ay that
a wound which Miss Nightingale dressed "was sure to get well."

She felt a strong craving for work, more even than the schools and
cottages, the care of the young, the sick, and the aged (in which
she followed her mother's example) could afford her at her father's
home. Mrs. Browning tells us to

"Get leave to work
In this world; 'tis the best you get at all."

Florence Nightingale not only got leave to work, but did so, very
quietly but very persistently. And so she became a pioneer for less
courageous souls, and won for them also "leave to work." Taught by
her father, she soon learned to distinguish between what was really
good work and which mere make-believe. She had many opportunities,
even as a child, of seeing really fine, artistic work both in
science and art. She set up a high standard, and was never satisfied
with anything short of the best, either in herself or others. It is
a grand thing to know good work when you see it.

The love of work, however, with Florence Nightingale, always went
hand in hand with that love for every living thing in God's world
which was born with her and which was never crowded out by all this
education. As she grew up she more and more felt that helpfulness
was the first law of her being; but her reason and intellect having
been so carefully trained, she was thoroughly persuaded that, in
order to help effectually, one must know thoroughly both the cause
of suffering and its radical cure.

The study of nursing had an irresistible attraction for her. Few
people in England at that time valued nursing. Florence Nightingale
was convinced that indifference arose from the all but absolute
ignorance of what nursing should be, and she set herself to acquire
the necessary knowledge to enable her to carry it out in the very
best and most scientific way. She never lost an opportunity of
visiting a hospital, either at home or abroad. She gave up the life
of so-called "pleasure," which it was then considered a young woman
of her position ought to lead, and after having very carefully
examined innumerable nursing institutions at home and abroad, at
length went to the well-known Pastor Fliedner's Deaconesses, at
Kaiserswerth, where she remained for several months.

After leaving Kaiserswerth, Miss Nightingale was for a while with
the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul, in Paris, so anxious was she to
see how nursing was carried on under many different systems. It was