a ministering angel, but it is pleasanter to minister to those who
are appreciative. We _can_ be heroic, in an emergency, but if
we are not properly thanked, we do like to growl a little. It is
gratifying to our vanity to be ranked with our masculine
associates, but when it comes to the hard, thankless tasks which
they accept without a murmur, then we proceed to show that we know
what is what, and that our refined tastes cannot be so inconsiderately
treated.

The trouble with these fretful nurses is that they _are_
nurses. If they are not satisfied with the profession they have
chosen, why do they not make a change and enter some other? Do
they not know when they enter the work that it is hard, do they
not hear on every side that it is exacting and confining? They
knew it perfectly well before they began, why then do they
complain? Why not say candidly, "I cannot have such enthusiasm for
my fellow-men that I can forget myself," and then do something
that is easier?

The Superintendent of the training school shows each new aspirant
for the nursing profession that the life is not an easy one, that
patience is one of the most necessary characteristics for the
nurse. She tells her of the trials, the irritations, the unreason,
the tiresomeness of sick people, and still women will come to the
school, and forgetting the warnings, they will complain when some
exasperating incident occurs. If a nurse, from overwork and the
consequent weakening of her nervous energy, has lost her patience,
she will be a wise woman if she drops out of nursing work for a
year or more; this will probably help her, complaining never will.