SOLVED. A boy who didn't know he was poor. [s]

[Anita]

I recall reading a short moral tale about a boy who didnt know he was poor. He went about life happy and didnt consider himself poor but people in his town saw he didnt own very much and gave him new clothes. in the end his feelings were hurt because it was pointed out to him that he was poor.
I remember this story being at the end of a novel and not by the author of the novel. i had thought it was in a Steinbeck but ive checked all my copies and cant find it.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

So you read this as a short story appended to a novel? How did the two of them come to be published together? Was it just two authors in the one book? Remember where the story was set?

[Ayshe]

It is by Steinbeck: "Junius Maltby", it appears to have been at the end of "The Red Pony": Junius Maltby

[Anita]

Thanks Lobstergirl and Ayshe for responding. It is Junius Maltby. It has been here all these years waiting for me to rediscover it. Thanks.