| Some Lessons I Learned as a Boy
An older boy and his young companion were walking along a road
which led through a field. They saw an old coat and a badly worn
pair of men's shoes by the roadside, and in the distance they saw
the owner working in the field.
The younger boy suggested that they hide the shoes, conceal themselves,
and watch the perplexity on the owner's face when he returned.
The older boy thought that would not be so good. He said the owner
must be a very poor man. So, after talking the matter over, at his
suggestion, they concluded to try another experiment. Instead of
hiding the shoes, they would put a silver dollar in each one and
see what the owner did when he discovered the money. So they did
that.
Pretty soon the man returned from the field, put on his coat,
slipped one foot into a shoe, felt something hard, took it out and
found a silver dollar. Wonder and surprise [shone] upon his face.
He looked at the dollar again and again, turned around and could
see nobody, then proceeded to put on the other shoe; when to his
great surprise he found another dollar. His feelings overcame him.
He knelt down and offered aloud a prayer of thanksgiving, in which
he spoke of his wife being sick and helpless and his children without
bread. He fervently thanked the Lord for this bounty from unknown
hands and evoked the blessing of heaven upon those who gave him
this needed help.
The boys remained [hidden] until he had gone. They had been touched
by his prayer and felt something warm within their hearts. As they
left to walk down the road, one said to the other, "Don't you
have a good feeling?"
Gordon B. Hinckley, "Some Lessons I Learned as a Boy,"
Ensign, May 1993, 52 (Adapted from Bryant S. Hinckley, Not by Bread
Alone, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1955, p. 95.)
|