Saturday, April 24, 2010

Money Hidden in Bible Undiscovered

Robert K. Dodge, Early American Almanac Humor (Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1987), p. 147.

A wild young fellow was going abroad: His mother took him up into her closet, telling him she had a precious treasure to deposit in his hands, and after many grave admonitions produced the Bible, handsomely bound in two volumes; and to crown all, advised him to consult and search the scriptures. Little did the youth know how precious the volumes were; but you shall hear. On his return from sea, the old lady one day took him aside, and hoped he had remembered the last instruction she had given him: "Yes," he could very honestly say he had taken care of the Bible. To prove his respect and obedience, he runs upstairs to his own room, and returns instantly, with the two volumes safe and sound.

The good lady pulls off one cover: "Rather too clean, my dear." "O madam, I took great care of them: the second volume is equally fair." She shakes her head; intimating her suspicions that they had not been read so often as she wished: Then opened the first volume, and, lo! a ten pound note is found; the second volume displays a second note, and of twice the value. She was confounded, and so was her son: and regrets that he did not search the scriptures. (The Columbian Almanac; or, The North American Calendar, for...1800)

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