as much as if we had had them since the beginning of time. To be sure, it is not at all certain that it is the best possible scheme for an ideal country that nearly all teaching in its common schools should be done by women; but in the transition of a swiftly expanding people the great crisis was this: either the work of teaching had to be done by women or it could not be done at all. In this hour of need thousands of women arose to devote their lives to this work, receiving in payment a poor wage, always less than would be given to a man for the same work, and in the great majority of cases suffering the denial of that which is most precious to the woman, the home-making instinct. Of course it cannot be asserted that Catherine saw all this; but she felt the immediate need of the situation. She believed that a woman’s nature was adapted to the precious occupation of training children, and being herself deprived of the place in life where her large, motherly nature could have its full fruition, she chose to aid her country in that day of need by helping to provide teachers for the swiftly forming schools all through the middle states.[7] To this work the American girls of 1830 were called by the voice of Catherine Beecher; aided by her capable sister she took in hand the training of women for the work. They hoped to be able soon to say to many hundreds of young women, “Here is a place where you may qualify yourselves to be first-rate teachers and receive help in finding a location in one of the many flourishing towns and villages of the west where such services are sorely needed.”