Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1910 — AN INSPIRED BEGGAR. [ARTICLE]

AN INSPIRED BEGGAR.

Little MU. s.brlna Knew the Beat Conrae to Pnrsne. “The money’s wonderful enough, but where it comes from is a miracle,” declared Mrs. Marvin, as the hospital association meeting broke up into jubilant little groups. “Lucinda Ivins! Goodness knows how often I’ve stood on her doorstep, screwing up my courage to face that cold eye and ask for twenty-five cents —and I generally didn’t’get it, either. She thought there was altogether too much charity, and as for church suppers! Whose list was she on this time?” “Mine,” confessed a young girl. “But I’d faced her once before, and —well, I Just wrote a note and got a declination.”

Mrs. Marvin’s eye darted about among the other women, with masterful inquiry, and pounced upon a bright eyed-little elderly woman in a corner. “Sabrina! Sabrina Moss!” she called across the room. “I believe you’ve had your finger in this pie, and you may as Well confess. You always were an inspired beggar, and—oh, I know it was you persuaded her into it!"

"No, indeed!” protested Miss Sabrina, hastily. “There was no persuad; ing. I —maybe it was officious in me to go,”—she turned to the young girl apologetically—-"but I knew you were a newcomer and wouldn’t know about little Lily Ivins, it was all so long ago. She was a cripple, and Lucinda’s baby sister. They cure cases like hers nowadays, and I thought perhaps if Lucinda realized—-”

“And she did, and promised you five thousand dollars!” burst in Mrs. Earvin, breathlessly. "Dear me, no,” said Miss Sabrina, chuckling. “She said, ‘You always were an interfering person, Sabrina Moss! I’ll thank you to attend to your affairs, and I’ll attend to mine!’ ‘All right, Lucinda,’ said I. ‘lt’s only a question of what our affairs are, and I hoped you’d think this one yours.’ And then she snorted at me, and I came away.” Walking home with the girl who had not obtained the live thousand, Mrs. Marvin declared, “That was Sabrina all over. Just to state her case and come away—the one thing that could have fetched Lucinda Ivins. Sabrina really is what I called her—an inspired beggar. She’s never importunate, she’s never pleading, she never asks more than a person can fairly afford. Sometimes she discourages overgenerous givers; and once, when there came an unexpected need jUst after there had been other large demandsr she wouldn't go to even one of the usual people. She deliberately set herself to get the whole sum out of people who don’t give, but ought to'. She got it, too! “She’s as poor as a churdh mouse herself, but the year she was sick there was a perfectly ridiculous falling off in our receipts for charities and improvements. We in Hentley have learned to appreciate the fact that one of the most valuable citizens a town can have Is a thoroughly able, industrious, discreet and conscientious beggar.”—Youth’s Companion.