Examined and certified by me, as duly entered in the books of the Mission, JAMES WADDELL, F.C.A. (of J. WADDELL & CO.),

1, Queen Victoria Street, Mansion House, E.C.

Received for Bible-women and Nurses with thanks :-Clothing, old and new, boots and shoes, &c., from Mrs. Glasfurd, Mrs. Hannyngton, Captain B., Miss Phillips' Working Party, Mrs. Crichton Stuart, Mrs. Horasby, T. M., Mrs. R. O. White, Anony mous, Acre Lane, Anonymous, A Friend and Trevint Industrial Home; flowers and text cards from Miss Colchester, Mrs. George Brightwen, Miss J. P. Nisbet, and Miss Morris; books from Mrs. Sandberg; and hospital letters from Mrs. Gurney Pease and Mrs. Wright.

Contributions to the LONDON BIBLE AND DOMESTIC FEMALE MISSION can be received by Mrs. Selfe Leonard (niece of the late Mrs. Ranyard), 2, Adelphi Terrace, Strand, London, W.C.; by Lord Kinnaird, addressed to the Bank of Messrs. Ransom and Co., No. 1, Pall Mall East; also by Messrs. Barclay, Bevan, and Co., 54, Lombard Street; and by Messrs. Nisbet and Co., Berners Street. Money Orders should be made payable at the Post-office, Charing Cross, W.C., in the name of E. Selfe Leonard, and cheques crossed Ransom and Co. Should any sums be unacknowledged in the above list, friends are requested to write at once to Mrs. Leonard.

OUR SEASIDE HOME.

SOME of our readers may remember that in the November number of the "MISSING LINK MAGAZINE " for 1882, we gave an account of the way in which we spent one hundred pounds that had been entrusted to us for the specific purpose of giving change of air to the convalescent poor. And now it is our pleasant task to relate how this kind gift has been renewed, and further sums added, and how other hearts have been touched, too, by the story of the wonderful boon that change of air proved to the sixty poor people who enjoyed this benefit last

year.

Early in April we again secured a house at Southend. The Railway Company furthered our efforts by allowing considerable reduction on the return tickets.

We again placed one of our valued pioneers in charge, and on April 17th, our first guests arrived.

We need scarcely say that it was an easy matter to issue our invitations; our only difficulty arising from the many applications that flocked in from Bible-women and Nurses, each recommending some poor woman who sorely needed change. "It is her only chance of recovery." "The doctor says that rest and change, with good food, will do more than any medicine." Such was the urgent wording of many notes, coupled too frequently with sad histories of overwork and illness.

Let us follow some of these weary ones to the Seaside Home, and learn from our Matron the order of the day, and hear also a few details of the lives of some of those who have enjoyed this unexpected rest.

We have been careful to select from the pile of applications such cases as really most needed change and sea-air to enable them to resume their daily duties, and it has been delightful to know all have returned refreshed and cheered to meet their cares with new courage. The Matron writes her regret that we

T

cannot see each guest the day she comes and the day she leaves, and says, "There is such cause for thankfulness-not one rule broken, no word of discord, all seeming to live by the motto, 'Be kindly affectionate one to another, in honour preferring one another,' and in several cases I have heard it said, 'It's love that makes life so different.""

"I am sure," she adds, "that one of the greatest pleasures this happy home affords is the time to think. The weary mothers of London have so little leisure, and very few have ever been away before. It is not easy to tell you what joy they experience in freedom from daily cares, but I think the hearts of those who have provided this home would rejoice to see how the quiet refreshes, and how their spirits rise to the Great Giver of all good things."

Twice a week there is a short Bible-reading in the evening, with hymn-singing.

The day begins with breakfast and family prayers, and then two of the guests help the Matron and servant for half-an-hour to wash up and clear away.

