DEAR ABBY: My mother had a favorite penny story from when she was a little girl in Farmville, Va., in the 1890s. She died in 1983 at the age of 93.
Times were tough and there was no money in the house. So my grandmother sent my mother to the store to buy a penny's worth of oil for their lamp -- with the promise to pay the stern general store owner "next week."
Sheepishly, she left the house, walked down the front path and opened the gate. Lo and behold! There was a penny lying on the street. Mother always called it a miracle. -- MARTHA IN CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OHIO
DEAR MARTHA: I don't blame her. That penny saved your mother a world of embarrassment, and that's worth more than money can buy.