WLLIE BURTON was a little fellow about eight years old, His mother was an honest Christian lady and she had brought up Willie in the fear of the Lord. It seems that in his childhood he had trusted Christ as his Saviour and that he sought to please Him.
One day Willie was taking a short trip on the train with his aunt. She was a nice lady but she was not a Christian. As they sat in the fine parlor car waiting for the train to start, a mother with a baby in her arms and leading two other small children entered the car. She was very poorly dressed and bore a sad and weary look on her face. However, as she sat down in one of the nice easy chairs and looked around, a pleasant expression crossed her features.
A little later, the conductor came in and after looking at her ticket, he said to her in a rough voice, “This is not the car for you; you must go into the next one.” The frightened mother and her little ones hastened out to one of the second-class coaches.
There was in little Willie’s face a look of pity as he watched the poor mother and her children hurry out of the car. Then soon after they had gone, Willie said: “Auntie, I’m going to carry my basket of fruit and this box of sandwiches out to that poor woman and her little children in the next car, if you don’t mind.”
“Don’t be foolish, Willie dear,” said his aunt. “She may not be worthy of them, and you need them yourself.”
“No, I’ll not need them,” said Willie, in a low but decided voice. “I had a good breakfast before leaving home and I won’t need a lunch. That poor woman looks so hungry and tired too, and so did her children. I’ll be back in a minute or two. If mother were here, I am sure she would let me go.”
As Willie went out, his aunt wiped a tear from her eye, and said, “How like his mother the dear boy is.”
Shortly after, the train slowed down and Willie and his aunt prepared to get off at the next station. They had to pass through the car where the mother and her children were. There Willie saw a sight that made him happy. The poor family was feasting on his good sandwiches and the fruit basket was open on the seat near them. As they passed by, Willie heard the eldest child say, as he pointed to Willie, “Look, mamma, there’s the boy that gave us his lunch.” “Yes,” said the grateful mother, “Bless his dear heart.”
ML-09/29/1963