While probationers, they receive, free of charge, board and instruction, and the caps, collars, and aprons that are their distinctive badges. Their remaining expenses they provide for themselves. Those who have completed the full term of probation, and have proved their fitness for the office, must pledge themselves to a service of at least five years. At the end of the time they may renew the engagement or not, as they wish. Should a deaconess be needed at home by aged parents, or should she desire to marry, she is free to leave her duties, but is expected to give three months' notice of her intention to do so. The deaconess performs her duties gratuitously. This is a main feature of the system. She is not even free to accept personal presents, for envy, jealousy, and unworthy motives might then creep into the system. She is truly "the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ." All of her wants are supplied, and her future needs anticipated, so that, literally "taking no thought for the morrow," she can give herself with single-hearted devotion to the work in hand. The deaconess at Kaiserswerth receives from the institution her modest wardrobe, consisting of a Sunday suit, a working-dress of dark blue, blue apron, white caps and collars. A deaconess attired in her garb, with the placid, contented countenance that seems distinctively to belong to her, is a pleasant, wholesome sight that is constantly to be seen on the streets of German cities. Her deaconess attire is not only a protection, assuring her chivalrous treatment from all classes of men, but it is a convenient identification that insures her certain privileges on the State railroads and steamboats, for the German government recognizes the sisters as benefactors of society, and treats them accordingly. For her personal expenses the Kaiserswerth deaconess in Germany receives yearly twenty-two dollars and fifty cents; sometimes when in foreign lands she is paid a slightly larger sum. When she becomes unfitted for service by reason of sickness or old age, and has no means of her own, the Board of Direction provides for her maintenance.