Page:Stories told to a child.djvu/197



OT many things have happened to me in the course of my life which can be called events. One great event, as I then thought it, happened when I was eight years old. On that birthday I first possessed a piece of gold.

How well I remember the occasion! I had a holiday, and was reading aloud to my mother. The book was the 'Life of Howard, the philanthropist.' I was interested in it, though the style was considerably above my comprehension; at last I came to the following sentence, which I could make nothing of: 'He could not let slip such a golden opportunity for doing good.'

'What is a golden opportunity? ' I inquired.

'It means a very good opportunity.'

'But, mamma, why do they call it golden?'

My mamma smiled, and said it was a figurative expression: 'Gold is very valuable and very uncommon; this opportunity was a very valuable and uncommon one; we can express that in one word, by calling it a golden opportunity.'

I pondered upon the information for some time, and Rh