the time of our going there, it was thought quite impossible to introduce the education of girls among them. All their prejudices were against it. They believed that females were incapable of learning; that they had not sufficient sense; that it would make them vain, disobedient to their husbands, and more wicked and ungovernable than they were already; that it would provoke the displeasure of their gods, and that some misfortune would be sure to happen to them, either that they would die themselves, or their husbands, or one of their friends would die. We resolved, however, to try what could be done, but for a long time we could neither get a room, nor persuade any parents to send us their daughters. These difficulties made us only the more zealous, and at last we succeeded in hiring a room, by consenting to pay the rent two years in advance. We put windows in it, and furnished it with a table, some coarse mats for seats, and the lesson boards. Next we sought to engage a suitable master, and in the end one was found. He was to receive eight rupees a month, and his first business was to get pupils. For some time he was unsuccessful. Perhaps it was partly his own fault, for he liked teaching boys better than girls, and day after day, he came to assure us that he never could get a girls' school, and if he did, it would be of no use, as girls could not learn. He soon found, however, that we were determined to have a girls' school, and shortly after, we were told that four scholars were promised him.

I shall never forget the morning on which we opened our school, or with what trembling anxiety I went down to meet the girls. I see them now, seated on the coarse mat! They were dressed in white mull muslin; their hair was neatly turned up in a small knot at the back of the head, round which were tastefully arranged a few natural flowers. They wore ornaments on their noses, ears, ankles, and wrists. They were remarkably clean, (as they always are,) and they looked very interesting. The master had already commenced, and was pointing out to them the letters of the alphabet. I began by telling them a story,

and then gave them a lesson on the first question in Watts's Catechism. This meeting took place before breakfast, between six and seven o'clock, and just at the time when the women were fetching water. They had to pass our school-room, and of course they observed us, and wondered what we meant by doing such a strange thing as to teach girls to read; so they lingered about, and peeped in at the windows. At last a few entered in, one

after the other, and seated themselves on the floor. Many men followed, amongst whom were some Brahmins, till the room was filled almost to suffocation. They were very ready to talk with me. We talked about the holiness and goodness of God. They seemed deeply impressed with the difference between his character and the character of their idol-gods. They worshipped their idols, not because they loved them, but because they were afraid of them. different from Christian worship!

How

She

The progress of the dear girls was most encouraging. Two of them, in particular, learnt the whole alphabet, consisting of fifty-six characters, in one day. Not many children in England, nor even grown up people, who begin to learn to read, master the English alphabet in a day, though there are but twenty-six letters in it. At the end of six months, we had seventeen scholars, and four of them could read easily in the gospel of Mark. Kalee, one of these latter, was soon afterwards taken away. had come in the first place, to attend some Brahminee girls, by whose parents she was paid for her services. These girls were now absent at one of their festivals, some way off, and Kalee's father objected to her coming when the profit had ceased. As soon as I heard of it, I begged her father to place her with me, telling him I would give her some light work, and allow her one rupee a month; but he objected to this, saying there was no one of her own caste to cook her food, and that she could not drink water out of our vessels. These scruples were at last overcome by the influence of a Brahmin, the only one at all favourable to female education, and it was arranged

her.

that her food should be prepared at home, and brought to Kalee's name was originally Latchmee, the name of the goddess of beauty, but in a time of great affliction in her family, it was changed to Kalee, the name of the goddess of evil. This was done in the hope that the goddess would be reconciled, and inflict no more evil upon them.

(To be continued.)

THE LITTLE INDIAN BABY.

BY MRS. EDWARD PORTER.

