IN A CROWDED THOROUGHFARE.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 18, Issue 31, 16 April 1907, Page 2

IN A CROWDED THOROUGHFARE.

An amusing incident was witnessed recently in a busy thoroughfare. Two lads, in struggling for the possession of a penny, dropped it down a grating in front of an unoccupied shop. Then a means had to bo found of regaining the coin. Some pavement repairs that were going on soon inspired one of the youngsters with a brilliant idea. lie induced one of the workman to give him a lump of pitch. This he tied to a piece of string and began to fish for the elusive coin below. A crowd gathered to watch the operation. Three times the penny was brought to within a few 'inches of the surface, each time to fall.

"Give me. that string !" commanded an elderly man, his hair tinged with , grey. He was fashionably garbed, and a smile of amusement passed round the growing crowd as the gentleman got down on his knees and tried his fortune. He fished with no belter success than the boys. Finally he gave a snort of anger, rose, and surveyed with a frown the grime embedded deep in the fabric of his trousers, and then smiled.

"I must be in my second childhood," he remarked. "I'm fifty-five years old—old enough to know better. I've wasted half an hour trying, like some big booby, to recover a penny. Here, boys, is a sixpence to make up for your loss." He walked away, the crowd dispersed, and after the street had been cleared once more, the boys resumed their efforts to regain that perverse penny, hoping to meet with as much success as before.