omission.

On the 18th May 1858 the Annual Association Meeting was held, and the
First Annual Report presented.

We learn from the balance-sheet that the receipts during this, the first
year of accurate and formal management, had been L1784:3:11.

Of this, subscriptions and donations
amounted to L648 1 2
Balance in hand 25th April 1857 215 9 3
Sale of goods, etc. 920 13 6
-----------
L1784 3 11

There was a balance in hand at the end of the year of L118:15:1. The
number of blind men and women who had been employed during the year at
the Institution, or in their own homes, was forty-three.

The sum required for payment of rent, officials, teachers, and
supplementary wages to the blind, amounted to L744:10:4. The annual
subscription paid by Bessie was at this time L75, and in addition there
is a donation of L10 for broom-making, and L2 for advertising. But the
sum that appears in the subscription list is only the smallest part of
that which she devoted to the service of the blind. Her private charity
amongst them was at all times far-reaching and unstinted. She had many
pensioners in London, and pleasant stories of them abound. There was a
poor blind woman called Mary H., elderly and very lonely, whose
wonderful trust and patience called forth Bessie's admiration. She
ultimately procured the placing of Mary's name on the list of recipients
of the Queen's Gate Money, she taught her to read, and allowed her
monthly a certain quantity of tea and sugar.

One day when she came for her reading lesson Mary said:

"Oh, miss, I had such a strange dream last night!"

"Well, Mary, what was it?"

"Why, miss, I dreamt you were dead."

"Did you, Mary? and what did you think about it?"

"The first thing I thought, miss, was, what shall I do for my tea and
sugar!"

The honesty and simplicity of this answer delighted Bessie, and she
frequently spoke of Mary's dream.

The saying of another pupil also pleased her. She taught a blind boy at
Chichester to read, and when he came for his lessons the boy used to ask
innumerable questions. One day she remarked upon this, and he frankly
exclaimed:

"Oh yes, marm, so I do, I always likes to know up to the top brick of
the chimney."

Brush-making, first introduced by Bessie and taught by Farrow, h