ONE day I was sitting on the verandah of my house in India, when I saw a Cooley man at a distance, carrying two baskets swinging across his shoulders, one before and one behind. As he came near, I saw something dark in one of the baskets, and wondered what it could be. When the man had come up, I said to him, "What have you got there?"" Chinna pilla, Ma'am," said he. Chinna pilla means little child. "Little child," I cried in amazement; and looking into his basket, what did I see but, sure enough, a little black baby, not more than ten or twelve months old? "And what have you brought me this Chinna pilla for?" I asked. "I will give ma'am, one note," said the man," which will tell ma'am all about it." And with that he gave me a note from a sergeant at Vizanagram, telling me that the child's father was dead, and its mother dying, and that he could do nothing with it, but send it to me. So I lifted it out of the basket, and wondered much what I was to do with it. However, the horsekeeper's wife took a great fancy to it, and offered to nurse it. It was fed and clothed, and taken tender care of, and a very pretty little baby it grew.

Some months after this, one of the children in the school brought me word that the mother had come to see the child, for it seems after all that the mother had not died. "The mother come!" I said; "Oh! poor thing! she is come to see after her baby. Tell her she shall have it again." As soon as she heard that there was

This

anything said about taking it back, she ran away. was a heathen mother,-horrified at the idea of taking back her own child!

Did she

A little while after, impelled by curiosity, or some lingering of natural affection, or I know not what, the mother came again, and was seen slyly peeping about the compound. You often hear of a compound in India. It means the premises surrounding a house. One of the servants was sent to fetch the woman, that she might see her child. But she would not come. The servant was sent again, for I was very anxious that she should see it. It was such a pretty baby, that a stranger had only to look upon it to love it :-much more might it be expected that its own mother would love it. She came. snatch it up in her arms, and cry, My child, we will not be parted again?" No : she did not touch it. She looked at it with a cross look, that spoke of anything but love. "Come," I said; "take it; it is your child. You must carry it home with you.' Eigh-oh, Ma'am, why should I carry it home? I can't get rice for it. I can't even get rice for myself. I can't nurse child and do work about the house. What should I do with the child ?" "But it is your own little girl," I answered, "and you ought to provide for her. We have provided for her some months now, and you ought not to leave her upon our hands any longer." "What should I do with the child?" was all the woman would say. insist upon your taking it." remonstrating and persuading, but she handled it roughly, and a viper. My heart bled for the cruel mother. Well, it ended in the mother's taking the baby away with her, but she grumbled sadly about it.

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“But,” said I, “I must So, after very much of she took it in her arms, held it as though it were little darling with such a

She had not been gone many minutes, when my manservant said to me, "O ma'am, let me go fetch child back. Ma'am, let me go. That woman kill the child." "Oh! no, Jokey, it is right that she should have it; she ought to support it." "Eigh-oh, ma'am, she won't

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support it, she kill it. That be dead child in an hour." Surely Jokey, a mother wont kill her own child." Plenty children killed by own mothers, ma'am. O ma'am, let me run fetch the child." The poor man was greatly distressed, and I became really afraid that it might be as he said. I gave him leave to go, and he came back with the baby. The woman walked away, and has never been seen since. We called the baby's name Susan. She has grown up a sweet child, and is now six or seven years of age. It was one of the prettiest sights I ever beheld, to see her little black arms, which though black were clean, round my own little girl's neck, whilst she used to say, “Dear missey, you my sister," and, “let us sing 'All glory,' referring to a favourite verse which they, with some other little girls, were almost always singing,— "All glory be to the Lord most high,"

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a verse which my young readers know very well.

Little Susy is now a good industrious girl in the school at Vizagapatam, and it was only the other day that she sent me a specimen of her knitting. There are between forty and fifty girls in the school.

English children! think of my story, and do what you can for the poor children in India.

NEVER SAY, YOU CAN DO NOTHING.
What if the little rain should say,

"So small a drop as I,

"Can ne'er refresh these thirsty fields,

"I'll tarry in the sky."

What if a shining ray of light

Should in its fountain stay,

Because its little light alone

Could not create a day.

Doth not each rain-drop help to form

The cool refreshing shower;

And every ray of light to warm

And beautify the flower?

Then you who have a Saviour found,

And tasted of His love,

Go tell poor sinners all around,

That they its power may prove.