She has been on the Hospital nursingstaff for about fifteen years, and is the writer of a valuable little work recently published, entitled, 'A Handbook of Nursing for the Home and the Hospital.' Her successor at Highgate will be no stranger, but one who worked for many years as the head of a large ward in the old Hospital in Great Ormond Street. These changes are expected to take place before Christmas. Last month our sincere thanks were given to many helpers who had written to the Hospital for patterns. We are now able to thank some workers who have sent in the jackets they have been making, and others who have promised to assist in converting into garments certain useful gifts of flannel, the donors of which we must not forget while making these grateful acknowledgments. Some cynical person once said that gratitude chiefly consists in "a lively sense of favours to come." This we will not believe; yet, having thanked our kind friends for the help they have just given, we cannot resist mentioning the fact that Christmas and the New Year are close at hand, and that this is a most favourable season for sending presents of toys, clothing, etc., etc., to the Hospital. Master Henry Hodges, some Christmas Cards. D. A. and R., 10 flannel jackets. H. H., 10 knitted jackets. Annie and Connie, twin sisters, a parcel of clothing and shoes. M. S., some scarlet flannel and three small jackets. May and Ethel, four flannel jackets. L. E. L., London, N., a parcel of clothing and toys. Lisette, a parcel of clothing. Minnie and her Mamma, six flannel jackets. SOLUTION OF DOUBLE ACROSTIC. Lo! Yuletide comes, hail, merry time! To welcome Christmas back again. 1. "Oh, youth! for years so many and sweet, It cannot be that thou art gone." 2. I light the sky, I roam the plain; Whence issued many a learned scribe. 8. "I'll take it," quoth the Editor, 9. If in this company you've shares, I fear 'twill bring you many cares. 10. At first I felt no little doubt, But now I'm sure I've found it out. 12. An emblem here we must descry 13. Oh, who a sage would e'er confuse J. S. C. H. Replies to Double Acrostic also received from "The Three Swans" and "Q. V.” The former is incorrect in the eleventh light; the latter in both the fourth and eleventh. "CHIN:" THE STORY OF A TAME CHINCHILLA. By the Author of Friends in Fur and Feathers,' &c. OR Exchange.-A set of Chinchilla, nearly as good as new, and very handsome; cost twenty-five pounds. Wanted. A Spaniel with very long ears, thorough-bred and affectionate. Also, jewellery to the value of eight pounds; Indian ornaments in gold filigree preferred." An elderly lady sat, capped and spectacled, in her arm-chair, conning over the distracting contents of an exchange-paper! She has passed over with a languid interest bargains which twenty years ago would have roused her into a fervour of excitement, curiosity, and acquisitiveness—gowns “never put on," to be had for less than half price; rare bits of old jewellery, to be exchanged for a "gipsy-ring" or anything else; a baby's caul, value five pounds, for half the amount in Brussels lace; a tame squirrel, which it was earnestly hoped might be turned into a Wedgwood tea-pot; violins, old china, skulls, bicycles. But none of these things interested her, or awoke even a passing wish for their possession. The very thought of skulls had given her a shiver, bicycles never could by any possibility be anything to her; and she was too far behind the age in which she lived to have given 1100l. for a cracked jug (if she had had the money, which she had not); so that even old china, with all its power and potency in the manufacture of maniacs, found no response in her: but what was this? "A set of Chinchilla "-" cost twenty-five pounds "-" and nearly as good as new." And "wanted a Spaniel with very long ears," and jewellery and especially gold filigree! She fixed her spectacles more firmly upon her Roman nose, read it again and again, and then leaned back in a reverie. Chinchilla had been one of her life-long dreams. As a child she had sat every Sunday in winter, through many a year, behind a long and capacious cape and muff of the gigantic proportions our grandmothers carried before them, and ever more she had been haunted by the hope of Chinchilla. But in the manifold disappointments of a life |