er. Perhaps we
can do them some good."

"Why, aunt! You don't mean it, do you?"

"Why not, Minnie? Our Savior, you know, loved to help the poor, and we
must try to imitate him."

"Yes, aunt, but--" and Minnie paused, as if unwilling to utter all she
thought.

"But what, Minnie?"

"Why, aunt, I've heard say that Mrs. Button is a passionate woman; and
they say that Kate swears when Bill Boaster teases her. So I thought you
would not choose to call at the house of such a woman."

"Perhaps it may not be pleasant, Minnie. But the more wretched these
poor creatures are, the greater is their need of aid and counsel. Come,
let us walk over and see the poor woman; who knows but that we may be as
sunbeams to a dark and desolate spirit?"

"As sunbeams, aunt! How can we be sunbeams?" asked Minnie, as she walked
along with her aunt towards the cottage.

"Sunbeams are bright, cheerful things, you know, Minnie. They scatter
clouds and darkness, clothe nature with beauty, and fill the world with
light and joy. Do you understand that?"

"Yes, aunt."

"Well, then, if we visit this woman, who is in trouble, and who has a
sad heart, and if we can lighten her burden, and make her heart glad, we
shall do for her what the sunbeams do for the world."

"O, yes, aunt, I see; and I would try to be a little sunbeam if I knew
how. But here is the cottage."

Minnie's aunt gave a gentle tap at the door. A gruff voice replied,--

"Come in."

Pushing the door open, Minnie and her aunt entered the cottage. It had
but one room, and that was wretched enough. Many of the windows were
broken, and pieces of shingle were stuck over the holes in the glass. In
one corner stood a miserable bedstead, with a ragged coverlet partially
spread over a dirty bed tick filled with leaves. There was only one
chair, and that was a broken rocker, on which the unhappy mistress of
the cottage was seated. But there were two or three rough stools, made
of pieces of pine slab, standing beside the rickety table. Pointing to
these stools, Mrs. Button, without quitting her chair, said to her
visitors,--

"Take a seat."

Aunt Amy looked on the poor woman with great kindness; and Minnie,
thinking all the time of the sunbeams, did the same. Speaking in gentle
tones, aunt Amy soon found the way to the poor woman's heart, and drew
from her the story of her woes. It had been a long time since she had
heard a voice of kindness, or met with affectionate sympathy like