THREE FRIENDS & A NICKEL
In the 1860s a young Hungarian boy landed at New York’s Ellis Island and sought entrance into the United States of America. The boy had five cents in his pocket. He told the immigration officials that his father and mother had died and he had a burning desire to come to America. The officials saw no good reason to admit the boy and explained that without sufficient means of support, the boy would need to return to his home land. In one final attempt to justify a reason to allow the boy to stay, one of the officials asked him, “Do you have any friends in this country?” The boy stood up straight and announced with great pride, “Oh, yes, my friends are Harriet Beecher Stow, Benjamin Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln!” With such a lofty answer, officials discussed among themselves what they had just witnessed. Here was a boy, all alone, with only five cents to his name, but…
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