I am sure you want to hear about the closing exercises of our cooking class.  The teacher had given the seven girls comprising the class the privilege of getting a dinner and each one inviting a guest.  One of the lovely things about the affair was that the guests were the mothers and teachers of the girls.  So at three o’clock one day a company of eighteen sat down to a dinner that was all cooked and served by these girls.  The white, puffy biscuits, well-cooked meat and vegetables, and the quiet lady-like serving, all testified to the excellence of the instruction received.  Prouder mothers I never saw than those who then partook of their daughter’s cookery.  I was told that every Saturday it had been the custom for the girls at home to repeat in their own kitchens the work of the day previous, as it had been done under their teacher’s instructions.

We hope next year with our boarding pupils to do more than we could with only day pupils.  Our sewing classes are this week finishing their work for the year.  There has been sewing in five rooms.  The primaries have pieced blocks for outsides for two quilts, over-hand work.  The next grade has put together four outsides (running).  The upper classes have made fifty pillow-cases, twelve sheets, forty aprons, hemstitched three tray cloths, outlined one tidy and made three night-dresses.  Darning, button-hole making and hem-stitching were taught in one class.  The girls in another room have tied six comfortables.  The boys in the carpenter shop are doing excellent work, and they like it very much.  One class of five or six come every morning at seven o’clock, and they do this to get more instruction.  Most of this class are country boys who cannot stay at school all of the year.  In one of the primary rooms, we have the kitchen-garden material.  There, with the twenty-four sets of toy dishes, the little ones are taught how to set and clear off table, and a great many useful things in reference to table manners and customs.

Our general school work goes on like clock-work.  The children and young people are growing in their power of concentration and self-control, and we feel greatly encouraged, as we look into the future for them, to hope that at no very distant day a well ordered home, where three meals a day shall be served in a refined, orderly manner, shall not be so rare a thing as it now is.  We are more and more convinced that the home life of these people must be changed, if they are ever to be what we want them to be, and what, for the interests of our country and for the coming of Christ’s kingdom on earth, they must be.

And now I will close in the usual way by telling you some of our needs.

For the new boarding department, we shall need bedding of all kinds.  I especially want that each mattress shall be furnished with a quilted or padded cover—­that is, something as large as the mattress on top.  Towels, table linen and such things as are needed in every house are always acceptable.  If any one wants to furnish carpets for teacher’s rooms, we do not say them nay.