Bobby was getting cold sitting outside in the snow.
Bobby didn't wear boors; 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 gob 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 the 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 mothers 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 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 some-
thing along the curb.

He reached down and discovered a shinny 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 exitement quickly turned cold when the salesperson
told him that he couldn't buy anything with only a dime.
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 cents 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."
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 gentloy 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 keeper's 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 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 wnted 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 for 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 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 fee cold at all.

May this story instill the spirit of CHRISTmas
in you enough to pass this act along.