The Number 13 is supposed to be unlucky, so I presume that this being Story Number 1313 something doubly unlucky should happen. And indeed it might!
Young James at High School had joined the Give-a-Hand Club. His parents, who didn’t have much money, had told him always to be generous. Being generous won’t kill you. When you’ve next-to-nothing doesn’t mean you can’t share the next-to-nothing you have, they said. That’s why Young James had joined the Give-a-Hand Club.
The first thing he did was to ask old Mrs Osborne if she needed a hand mowing her large lawn. It’s free, said Young James.
The mower is in the shed, said Mrs Osborne.
While he was mowing the lawn a wheel fell off the lawn mower. James tried to fix it but the axle had worn through.
“You’ll have to pay for it,” said Mrs Osborne. “I’m not having vandals come in to wreak havoc with my tools and equipment. I don’t know how you’re going to finish mowing my lawn but I want it done today.”
Poor James didn’t have the wherewithal to get the lawn mower fixed. Nor did he know where to find another lawn mower to finish the job. He went to the local Fixx-a-Lawnmower place along the road. Young James told them his story and asked how much it would cost to get the lawn mower’s wheel put back on.
“Nothing for you, son,” said the nice man. “That lawn mower is a piece of junk. I’ll put the wheel back and you can leave it in her shed. When that’s done we’ll take a ride and I’ll show you how to use this ride-on monster.”
Every Saturday after that Young James mowed lawns with the ride-on monster. He always, kindly, mowed Mrs Osborne’s lawn first; everyone else paid. Which just goes to show that a double 13 in Story Number 1313 is not doubly unlucky after all.