have
been made in various directions to widen their sphere. Typesetting and
bookkeeping are in some instances beginning to be open to them.

"All this time there is lying, neglected and despised, a calling to
which womanly talents and instincts are peculiarly fitted,--a calling
full of opportunities of the most lasting usefulness; a calling which
insures a settled home, respectable protection, healthful exercise,
good air, good food, and good wages; a calling in which a woman may
make real friends, and secure to herself warm affection: and yet this
calling is the one always refused, shunned, contemned, left to the
alien and the stranger, and that simply and solely because it bears
the name of _servant_. A Christian woman, who holds the name of Christ
in her heart in true devotion, would think it the greatest possible
misfortune and degradation to become like him in taking upon her 'the
form of a servant.' The founder of Christianity says: 'Whether is
greater, he that sitteth at meat or he that serveth? But _I_ am among
you as he that serveth.' But notwithstanding these so plain
declarations of Jesus, we find that scarce any one in a Christian land
will accept real advantages of position and employment that come with
that name and condition."

"I suppose," said my wife, "I could prevail upon this woman to do all
the duties of the situation, if she could be, as they phrase it,
'treated as one of the family.'"

"That is to say," said Bob, "if she could sit with us at the same
table, be introduced to our friends, and be in all respects as one
of us. Now, as to this, I am free to say that I have no false
aristocratic scruples. I consider every well-educated woman as fully
my equal, not to say my superior; but it does not follow from this
that she would be one whom I should wish to make a third party with me
and my wife at meal-times. Our meals are often our seasons of
privacy,--the times when we wish in perfect unreserve to speak of
matters that concern ourselves and our family alone. Even invited
guests and family friends would not be always welcome, however
agreeable at times. Now a woman may be perfectly worthy of respect,
and we may be perfectly respectful to her, whom nevertheless we do
not wish to take into the circle of intimate friendship. I regard
the position of a woman who comes to perform domestic service as I
do any other business relation. We have a very respectable young lady
in our employ who does legal