles of bank-notes which the clerks were busy in
counting. The poor man thought of his desolate home, and the
needs of his family, and, almost without thinking, he said to
himself, “Ah! how happy a very little of that money would make
me!” The merchant overheard him. “What is that you say, my
friend?” The poor man was confused, and begged to be excused,
as he did not intend to say anything. But the kind-hearted
merchant wouldn’t excuse him, and so the man had to repeat what
he had said. “Well,” said the merchant, “how much would it take
to make you happy?” “Oh, I don’t know, sir,” said he, “but the
weather is very cold, and I have no fuel; my wife and children
are thinly clad, sir, for I have been sick. But we don’t want
much. I think, sir, about fifteen dollars would get us all we
need.” “John,” said the merchant to his clerk, “count this man
out fifteen dollars.” The poor man’s heart was made glad, and
when he got home, his family were made happy. At the close of
the day, the clerk asked his employer how he should enter on
his books the money given. He answered: “Say, ‘For making a man
happy, fifteen dollars.’” Perhaps that was the happiest fifteen
dollars the merchant himself had ever spent. (Text.)
(1347)