“DEAR HARD-WORKING FRIENDS, “I am a hard-working woman too. May I speak to you? And will you excuse me, though not a mother? “You feel with me that every mother who brings a child into the world has the duty laid upon her of bringing up the child in such health as will enable him to do the work of his life. “But though you toil all day for your children, and are so devoted to them, this is not at all an easy task. “We should not attempt to practise dress-making or any other trade without any training for it; but it is generally impossible for a woman to get any teaching about the management of health; yet health is to be learnt.... “Boys and girls must grow up healthy, with clean minds, clean bodies, and clean skins. And for this to be possible, the air, the earth, and the water that they grow up in and have around them must be clean. Fresh air, not bad air; clean earth, not foul earth; pure water, not dirty water; and the first teachings and impressions that they have at home must all be pure, and gentle, and firm. It is _home_ that teaches the child, after all, more than any other schooling. A child learns before it is three whether it shall obey its mother or not; and before it is seven, wise men tell us that its character is formed. “There is, too, another thing--orderliness. We know your daily toil and love. May not the busiest and hardest life be somewhat lightened, the day mapped out, so that each duty has the same hours? It is worth while to try to keep the family in health, to prevent the sorrow, the anxiety, the trouble of illness in the house, of which so much can be prevented. “When a child has lost its health, how often the mother says, ‘Oh, if I had only known! but there was no one to tell me.’ And, after all, it is health and not sickness that is our natural state--the state that God intends for us. There are more people to pick us up when we fall than to enable us to stand upon our feet. God did not intend all mothers to be accompanied by doctors, but He meant all children to be cared for by mothers. God bless your work and labour of love. “FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE.”