nly return to the right path, and she busily sets
to work to make good the ravages which have followed upon our ignorance
or neglect of her laws. But it must be the right path. None other will
do. She will not be cajoled into working with any other than her own
simple tools.

Our girls have withheld from her air, food, exercise--the three great
factors of her powers--and have given for them miserable substitutes.
Though kind, she cannot be put off with excuses. She is inexorable, and
the same results will follow our neglect of her laws, whether it be due
to a want of acquaintance with them or want of attention. It is as much,
if not more, from these causes, then, that our girl has become ill than
from the supposed overwork. Overwork might have been the immediate
cause; that is to say, her collapse might have followed upon a little
extra pressure or hurry of work; but the real cause will be found to lie
in that steady neglect of the primary laws of health to which we have
alluded, and upon which too much emphasis cannot be laid. Had it not
been so, the fatigue engendered by an extra hour's work would have been
set right by a good night's rest.

And when our girl is ill, her recovery will depend upon the degree to
which she is enabled to meet the demands of Nature. If she can have
plenty of rest, peace of mind, fresh air, light, digestible, and
nourishing food, sunshine, and genial surroundings, she will soon be
herself again. But if our brave worker has not these indispensables, or
has them in a chance, get-me-if-you-can sort of way, then she lingers
on, and often rises from her couch but half cured, and plunges on again
under the old conditions, until something occurs which some persons call
"a chance," some by another name, which mercifully changes the current
of her life for a while, or perhaps for a permanency.

It is said that "men do work while women weep." That is part of an
old-time ditty. In this generation women do not leave all the work to
their brothers, and we will hope that in proportion as we work more, so
we weep less. And women are not to be pitied that it is so. Work is one
of the greatest of blessings, and when its aim is high, is, we believe,
blessed. There is no reason why our work should be irksome to us, or
should be aught but a pleasure. We must make up our minds to a certain
number of disagreeables, and be prepared to meet them as they arise; but
beyond that we should endeavour to take a pleasu