Part 8 (1/2)
”Yes, sir, a cent-and-a-half a meal Ask any one in New London That's all it cost me The mayor said he was surprised at the way I did it”
”Well, but there wasn't any particular personal service in thehiave you the money?”
”No, sir, they didn't,” he replied dreah ave the personal service Don't you see? That's the way”
”Yes, that's the way,” I s as far as possible a further discussion of this contradiction, so unconscious on his part, and in the drag of his thought he took up another idea
”I clothed 'eot barrels and boxes of old clothing Soot over that, all right I earing them myself, and I just told the the them out of the same barrel' Got my clothes entirely free for that winter”
”Can you always get all the aid you need for such enterprises?”
”Usually, and then I can earn a good deal of et a hundred and fifty dollars for a little yacht, you know, every tiood deal ofhere on the Fourth of July and caught two hundred blackfish--four and five pounds, alht to be profitable,” I said
”Well, it was,” he replied
”How et for them?”
”Oh, I didn't sell theave the--”advertise for people to cohters, and I took the rest and we carried theht would like to have them”
”Well, that wasn't so profitable, was it?” I commented amusedly
”Yes, they were fine fish,” he replied, not see to have heard me
We dropped the subject of personal service at this point, and I expressed the opinion that his service was only a teed, and with theot Perhaps those he aided were none the better for accepting his charity
”I knohat you mean,” he said ”But that don't , that's all, see? Not all of 'e to give--but I never give ive , too, but I try to show 'em a neay--that's not money, you know Sofor it often, only they don't seem to kno But God, dear brother, however poor or ot to reach the heart, you know, and I let Hiot to make a man over in his soul, if you want to help him, and money won't help you to do that, you know No, it won't”
He looked up at me in clear-eyed faith It was remarkable
”Make them over?” I queried, still curious, for it was all like a romance, and rather fantastic to me ”What do you mean? How do you make theot to change aif you really want to led up in their own errors and bad ways, and so worried over their seekings, that unless you can set the, and they don't knohat they want half the ti Why, half of them wouldn't understand how to use it if they had it Their h Their perceptions are not clear enough All you can do is toto others will do I never saw the man or the woman yet who couldn't be happy if you couldso for somebody besides themselves It's a fact Selfish people are never happy”
He rubbed his hands as if he saw the solution of the world's difficulties very clearly, and I said to hiot a man out of the mire, and 'saved,' as you call it, and then what? What comes next?”
”Well, then he's saved,” he replied ”Happiness coo to church, or conform to certain rules?”
”No, no, no!” he replied sweetly ”Nothing to do except to be good to others 'True religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this,'” he quoted, ”'to visit theand the orphan in their affliction and to keep unspotted from the world Charity is kind,' you know 'Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, seeketh not its own'”