time a great demand for fine baskets imported from
France, and it occurred to Bessie that if they could procure the blocks
upon which these baskets were made and the tools used, she might learn
the art of basket-making and teach the workwomen.

But there was a difficulty in the way. The manufacture of these baskets
was a monopoly, and the firm to which they were consigned would give no
information as to the locality whence they came. Some one must go to
France and find out. Who could go except Levy!

It was to prepare him for this journey that for more than a year Bessie
had been at every spare moment "embossing French words for L.," as the
diary informs us, or dictating a vocabulary. In the autumn of 1858 he
and his wife set out on their journey of discovery. Bessie had applied
for a grant in aid of Levy's expenses, but the Committee did not accede
to her request, so that funds were provided from her private purse.

The blind man and his wife took the wrong train at Calais, and for some
time did not discover their mistake. However, they retraced their steps,
and after many adventures learnt that the baskets arrived in large
crates at Calais from the north of France, and were shipped for England.
No one knew exactly whence they came. Levy commenced a search which
threatened to be fruitless, when one day at St. Quentin he met a
_comis-voyageur_, who told him that the village in which these baskets
were made was Oigny, about eight miles distant.

On the following day Levy and his wife stood at the door of the very man
who supplied baskets to the Institution, and found that their appearance
caused surprise and alarm. But when Levy explained the object of his
visit he met with a cordial reception. The manufacturer showed and
allowed him to purchase blocks and tools; taught him the ingenious
contrivance by which the blocks could be taken to pieces and removed
when the baskets were completed, and gave him all the information in his
power as to the method and cost of production. He also took him to the
village where the workpeople lived; but it is a cider-growing country,
and many were away at the apple harvest. Levy and his wife were kindly
received in the cottages, and he wrote to Miss Gilbert that a canary was
singing in every house, and that many of the villagers grew their own
osiers.

The result of this journey was very encouraging, although Bessie did not
learn the trade or become a teacher of basket making. She had