Little Things | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 12, 1882

Little Things.

It was only a trifling thing to do, but Robbie Grey could not conscientiously pass on and leave that piece of banana skin lying on the sidewalk. So he paused on his way, and sent the skin spinning into the gutter near by.

"Come on, Rob!" shouted his companion, who had gotten a few yards ahead. "Do come on, and leave that old skin alone! What's the good of all that?"

"What's the good?" repeated Robbie. "S'pose I'm going to leave the chance of a broken leg lying around loose? Some one would have slipped on that thing, like as not, and I'll always kick 'em out of the way."

Yes, it was a trifling thing to do; but did it not show the boy's home training, and betray a noble, unselfish, and thoughtful nature?

It was only a little thing when Willie Brown paused in his game of marbles to pick up the old beggar-woman's cane, which had slipped from her shaking hand as she hobbled lamely along.

"Pooh! an old beggar!" laughed his companions.

But Willie replied:—

"I'd be ashamed of myself if I couldn't do that little thing for anybody, poor and old."

And somehow his game seemed more than ever enjoyable, after the beggar's lowspoken, "God bless you, little master!"

Down the street on his new velocipede came Alec Woods—a boy of ten years. He was racing with another boy, and just a little ahead. Very sure was Alec of winning the pocketful of marbles, which his big brother had jestingly offered to the winner of the race.

But a lady coming up the block, laden with parcels, chanced to drop one, as Alec's quick eye noticed, and in an instant he was off his steed, and picking up the parcel, restored it to its owner, while, with a shout of triumph, his playmate rode on and won the race.

"You goose!" laughed the big brother, who had seen the whole thing.

"I don't care!" said Alec. "Ill bet mamma would have been glad if any one had picked up a parcel for her!"

Well, little gentlemanly Alec didn't win the race, but he didn't lose a prize, either, for the big brother decided to "reward merit," as he called it, and Alec's pockets soon knew no lack of marbles. A messenger-boy stood waiting for a car. He was tired and warm, and longed for the rest of a few blocks' ride. Hardly had he seated himself when a lady entered. He had a right to his seat,

without question; but he or the lady must stand, as every seat was occupied. Without a moment's delay the boy rose, and the lady thanked him, as she took his seat.

Only a little thing, you will say, perhaps? Yes; but "a straw will show which way the wind blows," and that boy had the instincts and breeding of the future real gentleman.

When the poor, blind peddler came through the crowded street, the other day, and straying a little from his beaten path grew confused and timid, it seemed a little thing for rough Irish Johnny, the bootblack (only a little street Arab, in fact), to spring from his blacking box, and scamper after the peddler, simply to take the man's arm and guide him safely through the crowd to the right corner.

Johnny knew nothing of polite society, and could neither read nor write, but his heart was in the right place, and its manly, generous impulses would be sure to guide him toward the right path, and his kindly hand had turned the peddler from danger.

"Little things" make up our lives, remember, children, and whether human eyes note the kind actions, or whether they are done in secret, yet the heart is happier for the doing of kind deeds or the saying of kind words.

Great endings grow from small beginnings, and it is, after all, the little things, which make the sunshine of life.