again get rid of me; no one would take me. I was to the woman a most
unlucky shilling. ‘I am positively obliged to pass this shilling to somebody,’
said she; ‘I cannot, with the best intentions, lay by a bad shilling. The rich
baker shall have it,-he can bear the loss better than I can. But, after all, it is
not a right thing to do.’
“‘Ah!’ sighed I to myself, ‘am I also to be a burden on the conscience of
this poor woman? Am I then in my old days so completely changed?’ The
woman offered me to the rich baker, but he knew the current money too
well, and as soon as he received me he threw me almost in the woman’s
face. She could get no bread for me, and I felt quite grieved to the heart that
I should be cause of so much trouble to another, and be treated as a cast-off
coin. I who, in my young days, felt so joyful in the certainty of my own
value, and knew so well that I bore a genuine stamp. I was as sorrowful
now as a poor shilling can be when nobody will have him. The woman took
me home again with her, and looking at me very earnestly, she said, ‘No, I
will not try to deceive any one with thee again. I will bore a hole through
thee, that everyone may know that thou art a false and worthless thing; and
yet, why should I do that? Very likely thou art a lucky shilling. A thought
has just struck me that it is so, and I believe it. Yes, I will make a hole in the
shilling,’ said she, ‘and run a string through it, and then give it to my
neighbor’s little one to hang round her neck, as a lucky shilling.’ So she
drilled a hole through me.
“It is really not at all pleasant to have a hole bored through one, but we
can submit to a great deal when it is done with a good intention. A string
was drawn through the hole, and I became a kind of medal. They hung me
round the neck of a little child, and the child laughed at me and kissed me,
and I rested for one whole night on the warm, innocent breast of a child.
“In the morning the child’s mother took me between her fingers, and had
certain thoughts about me, which I very soon found out. First, she looked
for a pair of scissors, and cut the string.
“‘Lucky shilling!’ said she, ‘certainly this is what I mean to try.’ Then
she laid me in vinegar till I became quite green, and after that she filled up
