298 



LIFE IN MONTREAL. [Chap. VII. 



as the frost is out, and expect to have at least the school-part 

 ready for September. It will, of course, be quite plain : just 

 decent enough not to offend our neighbour, who has built a 

 very pretty house at the corner." 



In this letter, which he wrote for his sister's birthday, he 

 sympathizes with her in some of her disappointments : — " You 

 may be sure that people with bulky souls like yours can't get 

 filled with common food, and must be content to have great 

 fastings and pinings. The filling-up of loving sympathies be- 

 longs in this world to people of smaller dimensions : larger 

 creatures can't get what they want, and are perpetually hugging 

 and trusting small fry who are highly charmed, but are not 

 congenial — and sometimes scratch like our ladylike cat when 

 the great Newfoundland puppy hugs her too much. So they 

 get driven in upon themselves, except in doing good ; and 

 must wait for their sympathetic development till they get to 

 ' kingdom come,' which is not a very long time to look forward 

 to. I am very glad Mr. Andrews seems to answer in the Mis- 

 sion. The whole race of Workmen's Halls, Co-operatives, et 

 hoc genus onine, answer just when there is a sufficient amount of 

 Christianity in the leaders to carry things through the selfishness 

 (which is also co-operated and therefore intensified) ; but not 

 else. I was vexed at Warrington, when all the young men of 

 ten years' training left the Cairo Street institutions to build up 

 a Co-operative : but without them it would certainly have gone 

 to the d . It is a great thing when we can let the Master- 

 builder shape our lot, and be content to do rough, plain, inside 

 or foundation work, as well as the show parts. 



' ' My own work here seems very plainly cut out for me. If 

 health continue, there is no reason to doubt that my school 

 will keep full : and as long as M. has health to take the 

 younger class, we can get our living out of it, easily, and some 

 to spare. But when all the exercises,* etc., are looked over, 

 there is little time for anything else. So I just confine myself 

 to the Sanitary for good-doing, and the Seigneur Street Home 



* Elsewhere he writes of an average of sixty exercises to correct, every 

 evening. 



