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Examined and certified by me, as duly entered in the books of the Mission, JAMES WADDELL (of J. WADDELL & CO.), Fellow of the Institute of Accountants in London,

New Poultry Chambers, 7, Poultry, E.C.

Received for the Missions and Bible-women Nurses, with thanks :PARCELS of clothing, old linen, paper pillows, &c., from Mrs. Bewsher; Anonymous; Miss Lush ; E. R.; Misses Cash; Mrs. Stone; Mrs. Wau

chope; Mrs. Jacob; Friends at Bournemouth; Mr. Nelson; Mr. Wardroper; Mrs. Leatham; Miss and Mr. R. Fitzroy; Miss Tanner; Mrs. Ewart; F. M. K., Blackheath; Mrs. Molyneux Williams; Mrs. Silvester; Miss Colson; Mrs. Lobb; Mrs. Small's Working Party; Mrs. Stead; Mrs. Lloyd Greame; Mrs. Ellis; J. Sayer, Esq.; Mr. and Mrs. J. Robison Wright; Mrs. Hullier; "House Mother"; Mr. J. Bewsher; Mrs. Williams; Miss Kirkpatrick; Miss Barclay; eight petticoats and six crochet shawls from Anonymous; raspberry vinegar from Anonymous; hospital tickets from E. W., Mrs. Stapleton, and Mrs. Jacomb Hood; and books from Miss Bruce.

FOR SPECIAL DISTRICTS.—Clothing from Miss Allcard's Working Party, for Rose-street; Miss Kilner, for Verulam-street; Mrs. Bingham and the Misses Bevington; and old boots from Mrs. Merriott, for St. Giles's, No. 2.

Contributions to the LONDON BIBLE AND DOMESTIC FEMALE MISSIONS can be received by the Honorary Secretary, Mrs. Ranyard, 13, Hunter-street, Brunswick-square, London, W.C.; by the Hon. A. Kinnaird, M.P., addressed to the Bank of Messrs. Ransom and Co., No. 1, Pall-mall East; also by Messrs. Barclay, Bevan, and Co., 54, Lombard-street; and by Messrs. Nisbet and Co., Berners-street. Money Orders should be made payable at the Post-office in Burton-crescent, W.C., in the name of "Ellen Ranyard."

OUR AMY; OR, THE ADOPTED CHILD.

A BIBLE-WOMAN, who visited for some years in Clare-market, used to see through a broken window in a most wretched room a poor little baby-girl, whose mother had dropped down dead with this child in her arms, and who had a drunken, cruel father. It was stuffed into a basket of shavings, and there it sat all day long locked in the room, having for its only guardian a little brother a few years older, who had had his eye knocked out by his father in one of his drunken fits. They often cried for food, and the Bible-woman used sometimes, when passing by, to throw them a biscuit or a crust through the broken pane.

At the Mothers' Meeting held near by, it was one day said that the father had kicked the child out on the doorstep, and that it really must go to the workhouse if its life was to be saved. The Bible-woman answered, "Go; bring it here to me." It was brought—a wretched little starveling of twelve months old; and when the mothers said again, "It must go to the workhouse," it laid hold of the Bible-woman's cloak, and looked up at her with such an imploring look, as went straight to her Irish heart. She had married an Englishman, and had herself had eleven children, the youngest of them then five years old, and she thought, "We'll never miss the bite and the sup of one more." She took the child up and kept it quiet, and when the Meeting was over the mistress of the house reproached her for letting such a dirty little wretch harbour near her even for the hour of the Meeting. Its head was filled with vermin, and its flesh all sores. Its only clothing was an old Garibaldi boddice, with the long sleeves hanging down below its poor little wrists.

"Oh," said its new friend, "you shall soon see a clean child." A pan of water and a soft washing prepared it for some clean clothing, which the Bible-woman had been out to procure. A little milk comforted it, and at night she took it home in an omnibus with her, wrapped up in her shawl.

When she knocked at her own door, with the child on her VOL. VIII.-No. 3.

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arm, her husband, who opened it to her, said, “What have you got there?" She told him that she had brought him another baby, and assured him that her own would never want the bite and the sup that this little thing would cost. He looked at its wan little face, and made no opposition. The Lord had opened their hearts to the sorrowful babe, and He kept them open to it for no less than half-a-dozen years.

The adopted child was treated as if it had been their own; the brothers and sisters looked after it kindly while the mother was out at her work. The father took to it, and it never had a blow or a bad word from the day of its adoption to that of its death, and it became, as they all testified, "the little sunbeam and gospel of the house."

As soon as it could talk it seemed to have good words for everybody, and to win all their hearts.

The hardships of its first year had, however, sown the seeds of ailments, which no loving care could eradicate; but it was most sweet and winning in its gentle ways, so that people used to say of it, "Who is that little lady?" Every year it had some attack of illness, but between these disorders it seemed as if, perhaps, it might grow up.

Its new mother named it Amy. She put it to school, and in the evenings must have dropped much precious seed of Bible teaching into good soil, which sprang up and brought forth fruit abundantly. She did not rest till she had procured admission for the poor little brother, who had lost an eye, into a country school, in which he is now doing well.

When little Amy was about three years old the Bible-woman thought she would take her to see her own father. Alas! she had to send for him out of a public-house. He seemed somewhat struck with the appearance of the child, and took her up, saying, "Come, I'm your father." But his grasp was rough, and she shrank from him, and said, "You are not my father, your face is so dirty, and you smell of beer." He dashed her down, and the interview did no good to either. Alas! this man was once a Sunday-school teacher.

The child had, however, her mission in the home of her adoption, and drew together the parents and their own children,

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