“Would you like to belong to one if you could get a new dress?”
“Don’t know whether I should or no. Never was in a Sunday school in all my life,” replied Kate, looking at the lady with a stare of wonder.
“Well, Kate, I’ll send you some clothes and see your mother about the school before Sunday.”
Aunt Amy now walked slowly on to meet Minnie, who was running back from her errand of kindness. Coming up to her aunt, with a flushed face and joyous look, she said,—
“O aunt Amy, I’m a sunbeam now! I’ve made that boy’s heart glad.”
“What did you do for him, Minnie?”
“Why, you see, aunt, he had been gathering a pail of berries for his grandmother, and was very tired. As he ran along the road with his pail, he kicked against a stone, fell down, spilled his berries, and hurt his knee. The poor boy was weeping, and I told him not to cry, for I would pick up his berries while he rested himself and wiped the dirt from his clothes. Then I picked up his berries, speaking kind words to him all the time. He soon left off crying, and when I gave him the pail, he looked so glad it made me cry for joy; for I knew I was a sunbeam to him.”
“You are right, Minnie. I am glad to find you so apt a scholar in the art of doing good. But it is time for us to be going home now; your mother will feel uneasy about us, we have been gone so long.”
Minnie gave aunt Amy her hand, and they walked to the village, talking, as they went, about Mrs. Button, and Kate Button, and about getting some clothes fit for Kate to wear to Sunday school. And I doubt if there were two happier persons in all Rosedale than they.
That evening, aunt Amy proposed to take Minnie and her mother, in her carriage, the next day, on an excursion to a pleasant seaport, about five miles from Rosedale. This trip promised too much pleasure to be refused. So it was agreed that they should start early in the morning, and spend the day in rambling on the sea shore.