g lad who was on the beach. She also sent one by the
same boy to a sailor; and then she and Minnie set out for the hotel.

"Now," said aunt Amy, "we shall have at least one pleasant thought
connected with our trip."

"Only _one_ pleasant thought, aunt? Why, all my thoughts of it will be
pleasant ones."

"So will mine, my dear. But I shall be most pleased to think we have not
spent the day entirely for ourselves. Our tracts to those men may do
them great good. They may be as sunbeams to light them on the way to
heaven. Isn't that the most pleasing thought of the day, Minnie?"

"Yes, aunt; but do you think tracts are always sunbeams to those who
receive them?"

"No, Minnie, by no means. Many persons get no good from them at all. But
thousands have been greatly benefited by them. We must hope and pray
that ours will prove to be as good seed sown on good soil. If not, we
have done our duty."

By this time they had reached the tavern. Here they dined with Minnie's
mother. After dinner, they took a long ride round the country, and
reached home at an early hour. When Minnie lay down to sleep that night,
she had many happy thoughts about what she had seen and done. But, as
her aunt Amy had said, the thought which gave her the richest pleasure
was, that the tracts she and her aunt had given away might be doing
good. And she fancied how the sailor looked, at his own fire-side,
reading her tract; and how it touched his heart, and made him weep, and
pray, and seek the road to heaven. It was a beautiful fancy, and it made
Minnie's heart swell with a rich joy. She fell asleep thinking she would
be a sunbeam to some one every day of her life. Happy Minnie! She was
learning to taste the pleasure of being kind and good to others.

The next day aunt Amy bought some things to make up for Kate Button.
Minnie and her mother helped her, by sewing nearly all day upon Kate's
new frock. And they enjoyed themselves too. They kept thinking of the
pleasure it would afford poor Kate to be neatly dressed, and to be a
member of the Sabbath school. Many times during that day Minnie sprang
up from her chair, held up her work, and cried aloud, with a glad
heart,--

"O aunt Amy! won't Kate be happy when we dress her up in this nice
frock? It makes me joyful to think of it."

"That will depend upon the state of her heart, Minnie. Clothing may make
her comfortable; but it takes something else to make either children or
grown people happy besides