In another part of the town, at Andohalo, stands the Girls’ Central School, where for upwards of forty years a fine educational work has been carried on. There are now 400 girls on the books, and many more are waiting for admission. The average attendance is 380. Amongst the special subjects taught in the School are straw-plaiting, hatmaking, lacemaking, first-aid and ambulance work. The staff consists of Miss Elsie Sibree, the devoted head-mistress, two masters and eight women teachers. The French Government regulations do not at present admit of the employment of women teachers, except those who were appointed before the present rules came into force. The present buildings, which were erected twenty years ago, comprise a large and lofty central hall, with a spacious gallery and six class-rooms. The sight of the crowded school at morning prayers is a most impressive one. The girls, bare-footed, dressed in their white lambas, with “shining morning face,” and with that happy, placid expression, which is so characteristic of the Christian girls and women of Madagascar, file into the central hall and take their places with order and reverence and join with heartiness and devotion in the singing and in the prayers. It is a very rare thing for more than one or two to be late. The tone of the school is of the highest, and the head-mistress always strives, by prayer-meetings for the staff and in many other ways, to impress the teachers with the missionary character of their work. [Illustration: MALAGASY GIRLS AT MISS CRAVEN’S GIRLS’ HOME.] Another branch of the work amongst girls is the Girls’ Home, successfully carried on by Miss Craven for twenty years. Here is a home provided for the daughters of evangelists and pastors and other Christian workers who come to Tananarive for their education. The girls attend the Central School and live in Miss Craven’s house, where they are taught domestic duties, lacemaking, embroidery, and other needlework at very small expense to the Society. Thirty girls are in residence, and there are always more waiting for admission. Miss Craven describes the work being carried on as follows: “Now for a picture of the Home itself. There are one sitting and two bed rooms, all large and airy; the former has tables and benches, but, except for meals and preparation, the matted floor is just as much used. Books and small possessions are kept in covered baskets, one to each girl, and their clothes are in a cupboard or tin boxes. The girls sleep on mattresses laid on the floor, besides which there is no other furniture in the dormitories. They bring their own clothes, plates, spoons, mattresses and coverings, but as there is more ventilation than in their rooms at home, I keep a supply of blankets to lend to them when the nights are cold; an outside building provides kitchen, rice-house, bath-house, etc.