“Oh, certainly. Large dividends.”
“Ah! You surprise me. What kind of dividends?”
“More than a hundred per cent.”
“Indeed! Not in money?”
“Oh no. But in something better than money. The satisfaction that flows from an act of benevolence wisely done.”
“Oh, that’s all.” The friend spoke with ill-concealed contempt.
“Don’t you call that something?” asked Mr. Winslow.
“It’s entirely too unsubstantial for me,” replied the other. “I go in for returns of a more tangible character. Those you speak of wont pay my notes.”
Mr. Winslow smiled, and bade his friend good-morning.
“He knows nothing,” said he to himself, as he mused on the subject, “of the pleasure of doing good; and the loss is all on his side. If we have the ability to secure investments of this kind, they are among the best we can make, and all are able to put at least some money in the fund of good works, let it be ever so small an amount. Have I suffered the abridgment of a single comfort by what I have done? No. Have I gained in pleasant thoughts and feelings by the act? Largely. It has been a source of perennial enjoyment. I would not have believed that, at so small a cost I could have secured so much pleasure. And how great the good that may flow from what I have done! Instead of a mere day-laborer, whose work in the world goes not beyond the handling of boxes, bales and barrels, or the manufacture of some article in common use, Edward Davis, advanced by education, takes a position of more extended usefulness, and by his higher ability and more intelligent action in society, will be able, if he rightly use the power in his hands, to advance the world’s onward movement in a most important degree.”