see nothing they know nothing; and should the casual observer meet
in the street on a festival, or day of examination, a column of from
300 to 800 children, from six to ten or twelve years of age, neatly
clothed, and whose happy countenances and beautiful behaviour
bespeak the care with which their early education has been
conducted--it never once occurs to him that these are the children
of the poor, the children of the free schools of the 'Sisters' of
the Ursaline Convent, or of the Congregation of Notre Dame, or of
some other religious establishment of the kind. But perhaps we shall
have an opportunity hereafter of introducing these invisible Sisters
of Charity to the notice of our readers.

Suffice it now to say, that the 'Sisters of Mercy,' the 'Ursalines,'
the 'Congregations of Notre Dame,' the 'English Ladies,' and many
others, are all in practice Sisters of Charity.

It is not uncommon to hear their condition deplored, as one from
which all earthly enjoyments are excluded, or as a kind of death in
life. But personal observation has given us different ideas on this
subject. Within those lofty, and sometimes sullen-looking walls
which enclose the convents of the sisterhoods we speak of, we have
spent some of the most agreeable hours of our life, conversing with
refined and enlightened women on the works of beneficence in which
they were engaged; everything bearing an aspect of that cheerfulness
and animation which only can be expected in places where worthy
duties are well performed.