Mrs. Wilmot smiled.
"Don't laugh at us, mamma: it is not very foolish—is it?"
"Foolish, my child!—it is very wise; and if I smiled, it was with pleasure that my children should have had such a thought. This is being truly generous. Older people than you sometimes make the mistake of calling those generous who value money so little that they throw it away without thought or care; but the truly generous value it much, because they know that it can buy clothing for the naked, and food for the starving. What they so value, they can neither keep from those to whom it is due, nor throw away on foolish trifles. So, you see, the truly generous are just and economical. But what good have you thought of doing first with your money?"
Clara now spoke: "We thought first we would try to get some good clothes for the Sandfords, that they may go to Sunday School."
The Sandfords were the three little girls whom Clara and Grace taught. I cannot repeat to you all that Mrs. Wilmot said in reply to this proposal, but I can tell you what she did. She went with the girls to make their purchases, showed them how to lay out their money most advantageously for their little pupils, cut out the garments for them when the cloth was brought home, and directed them how to make them. In this work Martha and Lucy, Kate and Emma assisted—so that their kindly and generous feelings were awakened, and they too began to save from their own selfish gratifications to give to those who were in want.
Mrs. Wilmot now takes the children with her when she goes to visit the sick and the poor around her, and in these visits they often find some object for their charity. Sometimes it is an old woman who needs a flannel wrapper—sometimes, a child who is walking on snow and ice without shoes. These they would once, perhaps, have passed without notice; but now they do, what we all should do—they look out for opportunities to do good.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE RETURN.
In the commencement of this book, I told you that I was again at Hazel Grove. Again Harriet and I arrived in October, when the woods were bright with many colors. We were received with even more joy than on our first visit, and though some weeks have passed since I began to tell you of my young acquaintances here, they seem quite as unwilling to hear of my return home as I then told you they were.