she
carried out, and visited several of the Swiss institutions, which she
considered compared unfavourably with Kaiserswerth, both in organisation
and spiritual tone. She visited besides some of those in Germany, and at
Mannedorf had the joy of spending several days with that wonderful woman
of faith, Dorothea Trudel.

All her experience had now gone to prove that her special gift was
hospital work, and on rejoining her mother she definitely laid before
her her wish to devote herself to the work of nursing, and with her
consent entered into a correspondence with Miss Nightingale with the
idea of entering St. Thomas's Hospital as a Nightingale probationer.

It is very clear that all through her life she was satisfied to be doing
the "next thing," whatever that next thing should be which was pointed
out to her by the guiding of God's Holy Spirit. She never ran counter to
her mother's wishes, knowing that no blessing could be expected when the
command, "Honour thy father and thy mother," was not observed; but when
home no longer needed her, she was glad to enter the larger field to
which God had opened the way.

CHAPTER V.

HOSPITAL WARDS.

It has been said that "every woman is by nature more or less a nurse,"
but like most sayings it is by no means always true. Many who possess
the gentleness and sympathy which are so necessary in nursing the sick,
yet lack the ready nerve, deftness, and promptitude. Who has not beheld
the sad spectacle of women anxious to help, yet helpless because of
their ignorance and want of training? That will be a happy day when a
course of training in nursing, though it be but a short one, is
considered a necessary part of every woman's education. Miss Nightingale
truly says, "There is no such thing as amateur nursing ... Three-fourths
of the whole mischief in women's lives arises from their excepting
themselves from the rule of training considered needful for man."

Agnes Jones was a "born nurse;" but although she had had many
opportunities both at Fahan and at Kaiserswerth of developing her
talent, she would not attempt to teach others what she had not
thoroughly grasped herself. The post in Liverpool, of Superintendent of
the Training School of Nurses for the Poor, was still open to her and,
in spite of her fear that she lacked the capacity to govern, had many
attractions for her, and so she said, "I determined at least to try, to
come to St. Thomas's Hospital, and to see whether i