A Glass of Milk

One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was hungry. 

He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house; however, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door.  Instead of a meal, he asked for a drink of water.

She brought him a large glass of milk.

He drank it slowly and asked, "How much do I owe you?"

"You don't owe me anything.  Mother taught us never to accept pay for a kindness."

"Then I thank you from my heart," he said.

As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God and man was strengthened. He had been ready to give up and quit.

Years later, that young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled.  They finally sent her to the big city where they called in specialists to study her rare disease.

*Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, he went to her hospital room. He recognized her at once, so he went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day, he gave special attention to the case.

After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr. Kelly asked the business office to pass the final billing to him for approval. He looked at it, wrote something on it, and the bill was sent to her room.

She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally, she looked, and written on the side of the bill were these words: 

Paid in full with one glass of milk.

(Signed)

Dr. Howard Kelly
 

*Dr. Howard Kelly was a distinguished physician who, in 1895, founded the Johns Hopkins Division of Gynecologic Oncology at Johns Hopkins University.

(Excerpt from Mac Anderson's "The Power of Kindness".)