Mrs. Nelson has just called with her friend from the North, Mrs. Barker, who looked over school and domestic work very carefully, and then began plying me with questions, when Miss Stevenson, our missionary, dropped in. Mrs. Barker’s face lighted up as she exclaimed, “Now I have you both together, the teacher and the missionary, I want to know where you think a little money will do the most good?” Mrs. Nelson said: “Each one loves her own work too well to be a competent judge.” Miss Stevenson, you know, is one of our veterans, been in the field ever since the war. For years her mind and body were tied in the class-room six hours in the day, but her heart was in the cabins all the while; and as soon as she got relief from double duty, how she has put her whole soul into missionary work! With her pleading eyes upon me, how could I magnify my work above her’s?
A MISSION HOME.
Since they left, I’ve been thinking that Mrs. Barker probably represents many women who wish their mites to go where they are most interested. Their hearts, like that of every true mother, yearn over these girls in their great peril, and these boys, driven from their wretched homes to the street for recreation. If missionary work, unlike the school, were without organization, systematic routine, or superintendence, it could not recommend itself to the cautious. But under the well-defined plan adopted of associating the missionary labor with the school and church, the best results are secured.
Much as I love the model school, I can but see that the model home is its only sure foundation. So the work is all one.
I only hope that the grandeur of “Work for Women in the Home” may be so felt that the noblest women will be drawn into the service, and develop such plans and mature such methods that the multitude of busy mothers and children, all over our land, can cast in their pennies and feel sure of a wise investment.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
H., N.Y.—What are the qualifications required of those who wish to become lady missionaries? Could one succeed with only a common-school education?