We find each so willing to help in turn, and in this "Bee's half-hour" so much is done that the Home is not disturbed by cleaning at other times, and all are ready to go out if they like by 9.30. We give an egg beaten up in milk to the most delicate patients at eleven, and the others take out biscuits for lunch, and bread and butter, or dripping, which many prefer, and ramble about in the cornfields or on the seashore till dinner time, when they return with a fresh appetite. Then how the dinner is enjoyed! and we hope that many a household and economical lesson is learnt so that the husbands at home may reap some benefit too from the new experiences. "No rice for me, thank you," says one woman, but on seeing the others enjoy their pudding she, too, ventures on a little, and wonders how it is that "it tastes so different," and that a little lemonpeel and careful cooking can do so much. There are many opportunities for teaching cookery, and how to make the most of the little that they get at home, and they are surprised to learn what nourishment they lose by wastefully peeling potatoes, and burning the meat.

The conversation often turns on the management of babies, and they say that though, perhaps, the doctors may have told them what to do, yet they did not give the reason why, and the poor children shall be differently cared for in future.

We are glad to know that in some cases the husbands write to say that while they are very glad that the wives are enjoying themselves, yet they will be glad to welcome them home "that they may get rid of the money and housekeeping, for they cannot make it last out." The wives are glad that they have found out that for themselves, as they will be more satisfied with the expenditure in future.

We will now give some extracts from our Matron's account of those who have visited the Home, that our readers may judge how greatly such help was needed :—

"One of the mothers from the Bethnal Green Meeting has been very ill for eleven months, and her strength seemed quite exhausted. She says, 'The Bible-woman and her Lady have been like sisters to me. My husband is a boot-finisher, and we have eleven children, seven still at school. This is the first real holiday I have ever had, and I have never been away from home for the last seventeen years. My husband is kind and good, but it is as much as we can do both working together to get on comfortably, but I have, I fear, been very weak in faith, for I have fretted a great deal at not being able to work, although he often says, "Never mind, mother, cheer up, you will always have the comfort of knowing you did work while you could," and when Miss Goode spoke about my coming here she was just as pleased as I was. Now, you know how full my heart is to be going back so much better, and able to work again, for you can believe what a family like mine is without a mother's hands!""

Another respectable woman from Islington, who has been very poorly for six months, said :

"I have a very good husband, a plasterer by trade, who would do anything in his power for me or the children, but to send me to the seaside for a fortnight or even for a week would never have been in his power. I have never been away from home before, and never could have come unless that letter had been

given me, but I never dreamed of coming to such a lovely place, such a House of Love, where I have learned so much that will help me in every way, and so you see, Matron, ten will benefit by it—my husband, me, and our eight children, for I shall certainly remember how you have told us how some of the good things we have here are made, and above all I shall be more happy, more hopeful, more loving, for I have felt such a coldness and formality in our life at home, and now I can see that it was all my fault; my husband is affectionate, and my children would be too, in a real, loving, warm-hearted home."

I give her own words, and am thankful for the joyousness imparted. Her face looked quite different.

Many of the people whom our Nurses visit are so poor that they could not even afford to pay for the railway ticket to Southend, and they are proportionately grateful that the whole outing is "quite free." We only wonder that some families exist at all, when we consider the price of rent and other necessaries, and when we hear of a weaver earning 16s. a week, who has a family of children, and whose wife has been ill for a year, we are sure that she would have been quite unable to have had the change unless it had been entirely free, for as she says, as soon as one child has boots another is in want, and so it goes on." The Mission paying the fare enabled her to buy a chemise and nightgown, for we require a change of linen to accompany each, though this poor woman acknowledges, "We do not go like this always, you know; we can't get them, it is only while we are here most of us."

I am thankful to say she is much stronger, and is a very respectable woman. I hope she will continue her good health, for the poor creature is asking if she could get any work. She intends going out as soon as she returns. She looks as if she did not often get a dinner.

Another, who had been a domestic servant and married from her master's house, had eight children and many illnesses, until at last she was so weak that she could do nothing without much pain, giddiness, and constant headaches, which caused deafness. She has gone home quite well, and her hearing wonderfully improved. She writes:-"I have never been able to go