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Roses For a Dime
Bobby was getting cold sitting out in his back yard in the snow.
Bobby didn't wear boots; he didn't like them and anyway he
didn't own any. The thin sneakers he wore had a few holes in them
and they did a poor job of keeping out the cold.
Bobby had been in his backyard for about an hour already.
And, try as he might, he could not come up with an idea for
his mother's Christmas gift. He shook his head as he thought,
"This is useless, even if I do come up with an idea, I don't
have any money to spend."
Ever since his father had passed away three years ago,
the family of five had struggled. It wasn't because his mother
didn't care, or try, there just never seemed to be enough.
She worked nights at the hospital, but the small wage that
she was earning could only be stretched so far.
What the family lacked in money and material things,
they more than made up for in love and family unity.
Bobby had two older and one younger sister, who ran
the household in their mother's absence.
All three of his sisters had already made beautiful gifts
for their mother. Somehow it just wasn't fair. Here it was
Christmas Eve already, and he had nothing.
Wiping a tear from his eye, Bobby kicked the snow and
started to walk down to the street where the shops and
stores were. It wasn't easy being six without a father,
especially when he needed a man to talk to.
Bobby walked from shop to shop, looking into each
decorated window. Everything seemed so beautiful and
so out of reach. It was starting to get dark and Bobby
reluctantly turned to walk home when suddenly his eyes
caught the glimmer of the setting sun's rays reflecting off
of something along the curb. He reached down and
discovered a shiny dime.
Never before has anyone felt so wealthy as Bobby felt at
that moment. As he held his new found treasure, a warmth
spread throughout his entire body and he walked into the
first store he saw. His excitement quickly turned cold when
salesperson after salesperson told him that he could not buy
anything with only a dime.
![[Dozen Roses]](/pa/busterboo/xbnt1.gif)
He saw a flower shop and went inside to wait in line.
When the shop owner asked if he could help him, Bobby
presented the dime and asked if he could buy one flower
for his mother's Christmas gift. The shop owner looked at
Bobby and his ten cent offering. Then he put his hand on
Bobby's shoulder and said to him, "You just wait here and
I'll see what I can do for you."
As Bobby waited, he looked at the beautiful flowers
and even though he was a boy, he could see why
mothers and girls liked flowers.
The sound of the door closing as the last customer left,
jolted Bobby back to reality. All alone in the shop, Bobby
began to feel alone and afraid.
Suddenly the shop owner came out and moved to the counter.
There, before Bobby's eyes, lay twelve long stem, red roses,
with leaves of green and tiny white flowers all tied together with
a big silver bow. Bobby's heart sank as the owner picked them
up and placed them gently into a long white box.
"That will be ten cents young man," the shop owner said reaching
out his hand for the dime. Slowly, Bobby moved his hand to give
the man his dime. Could this be true? No one else would give him
a thing for his dime! Sensing the boy's reluctance, the shop owner
added, "I just happened to have some roses on sale for ten cents
a dozen. Would you like them?"
This time Bobby did not hesitate, and when the man placed the
long box into his hands, he knew it was true. Walking out the
door that the owner was holding for Bobby, he heard the shop
keeper say, "Merry Christmas, son."
As he returned inside, the shop keepers wife walked out.
"Who were you talking to back there and where are the
roses you were fixing?"
Staring out the window, and blinking the tears from his own
eyes, he replied, "A strange thing happened to me this morning.
While I was setting up things to open the shop, I thought I
heard a voice telling me to set aside a dozen of my best roses
for a special gift. I wasn't sure at the time whether I had lost my
mind or what, but I set them aside anyway. Then just a few
minutes ago, a little boy came into the shop and wanted to buy
a flower for his mother with one small dime."
"When I looked at him, I saw myself, many years ago. I too,
was a poor boy with nothing to buy my mother a Christmas gift.
A bearded man, whom I never knew, stopped me on the street
and told me that he wanted to give me ten dollars."
"When I saw that little boy tonight, I knew who that voice was,
and I put together a dozen of my very best roses."
The shop owner and his wife hugged each other tightly,
and as they stepped out into the bitter cold air, they somehow
didn't feel cold at all.
Author Unknown
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