The Thousand Threepenny Bits by E.V. Lucas

Name: The Thousand Threepenny Bits
Author: E.V. Lucas

Alison Muirhead, a little girl, takes her doll Rosamund and her Aberdeen terrier Thomson every day into Kensington Gardens, where Thomson, disobedient like most Aberdeens, keeps breaking free from his lead and running off among the other dogs. One day Thomson's lead catches on the boot of an Old Gentleman who sits daily on a bench near the may-trees, and Alison and the Old Gentleman fall into conversation while he holds the dog. From then on she sits and talks with him whenever she finds him in the Gardens, and he tells her of his travels in China and up the Amazon and of an Indian snake-charmer who gave him a blue stone on his watch chain. Alison learns to her surprise that the Old Gentleman's name is also Thomson, and then that his first name is Jimmie, matching the name she gives her dog, so she renames the dog Jimmie to avoid confusion. The Old Gentleman then disappears from his bench for many days. After a wet week Alison, with her mother's permission, calls at the hotel where he lodges and learns from the porter that Mr. James Thomson died the previous week. Some weeks later a letter arrives from the solicitors Lee, Lee and Lee informing Alison that Mr. Thomson left her a legacy of a thousand threepenny bits in a codicil made shortly before his death, on condition that five hundred be spent on others within a year and five hundred on herself alone. Alison and her father visit the lawyers, sign a paper, and receive a canvas bag of the coins; the three Lees each make a small joke as they leave. At home Alison counts the money into piles and stores it in a wooden writing-desk given her by her grandmother. Alison then gathers advice from everyone she knows about how to spend the money meant for others. She arranges for the flower-woman outside Kensington High Street Station to bring her invalid mother a threepenny bunch of flowers twice a week for a year. On her uncle Mordaunt's suggestion she subscribes to the Sphere for a lighthouse. She keeps some coins in her purse for chance encounters with beggars, blind men, and similar hard cases. With Tommy Cathcart, one of her father's articled pupils, she buys pipes and tobacco for sandwichmen in the Strand, Regent Street, and Oxford Street, and gives Christmas puddings to the cabmen's shelter near De Vere Gardens. She sends presents to the children of the boatmen Jack and Willy Fagg of the Seamew, whom she met in the Isle of Wight, including threepenny bits for the children, pipes for the fathers, and tea for the mothers. She buys cheap mittens in Westbourne Grove for tradesmen's boys, the milkman, and a crossing-sweeper. Tommy Cathcart also proposes sending picture postcards addressed to "Smith" at sixty workhouses found in Bradshaw, since Smith is such a common name, and Alison chooses London views over pictures of Pauline Chase. Finally she buys Jimmie the dog a silver collar engraved "In memory of James Thomson" for Christmas. For her own five hundred threepenny bits, Alison and her father shop among the old furniture dealers of Kensington and the Brompton Road and buy an old bureau writing-desk with a secret drawer from an elderly Jewish shopkeeper near the Oratory, spending the rest on stationery. A detailed statement of accounts records every item of both the five hundred spent on others and the five hundred spent on herself, audited and signed by Thomas W. Cathcart. When Alison pays the old shopkeeper in stacks of threepenny bits, the woman, amused and touched by the story Mr. Muirhead tells her, gives Alison back one packet of coins as a gift so she will always have something to give a beggar. This becomes the start of a new Threepenny Trust, as Mr. Cathcart, Mr. Muirhead, and Uncle Mordaunt each begin contributing their own spare threepenny bits to Alison's fund, so that Mr. James Thomson's charitable scheme continues on beyond the original legacy.

By E.V. Lucas · Genre: Children's Literature, Coming-of-age Fiction, Sentimental Fiction · 4,581 words

First lines

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Alison Muirhead, and she had a doll named Rosamund and a dog named Thomson. The dog was an Aberdeen terrier, and he came from Aberdeen by train in the care of the guard, and he rarely did what he was told, which is the way of Aberdeens, as you have perhaps discovered.

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What this Textopian page supports

The Thousand Threepenny Bits is listed on Textopian as a short story by E.V. Lucas, dated Date unknown.

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Work type: Short story
Author: E.V. Lucas
Date: Date unknown
Language: English
Genres: Children's Literature, Coming-of-age Fiction, Sentimental Fiction, Humorous Fiction, Social Commentary
Length: 4,581 words
Structure: 1 section, 95 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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Work identity for The Thousand Threepenny Bits by E.V. Lucas
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Genres

Children's Literature — Features a young girl protagonist and uses accessible, gentle language suited for young readers with a warm, conversational narrative voice.
Coming-of-age Fiction — Chronicles Alison's moral and personal development as she navigates the responsibility of spending an inheritance while learning about charity and social obligation.
Sentimental Fiction — The narrative is emotionally warm and heartfelt, emphasizing acts of kindness, human connection, and touching moments of generosity.
Humorous Fiction — Employs gentle wit throughout, including the comedic naming coincidences (Thomson/Jimmie), playful lawyer dialogue, and amusing social observations.