es is one
which forbids the wearing of artificial flowers or any tawdry finery
during school-time. But in another part of London artificial flowers
in a Sunday bonnet are a sign of a reclaimed female drunkard, as the
clergyman has hit on the ingenious method of advising the women to
leave off drinking, that they may be able to afford some Sunday finery
wherewith to please their husbands' eyes and to hold up their heads
with the best in church!

Old age is as helpless as infancy, and less attractive in its
helplessness, so that the task undertaken by the Little Sisters of the
Poor is still more meritorious when performed in the devoted spirit
which characterizes them. They are literally the servants of beggars:
they are bound to possess nothing and to hoard nothing; they live on
the refuse of refuse, begging the crumbs from rich men's tables to
feed the hungry ones under their care, and when these are satisfied
sitting down to the scanty remains. They have a large establishment
in London, which I once visited, but which has since been divided
into two, the aim of both continuing the same. The sisters wear a very
unpretending black gown and cap: when out of doors they add to this
a poke-bonnet and thick veil, with a large black shawl. They have a
little donkey-cart, which they drive themselves, and which makes daily
pilgrimages all over town, stopping at the houses of the rich of all
denominations and receiving contributions of that which is too often
thought below the cook's while to claim as a perquisite. So laden, the
Little Sisters return to their old people, and a transformation begins
in the vast kitchen. No one would believe what savory dishes
they manufacture out of the leavings and parings of great houses:
everything is sifted, cleaned, washed, as the case requires; each kind
of food is carefully separated and placed in its appointed place; an
immense cauldron is continually on the fire, and soups and jellies are
in a constant state of fusion and preparation. Puddings of all sorts
come out of the renovating oven: joints of roast meat are the only
things which are exceptional, and sometimes the more generous charity
of some outsider adds even this luxury to the usual fare. The Little
Sisters of the Poor clothe as well as feed their charges: for this,
too, they trust to charity, and left-off clothes are a great boon to
them. They are so ingenious that there is hardly a thing of which they
cannot make a deft use. T