Were such committees in existence at _the West_, and their eyes directed to the desolate regions of ignorance around them, they would soon find their warmest energies enlisted in gathering outcast lambs into the fold of safety, to be trained and guided to heaven. To impart a more vivid idea of the wants which are to be met, and of one of the first objects to be aimed at, in the efforts proposed, some incidents in the experience of the writer will be narrated. In a small village, less than thirty miles from one of the largest cities of the West, the writer once stopped to dine. Several children were playing about, when the following conversation took place: “Is there any school in this place!” “No, madam; it is a good while since we have had one. Miss L. came and taught here nearly a year; but she went home, and we have had no school since.” “How many children are there here who would go to a school if there were one?” “I should think there are as many as forty or fifty.” “Do you suppose the parents would like to have a school, and would pay the teacher well?” “Oh, yes! If we could get a _good_ teacher, she would be well paid for her trouble; but none of us know where to get one, and the men folks are too busy to go and look for one.” “Have you any clergyman in the place?” “No, madam.” “Do the people here ever go to any church?” “Yes, madam; they sometimes go off a _good piece_ to W., where there is preaching sometimes.” It was in another village of the West, and one as destitute as this, that a young lady from New-England, who came out under the care of a clergyman, stationed herself to rear up a school. She agreed to teach for a small sum, and to _board around_ with the parents of her pupils. Most of these parents were from the South, where they were unaccustomed to the notions of comfort and thrift which the young lady possessed. She not only taught the children at school, but, in each family where she boarded, taught the housekeeper how to make _good yeast_ and _good bread_. She also taught the young women how to cut dresses and how to braid straw for bonnets. Her instructions in the day-school and in the Sunday-school, and her influence in the families, were unbounded, and almost transforming. No minister, however well qualified, could have wrought such favourable changes in so short a time. In another case, known to the writer, a young lady went into such a destitute village. There was no church, and no minister of any sect. She taught the children through the week, and also instituted a Sunday-school. In this she conducted religious worship herself. Gradually the mothers came to attend, then the fathers, until, at last, she found herself in the office both of teacher and clergyman. The last portion of her duties she resigned to a minister, who, by her instrumentality, was settled there. The writer might mention several other similar cases which have come to her knowledge.