"What a weight I must be on that woman's conscience, too," sighed the Shilling. "Am I really changed so much in my old age? And the woman went to the rich baker, but he knew the current shillings too well to accept me; I was thrown back in the woman's face, and she got no bread for me. And I felt grieved that I should be the cause of trouble to others-I, who in my young days had been so proud of my value and the soundness of my coinage. I was as melancholy as a poor shilling can be whom no one will accept; but the woman took me home, looked at me earnestly, with kindly, friendly eyes, and said, 'No, I won't deceive anyone with you. I'll bore a hole through you, so everyone can see you're false. And yet-a thought just occurs to me-perhaps you are a lucky shilling; yes, I believe you are; I have such a strong feeling about it! I'll make a hole through the coin, pass a string through it, and then give it to the neighbor's little child to hang around her neck as a good-luck shilling.'
"And she drilled a hole right through me. It certainly isn't very pleasant to have a hole bored through you, but you can stand many things when you know the intentions are good. A thread was passed through the hole, and I was hung around the child's neck like a kind of medal. The child smiled at me and kissed me, and all that night I slept on its warm, innocent breast.
"Next morning the child's mother took me up and looked at me and had another idea about me-I could feel that immediately. She brought out a pair of scissors and cut the string.
" 'A lucky shilling!' she cried. 'Well, we'll see about that!'
"Then she soaked me in vinegar, until I turned quite green, puttied up the hole, rubbed me a little, and that evening took me to the lottery collector, to buy a lottery ticket that would make her fortune.
'How utterly unhappy I felt! There was a stinging inside me as if I were going to break in half. I knew that I should be called false and thrown away, and before a crowd of other coins, too, who lay there proud of their inscriptions and faces. But I escaped that time, for there were many people in the collector's office-he was very busy, so I rattled into the box with the other coins. I don't know if my ticket won anything or not, but I do know that the very next morning I was recognized as a bad coin and sent out to deceive again and again. That is a very trying thing to endure when you have a good character, and this I cannot deny that I have.
"For years and days I wandered this way from house to house, from hand to hand, always rebuked, always unwelcome; nobody believed me, and finally I lost confidence in the world and myself; those were hard times. One day a traveler arrived, and naturally I was passed on to him, and he was courteous enough to accept me as good. But when he tried to pass me on again, I heard once more the cry, 'That coin's no good! It's false!' "
" 'I accepted it as genuine,' said the man, and looked closely at me. Then he smiled all over his face; never before had a face looked like that after a close examination of me. 'Why, what's this?' he said. 'That's a coin from my own country, a good honest shilling from home, that someone has bored a hole through and called false. Now, that's a strange coincidence. I'll just keep it and take it home with me.'
"A thrilling glow of joy shot through me when I heard him call me a honest shilling; now I would go home, where each and everyone would know me and realize that I was of good silver and bore a genuine stamp. I felt like throwing out sparks of happiness, but after all it isn't my nature to throw out sparks; that's something for steel to do, not silver.
"I was wrapped up in a clean white piece of paper, so that I wouldn't be mixed up with the other coins and be lost; and only on special occasions when people from my own country got together was I shown around, and they said nice things about me. They thought I was interesting-and it's surprising how interesting you can be without saying a single word.
"So at last I was home again. All my troubles were over, and I was happy again, for I was made of good silver and had the genuine stamp. I had no more misery to endure, even though a hole had been bored through me as if I were false; that doesn't matter if you're not really false. Just wait for the end, and everything will come out all right. That is my firm belief," said the Shilling.