d
industrious; and I earnestly hope that the lovely Christian
character she has sustained at home, may deepen and brighten in
the new life which will open to her in the East.

May I ask your patience while she is accustoming herself to it;
of your kindness I am well assured.

Truly yours,
E. G. PARKE.

"The child of a poor, far western missionary, so different from the
class of girls that she will be with here," thought Miss Ashton as she
slowly folded the letter.

She sat for some time thinking over its contents, then she took her
pen, and wrote:--

DEAR MRS. PARKE,--Send your daughter to me. I have great
interest in, and sympathy with, all Home Missionary work. I wish
I could do something to lighten the expenses she must incur; but
this is a chartered institution, and at present all the places
to be filled by those who need assistance have been taken. I
will, however, bear her in mind; and should she prove a good
scholar, exemplary in her behavior, I may be able to render her
in the future some acceptable assistance.

Wishing you all success in your trying and arduous life, and the
help of the great Helper,

I am, truly yours,
C. S. ASHTON.

Miss Ashton did not seal this note; she tossed it upon her desk,
meaning to look it over before it was mailed; but she had no time,
and, with many misgivings as to what might come of it, she allowed it
to go as it was.

Her school had never been fuller than it promised to be on the opening
of this new year. Through the summer vacation letters had been coming
to her from all parts of the country asking to put girls who had
finished graded and high school education under her care. Established
for many years, the academy had grown from what, in the religious
world, was considered a "missionary training-school," and from which
many able and faithful women had gone forth to win laurels in the
over-ripe harvest fields, to a school better adapted to the wants of
the nineteenth century.

While it held its religious prestige, it also offered unusual
advantages to that important and numerous class of girls who, not
wishing a college education, were yet desirous to spend the years that
should change them from girls into women in preparation for a future
great in its aims, and also