years came in contact with at the workhouse, two were drunkards^ and one. was a thief! With her clear mind and sympathising heart, she pitied both the teachers and the taught, and strove, not in vain, to do them all good.
But her special life-work commenced in 1819, when she was about twenty-six years of age. She then gained admission to the prison. Here her plans were most practical. She set herself to shut out indolence, that seducer to crime, and her skill as a seamstress gave her great help in teaching the women and girls. She learned straw-plaiting and the making of bread seals, much used then, and some other occupations, so as to instruct the men in the prison. She knew that all reformation is but transitory that does not touch the heart and give some light to the soul; so in much diffidence, yet with devout resolution, she began to give some religious instruction. She read the Scriptures on the Sunday, and taught and encouraged the prisoners to read, and instituted and conducted for them a devotional service, there being there then no gaol chaplain.
Meanwhile, of course her business, on which she depended for bread, suffered. She gave up one entire working day in the week to teaching industrial pursuits in the prison. A lady paid her for another day, as if she were at work at dressmaking, so that she might devote herself more fully to these waifs and strays of humanity. Then
