One day, just before they left home for the Southern trip, Maggie was
standing on the front stoop, waiting for her mother and Bessie, with
whom she was going out, when a poor-looking man spoke to her. He told
a most pitiful story; and Maggie, full of sympathy, emptied her little
purse into his hand. But this did not satisfy the beggar; and he asked
“if the little lady had not an old coat to give a poor soldier.”
“I’ll ask mamma,” said Maggie, and off she rushed upstairs, leaving the
beggar-man standing on the stoop by the open hall-door.
Mamma said she could not give old clothes away, unless she was sure the
man was deserving: for she knew of many such who needed them; and told
Maggie to go back at once and tell Patrick to shut the door, and she
would see the man when she came down.
But when Maggie reached the foot of the stairs, the beggar was gone. So
far from waiting for the old coat, it was soon found that he had walked
off with a new one of papa’s, which lay on the hall table.
Poor Maggie was excessively mortified, and much distressed, not only
at the loss of the coat, but at that of her little stock of spending
money. Mamma made the last good to her; but told her she should not do
so again if she acted without thought; and begged her to take counsel
of some older person when she felt inclined to help those she did not
know.
So Maggie had “learned experience,” and since that time had been
careful to ask advice before she allowed her sympathies to run too far
with her.