Child labor -- Juvenile fiction; Children -- Death -- Juvenile fiction; Christian life -- Juvenile fiction; Poor -- Juvenile fiction
From the first, Katie manifested the most absorbing interest in the
school, which continued unabated till her death. The second Sabbath she
brought all her younger brothers and sisters; and during the entire
period of her sojourn here, though the school increased from ten to ten
hundred members, there was not one more regular and punctual in
attendance than they. None were more entirely devoted to the interest of
the school than Katie. It was to her more than meat or drink. No weather
was so inclement as to detain her from any of its meetings. There was no
clothing, however poor and dilapidated, which could not, under Katie's
skilful fingers, be made to assume an appearance of neatness, at least
long enough for her to attend Sabbath-school. Is not here a lesson for
many a richer child who, with every possible advantage, yet seizes upon
the slightest pretext for remaining absent from her class, careless
alike of the blessing she refuses and the pain she causes an anxious
teacher.
Katie was always the first one of her class present, and here her sweet
disposition manifested itself most forcibly. Extremely neat in her own
person, the want of neatness in others annoyed her exceedingly, and that
any one should come to school with soiled clothing, or dirty face and
hands, was to her almost an unpardonable sin; therefore each new arrival
was scrutinized most closely, and the pump near the school-room has
witnessed many and many of her charitable ablutions. She generally
carried a small comb in her pocket, which she never scrupled to use; and
it was often difficult to recognize in the clean-faced, smooth-haired
child who returned with her from one of these cold-water expeditions,
the wretched little object she had "carried out."
Katie was one of our home missionaries, and a more devoted, faithful one
it would be difficult to find. Her ardent love for the Sabbath-school,
and the instruction she there received, made her anxious that others
should share the same blessing. It appeared to be a rule of her life
never to come alone. Much of her spare time was occupied in searching
through the lanes and hovels for those unblessed with religious
influence, and bringing them in to the Sabbath-school. The locality in
which she resided was inhabited mostly by the lower class of Irish
Catholics, who were bitterly opposed to the cause for which she so
unweariedly labored. Yet, although the difficulties she encountered were
neither few nor easily surmounted, she was very successful, and the
numbers which through her means were added to our school were very
large. It was her custom either to call for them herself at their homes,
or else meet them at some place she should appoint, and then with her
little band to start for the school, taking the pump in her way if she
thought it necessary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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