“Yes, I know Kate must be good if she is happy. But I think she will be when she gets her dress, and goes to Sunday school. Don’t you, aunt?”
“We will hope so, my dear. But now let us lay aside our work and take a walk.”
To this Minnie could make no objection. So she and her aunt walked out into the shady streets and lanes of Rosedale. On their way, they saw a poor old soldier, with a wooden leg, hobbling towards them slowly. As soon as Minnie saw him advancing, she said,—
“O aunt! here comes poor Corporal Jim, the one-legged soldier.”
“Poor fellow!” replied her aunt. “It must be hard work for him to hobble through the world on his wooden leg.”
“Yes, aunt; and he is very poor. He lives in a little shanty alone; and he has not a relation in all the world.”
“Well, let us speak kindly to him, and cheer him on his lonesome way. We may cast a sunbeam in his path.”
Minnie looked up into her aunt’s kind face, and smiled with delight at the idea of being a sunbeam to poor old Corporal Jim, who, by the way, was a great favorite with all the children in Rosedale.
By this time, the poor old soldier was close upon them, holding out his hat for a gift. Aunt Amy stopped, asked him several questions, and, finding that he was pious, cheered him with gentle words of hope. She then dropped a piece of gold in his tattered hat, and passed on.