The Old Juggler's Gift

Anatole France tells of a juggler who, now too old to ply his craft at country fairs, had retired into a monastery. He saw there that all the brothers gave the service of their work freely for the love of the Virgin Lady, and his heart was sad, for he had nothing that he could give to her. One day he disappeared from the common-room, and the Abbot, visiting the Lady Chapel, saw there a strange sight.

The old juggler stood before the figure of the Virgin, and he was throwing up the juggler’s balls before her, and catching them in his hands, as he was wont to do in past days at the fair. The Abbot watched him, and the eager face that looked up in earnest supplication to the smiling Virgin, and stealing out of the Chapel, he said, “His service is richer than mine, for it springs from a loving and dedicated heart.”