le, one wants to
give them something useful--a bushel of potatoes, a ham, and such things."

13. "Why, certainly, potatoes and ham must be supplied; but, having
ministered to the first and most craving wants, why not add any other
little pleasures or gratifications we may have it in our power to bestow?
I know there are many of the poor who have fine feeling and a keen sense
of the beautiful, which rusts out and dies because they are too hard
pressed to procure it any gratification. Poor Mrs. Stephens, for example;
I know she would enjoy birds, and flowers, and music as much as I do. I
have seen her eye light up as she looked upon these things in our drawing.
room, and yet not one beautiful thing can she command. From necessity, her
room, her clothing,--all she has, must be coarse and plain. You should
have seen the almost rapture she and Mary felt when I offered them my
rose."

14. "Dear me! all this may be true, but I never thought of it before. I
never thought that these hard-working people had any ideas of taste!"

15. "Then why do you see the geranium or rose so carefully nursed in the
old cracked teapot in the poorest room, or the morning-glory planted in a
box and twined about the window? Do not these show that the human heart
yearns for the beautiful in all ranks of life? You remember, Kate, how our
washerwoman sat up a whole night, after a hard day's work, to make her
first baby a pretty dress to be baptized in." "Yes, and I remember how I
laughed at you for making such a tasteful little cap for it."

16. "True, Kate, but I think the look of perfect delight with which the
poor woman regarded her baby in its new dress and cap was something quite
worth creating; I do believe she could not have felt more grateful if 1
had sent her a barrel of flour."

17. "Well, I never thought before of giving anything to the poor but what
they really needed, and I have always been willing to do that when I could
without going far out of my way."

18. "Ah! cousin, if our heavenly Father gave to us after this mode, we
should have only coarse, shapeless piles of provisions lying about the
world, instead of all this beautiful variety of trees, and fruits, and
flowers,"

19. "Well, well, cousin, I suppose you are right, but have mercy on my
poor head; it is too small to hold so many new ideas all at once, so go on
your own way;" and the little lady began practicing a waltzing step before
the glass with great satisfaction.