knowledge of French, Italian, German, and Music, for Louisa Gates' ability in household matters. You will say, perhaps, that I exaggerate their importance, owing to my present unfortunate position. Believe me, my friend, it can scarcely be exaggerated. A wife must be responsible for the domestic comfort of her husband and children. It is important to our concerns that my husband should give all his time to his own department of business, but he is every day interrupted by some domestic necessity that I do not know how to supply, or some petty embarrassment that I cannot relieve. I feel that I am not a help-meet to him. He has no home comforts. He is most kind and forbearing, and I am doing what can be done, at my age, to rectify the errors in my education.

"I shall not regret my miserable experience, if it induces you, and some other of my dear friends in town, to think seriously on this subject. The result of such reflection, I am sure, will be, that it is essential to the well-being of your girls that they be thoroughly instructed in domestic economy."

In justice to the writer of the above, I shall give a short extract from a letter written by her after a residence in "the west" of some four or five years.

"You who were informed of all the domestic difficulties in which I was involved by my igno rance, when I first came, would be delighted now to see how comfortably I get on. I thought

for some time it was impossible to have any domestic comfort in the west; but impossible,' if not, as Napoleon said, the adjective of fools,' is that of imbeciles. I was determined, as far as I could, to make my husband and children comfortable, and I resigned myself to being a household drudge for the rest of my life.

"Household work cannot, as some imagine, be done extempore, nor is there a royal road to domestic economy, any more than to any other art or science. I applied my strength, my mind, and my conscience, to the business. I often failed, but I learned from failure as well as from success. Practice made that easy which at first seemed impossible. I can now despatch a bit of work in the time I at first consumed in sighing over it, and I often find my hands are performing their work like machinery, while my mind is wandering over earth, sea, and skies. What a wonder-worker is habit! When we cannot obtain domestics, we do not now suffer. Such occasions are, however, rare. We can get rough Irish or Germans, and I now know how to direct them, what to require of them, and where to assist them. They are well called 'hands;' their employer must be head' to them. And now, my dear friend, those branches of my education which, in my first despair, I thought utterly lost upon me, have assumed their right position, and household drudgery takes its subordinate place.

"When I know that the material wants of my family are provided for, I devote myself to the

intellectual education of my children; and here, far away from schools and masters, I pour into their minds the knowledge I acquired in my youth.

"Conscious that I do not neglect their domestic education, I feel that I have a right to impart to them my accomplishments; and those accomplishments that, when I first came here, seemed to me a mockery, somewhat like an imperial robe to a wretch starving for bread, are now the solace and delight of my family.

Sur

rounded as you are by all the luxuries of civilisation, I will venture to say, that you can have no conception of the enjoyment of a piano in 'the west.' It is a social blessing. I cannot believe that an Italian opera ever gave more genuine delight than do our little family concerts. Kate plays duets with me on the piano, and my husband accompanies, with his flute, little Molly's guitar. Of course my girls have had no teacher but myself. You, who can see every day fine pictures and engravings, can hardly imagine our excitement, when one of my girls has made an accurate sketch from Nature, or copied a wild flower well. As to books, from the Bible, first and best, down to the last periodical which the blessed post brings us, you must be cut off from the civilised world, as we are, to know their full value. Think what it is, during our long days and evenings of unbroken leisure, to be in intimate communion with such spirits as Shakspeare, Milton, Dante, Petrarch, Fenelon, and

Cervantes. How often do I bless the education which enabled me to make acquaintance with these authors, and to introduce my children to them.

"And now I feel the full value of my late domestic education, which enables me to enjoy with a quiet conscience the high and elegant pursuits for which my early instruction alone qualified me. This domestic knowledge, believe me, my dear friend, is the sine qua non.'

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CHAPTER XIV.

NURSING.

AMONG the must haves of a woman's education, is a knowledge of the art of nursing. It is a woman's province, her duty, her happiness, to minister to the sick. She may well be satisfied to leave to men the responsibility of choosing their governors, and making laws, and the glory of leading armies, when Providence has assigned to her, among her other important offices, such a ministry of mercy as relieving the diseased body, and soothing the distressed mind. Many physicians will tell you, my young friends, that good nursing cures more patients than medicine. All the kingdoms of nature are explored for medicines, and if the physician gives years to the study of his profession, you should certainly be willing to give your minds and hearts, your attention to that branch of your education, that qualifies you for an office which, sometimes, by the physician's concession, excels his.

The endurance of severe sickness is the best