s money dishonestly.
Crow was a very shrewd little boy, and he made money honestly in a
number of ways that only a wide-awake boy would think about.

When fig season came, in hot summer-time, he happened to notice that
beautiful ripe figs were drying up on the tip-tops of some great trees
in a neighboring yard, where a stout old gentleman and his old wife
lived alone, and he began to reflect.

"If I could des git a-holt o' some o' dem fine sugar figs dat's
a-swivelin' up every day on top o' dem trees, I'd meck a heap o' money
peddlin' 'em on de street." And even while he thought this thought he
licked his lips. There were, no doubt, other attractions about the figs
for a very small boy with a very sweet tooth.

On the next morning after this, Crow rang the front gate-bell of the
yard where the figs were growing.

"Want a boy to pick figs on sheers?" That was all he said to the fat old
gentleman who had stepped around the house in answer to his ring.

Crow's offer was timely.

Old Mr. Cary was red in the face and panting even yet from reaching up
into the mouldy, damp lower limbs of his fig-trees, trying to gather a
dishful for breakfast.

"Come in," he said, mopping his forehead as he spoke.

"Pick on shares, will you?"

"Yassir."

"Even?"

"Yassir."

"Promise never to pick any but the very ripe figs?"

"Yassir."

"Honest boy?"

"Yassir."

"Turn in, then; but wait a minute."

He stepped aside into the house, returning presently with two baskets.

"Here," he said, presenting them both. "These are pretty nearly of a
size. Go ahead, now, and let's see what you can do."

Needless to say, Crow proved a great success as fig-picker. The very
sugary figs that old Mr. Cary had panted for and reached for in vain lay
bursting with sweetness on top of both baskets.

The old gentleman and his wife were delighted, and the boy was quickly
engaged to come every morning.

And this was how Crow went into the fig business.

Crow was a likable boy--"so bright and handy and nimble"--and the old
people soon became fond of him.

They noticed that he always handed in the larger of the two baskets,
keeping the smaller for himself. This seemed not only honest, but
generous.

And generosity is a winning virtue in the very needy--as winning as it
is common. The very poor are often great of heart.

But this is not a safe fact upon which to found axioms.

All God's poor are not educated up to the point of even sma