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SKETCHES. 309
some friendly word gave him the alms which she had her-
self but now received. With his hungry four-footed friend
he hastened, with merry bounds, to a neighboring baker’s
shop, where they shared their luxurious meal with enviable
appetite and delight.
Their benefactress looked after them with a pleasant smile.
A few minutes afterwards she took a piece of soft bread
out of her apron, and ate it with evident enjoyment.
Again she looked up to the bright sky, so gratefully, as if
she had nothing miore to wish for in life.
This sight gave me something to think of, and in har-
mony with the change in the weather, my thoughts were
now the very reverse of those which I had entertained a
short time before.
This old woman, whom we pity, ought we not rather to
deem her enviable? She may have what we all of us
want, what we all long for— an interest in everyday. The
beginning of each day offers to her an eventful future.
What she receives at the hands of the charitable, is to her
a favor of fortune, or rather a mercy from Heaven, who
does not abandon her any more than the sparrow, which,
merrily chirping, picks up the grain that has fallen for him
to the ground. If occasionally her prayer is refused, why
she is used to it; it neither spoils nor embitters her temper,
and wanting but little, she still always gets that little.
What she gives out of her poverty to others, has, like the
widow’s mite, a great value in the eyes of the Great Judge
who examines the heart and the will. She has no cares
for the morrow, and no day goes past which does not
bring her some good, which yesterday she did not expect
to get. Hardened from long habit against the changes of
the weather, she suffers little from its roughness, whereas
she enjoys undisturbed and free its more genial moments.
I believe that they who live and move about much in the
open air, they who frequently have no other roof over their
heads than heaven’s vault, feel themselves more vividly
and more trustfully to be under the protection of the higher
:
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