Minnie awaked very early the next morning, and was up and dressed, all ready for breakfast, before either her aunt or her mother came down stairs. She was all alive with thoughts of what she should see and do during the day. Indeed, she was so full of happy excitement she ate scarcely any breakfast; and I am afraid she thought too much about the ride while her good father was offering his morning prayer at the family altar. This was hardly right; but Minnie was only a little girl, and we must excuse her for feeling like a child.
After family prayer was ended, aunt Amy’s carriage, with its fine horses and fat coachman, drove up to the door. Minnie smiled, as she glanced at the jolly-looking driver, while on her way to the carriage. When she was seated opposite to her aunt and mother, and the horses began to move, she said,—
“Aunt Amy, how good natured your fat coachman looks!”
“Yes, Minnie, John is a Christian, and that makes him cheerful. He is a good, careful driver too, and that, with my heavenly Father’s care, makes me feel safe while I am riding.”
By this time, the carriage was rattling rapidly along over the smooth village street. It soon carried them beyond Rosedale into a pleasant road, and Minnie was busy all the rest of the ride pointing to the pretty scenery they passed, and asking many questions about the mansions, cottages, and farms which met her eye. Thus occupied, it seemed but a few moments to her before the carriage drove up to the hotel at which they were to stop for the day.
Very gayly did Minnie trip along at aunt Amy’s side, as that lady walked down with her to the beach. Mrs. Brown, not being very well, did not walk with them. Minnie was charmed with the broad, calm sea, sparkling so brightly in the sun. The splash of the waves, as they came rolling in upon the sand, and the constant hoarse murmur of the great sea, sounded like grand music in her ears.
“Hark!” she said to her aunt; “hark, aunt! The sea roars to-day, yet it is very calm.”
“Yes, Minnie, that is old Ocean’s mildest voice you hear to-day. In a storm, he speaks in a voice of thunder. You would tremble before it should you stand where you do now.”
Minnie now amused herself and her aunt by picking up shells, by running down to the edge of the water, and allowing the returning wave to chase her, and by digging holes in the sand. Her good aunt sat upon a rock, watching her movements, answering her numerous questions, and rewarding her playfulness with smiles. She was a sensible woman, and knew that children not only need time to play, but that they should also be encouraged in it by the approval of their friends and relatives.
But after Minnie had played a long time, her aunt said to her,—