I remember one evening, when entering the room where our meeting was held, feeling immediately conscious that something not quite pleasant was going on there. One of our members, a fine tall woman, was standing at the work-table, with her great baby, about six months old, in her arms. She was speaking in a loud angry tone, and as I approached the table I heard her say, “It’s of no use, it’ll never fit my baby; and so I tell ye I shan’t have it.” The lady, who that evening kindly superintended the cutting-out of the work, appealed to me, and said that the dimensions of the article had really been carefully attended to, and was the same in every respect as those generally received by the mothers with great satisfaction, I saw directly that this case differed from most contests, where both parties are usually wrong, for here both were right; the uncommon size of the baby accounted for it all. So turning to it I said, “Ah! baby, I wonder you are not ashamed of yourself to be so big, and thus to cause such a disturbance here; there’s no getting anything to fit you.” Then I said to the mother, “You should have observed that this article you have rejected is the usual size; but if you will let your baby be as big at six months as he ought to be at twelve, you must just take the consequences. I will give you some material that you must cut out for yourself, and try to fit your great boy if you can.” The baby crowed and laughed, and seemed delighted at being such an object of attention; the mother caught the infection, and laughed too, acknowledged her mistake, apologised to the lady, and walked off to her seat, by no means displeased at being convicted of having one of the finest babies in the world. A friend of mine happened to be there that evening who was wishing to establish a similar society in her own neighbourhood, and had come to look on upon us. As we were walking home together she said, “I see how it is you are so successful, you have so much tact. I wonder how you can meet all these cases as they turn up.” I replied, “I should wonder very much if I could not. I never go there without asking direction from Him who is ‘the giver of every good and perfect gift;’ and He who has said, ‘Ask and ye shall receive,’ simply keeps His promise, and gives me the wisdom I petition for. Whatever difficulties arise, I remember that the Lord God of Elijah, of Solomon, and of David, is my God, and He is as willing to make me wise to govern a society, as He was them to govern kingdoms.” In stepping aside for an instant just to shew that, with this help, within the reach of all, we may become wise enough to do something for our poor neighbours, and yet in no way be unmindful of our domestic claims, I have wandered away from my starting point, which referred to the necessity of occasional absence from home.