She bade her children good-night, and left the nursery. What made me take up my Bible, I wonder, and read the following verse! “In this thing the Lord pardon Thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon Thy servant this thing.”
(To be continued.)
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.
EDUCATIONAL.
Chatterbox.—Your acquirements are satisfactory, and might gain for you perhaps £30 per annum. But these are to be weighed against two serious drawbacks—extreme youth, and consequent lack of weight and authority with your pupils, and complete lack of experience in reading their several characters and bodily condition, and the modifications and changes of method requisite to suit these different subjects under your training. Teaching lessons is but a small part of the duties of a governess. The characters of her pupils have to be carefully read and moulded, their manners and habits trained according to those of polite society, and she should discover what natural gifts should be cultivated and what studies should be remitted, more or less. At sixteen you are scarcely more than a child yourself, and quite such in inexperience. Thus, you are really only fit for a visiting governess, teaching under the direction of the mother; and if you take a residential situation, it could only be at a low salary.
Desiree.—If you wish to prepare yourself for being a nurse at home, we recommend you a careful study of a small manual, often named for the purpose, “Sick Nursing at Home” (L. U. Gill, 170, Strand, W.C.). When you could be examined on that you will have made great progress towards efficiency. You do not name your age. Had you done so, we could have advised you further.
Daughter of Gentleman Farmer (Dublin).—If you have artistic taste and can design, and, in addition, have a delicate touch, write either to the City and Guilds Technical Institute, Exhibition-road, South Kensington, S.W., or to the Polytechnic, Regent-street, W., where classes for wood-carving are held. Address the secretary in both cases. If you think of training for the teaching of children under the Kindergarten system, there are many schools for the purpose. Write to the Misses Crombie, 21, Stockwell-road, S.W., with a view to entering the college established by the British and Foreign School Society. Or else to the secretary, Home and Colonial Training College, in Gray’s Inn-road, W.C.
MUSIC.
M. L. P.—It is to be regretted on your own account, if not on that of others, who might be glad to avail themselves of your musical society, that you should contemplate giving it up without first inducing someone to take your place. Your society, we imagine, is already entered in a directory of girls’ clubs, shortly to appear, and too late now to be omitted.
Old Man’s Darling.—You will often find songs in our paper. It is sad to hear that you “get wild with your nose,” which at seven or eight o’clock p.m. “gets puggy.” What can that mean? As we cannot hope for the pleasure of witnessing such a phenomenon, we advise you to consult your mother about it. If an hereditary “pug,” we do not understand why it should be otherwise during the day.