Mr. Jonas went back to his store in rather a vexed state of mind.  All his fine feelings of benevolence were stifled.  He was angry with the indigent family, and angry with himself for being “the fool to meddle with any business but his own.”

“Catch me on such an errand again,” said he, indignantly.  “I’ll never seek to do a good turn again as long as I live.”

Just as he was saying this, his neighbor Prescott came into his store.

“Where does the poor family live, of whom you were speaking to me?” he inquired.

“O, don’t ask me about them!” exclaimed Mr. Jonas.  “I’ve just found them out.  They’re a lazy, vagabond set.”

“You are certain of that?”

“Morally certain.  Mr. Caddy says he knows them like a book, and they’d rather want than work.  With him, I think a little wholesome starvation will do them good.”

Notwithstanding this rather discouraging testimony, Mr. Prescott made a memorandum of the street and number of the house in which the family lived, remarking as he did so: 

“I have just heard where the services of an able-bodied man are wanted.  Perhaps Gardiner, as you call him, may be glad to obtain the situation.”

“He won’t work; that’s the character I have received of him,” replied Mr. Jonas, whose mind was very much roused against the man.  The pendulum of his impulses had swung, from a light touch, to the other extreme.

“A dollar earned, is worth two received in charity,” said Mr. Prescott; “because the dollar earned corresponds to service rendered, and the man feels that it is his own—­that he has an undoubted right to its possession.  It elevates his moral character, inspires self-respect, and prompts to new efforts.  Mere alms-giving is demoralizing for the opposite reason.  It blunts the moral feelings, lowers the self-respect, and fosters inactivity and idleness, opening the way for vice to come in and sweep away all the foundations of integrity.  Now, true charity to the poor is for us to help them to help themselves.  Since you left me a short time ago, I have been thinking, rather hastily, over the matter; and the fact of hearing about the place for an able-bodied man, as I just mentioned, has led me to call around and suggest your making interest therefor in behalf of Gardiner.  Helping him in this way will be true benevolence.”

“It’s no use,” replied Mr. Jonas, in a positive tone of voice.  “He’s an idle good-for-nothing fellow, and I’ll have nothing to do with him.”

Mr. Prescott urged the matter no farther, for he saw that to do so would be useless.  On his way home, on leaving his store, he called to see Gardiner.  He found, in two small, meagerly furnished rooms, a man, his wife, and three children.  Everything about them indicated extreme poverty; and, worse than this, lack of cleanliness and industry.  The woman and children had a look of health, but the man was evidently the subject of some wasting disease.