est of the room out of countenance, for on my next visit I
found the floor had been scrubbed and the windows washed. When I told
mother about it she said the woman should be encouraged, and sent her
that striped rug that used to be in our dining-room, you remember. It
was to spread down before the stove. The result of that was the old
stove has been polished up within an inch of its life. Yesterday I took
to the children those gay pictures that came last Christmas with the
Graphic, and tacked them on to the wall. Now the next time I go I expect
to see the walls scoured or whitewashed or something," and Miss Alice
finished with a laugh.

"If you keep on you will work quite a change in their way of living,"
said Mrs. Ashford.

"There's plenty of room yet for improvement," replied her cousin; "for
although it must be pretty hard for such a large family to live in such
a small space and be cleanly, still they might try to be."

"I should think the narrow space would be bad enough without the dirt."

"Well, things have been and are yet pretty forlorn. But I am glad I have
been able to effect a little change for the better."

"But you said I got you into it," said Marty, "and I don't see what I
have to do with it, nor what mission work has either."

"I should have told you that one reason I thought of offering this help
to Mrs. Torrence is that it may perhaps give me an opportunity to say
something to her on religious subjects. She takes no interest in such
matters, never goes to church, and only allows her children to go to
Sunday-school for what people give them. The Bible-reader of that
district tells me that Mrs. Torrence wont listen to her, wont let her go
into the room. She is a sullen, ill-natured kind of woman--I mean Mrs.
Torrence--and hard to get at. So I thought I might possibly get at her
in this way, and your account of missionary ladies going to zenanas to
teach fancy-work in order to get a chance to tell the women of God and
the Bible, put it into my head that I might try something of the same
kind."

"Oh, it is just the same," cried Marty, "except that it's altering and
mending instead of fancy-work. How curious it is that zenana work away
off in India should make you think of helping a poor woman close by in
Landis Court!"

"Have you got Mrs. Torrence to listen to you yet?" asked Mrs. Ashford.

"I haven't ventured to say anything directly to her yet, but I have been
talking to the children about the