not to be broken in upon) be set apart for making strong and pretty
dresses for the poor. Learn the sound qualities of all useful
stuffs, and make everything of the best you can get, whatever its
price. I have many reasons for desiring you to do this,--too many
to be told just now,--trust me, and be sure you get everything as
good as can be: and if, in the villainous state of modern trade,
you cannot get it good at any price, buy its raw material, and set
some of the poor women about you to spin and weave, till you have
got stuff that can be trusted: and then, every day, make some
little piece of useful clothing, sewn with your own fingers as
strongly as it can be stitched; and embroider it or otherwise
beautify it moderately with fine needlework, such as a girl may be
proud of having done. And accumulate these things by you until you
hear of some honest persons in need of clothing, which may often too
sorrowfully be; and, even though you should be deceived, and give
them to the dishonest, and hear of their being at once taken to the
pawnbroker's, never mind that, for the pawnbroker must sell them to
some one who has need of them. That is no business of yours; what
concerns you is only that when you see a half-naked child, you
should have good and fresh clothes to give it, if its parents will
let it be taught to wear them. If they will not, consider how they
came to be of such a mind, which it will be wholesome for you beyond
most subjects of inquiry to ascertain. And after you have gone on
doing this a little while, you will begin to understand the meaning
of at least one chapter of your Bible, Proverbs xxxi., without need
of any laboured comment, sermon, or meditation.

In these, then (and of course in all minor ways besides, that you
can discover in your own household), you must be to the best of your
strength usefully employed during the greater part of the day, so