d in March 1855 a more orderly system is adopted.
Receipts and disbursements are neatly kept on separate pages, and
confusion henceforth ceases.

We may recall that Bessie always hated "sums," and found them
bewildering. She was, however, very accurate in mental calculation. She
knew what money she had advanced, on what occasions and to whom. No
amount was omitted or entered twice over in her memory. It was only by
slow degrees that she learnt the value of written records, the nature of
them, and the necessity of absolute accuracy in matters of business.
Ledgers and cash books and journals at first indicated merely a certain
incapacity in _the sighted_; but time and experience taught her that
they were indispensable.

The work of the Repository had engrossed much of her time, but in the
summer she accompanied her parents and other members of the family on a
tour in Scotland. She was in very good health, and walked with a brother
and sister from Stirling to Bannockburn and back. Her love of early
Scottish history gave her a special interest in the places visited. As
they drove through Glencoe it was carefully described to her. Inverness,
as being near Culloden, was specially attractive. At Oban she heard of
the taking of Sebastopol, and this recalled her to the interests and
anxieties of that time. She enjoyed staying at Scotch hotels; but on the
whole she had derived less pleasure from the Scotch than from the Irish
tour. She found nothing so beautiful as the Killarney echoes, and missed
the warm-hearted sympathy and genuine interest of the Irish peasantry
and guides.

The one point that stood out pre-eminent as the outcome of her visit to
Scotland was her inspection of the School for the Blind in Edinburgh.
The work done there gave her many ideas, inspired many hopes and plans.
But she saw more clearly than ever that her scheme was a new departure,
and returned with confidence in her own power, and that of her blind
workmen, to carry it forward.

CHAPTER VIII

ROYAL BOUNTY

... "From the cheerful ways of men
Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair
Presented with a universal blank
Of nature's works."...--MILTON.

We must remember that Bessie's scheme was at first a private matter, and
that there is no reason why a blind lady's accounts should be kept like
a tradesman's books. Bessie Gilbert had arranged that her weekly bills
should be copied by members of her family rather for t