Case 2

Our Waifs and Strays Page 30

lived a close neighbour to the Clapton Home, and practically acted as its Chaplain, knowing, and keeping up a friendship with, many of its boys, J. among the number.

A second part worthy of notice is, that J. maintenance was provided by the boys of a public school, Bradfield. That school may therefore be considered the pioneer of the noble list of schools, public and private, from the greatest in the land to the tiniest village Sunday School, which from the foundation of the Society have given such ready aid in the cause of their homeless straying brothers and sisters.

And lastly on J. case-paper, there appear, in different connections, the signatures of at least seven of the Society's earliest friends who are still "going strong," and are as energetic as ever over the work. Pleasant, surely, and inspiring, it is to those thousands who to-day are contributing their little share of their energy and their sympathy, of their substance and their prayers, and "the fatherless children - the desolate and the oppressed," that at the head of the great army of relief still march on the leaders who, a quarter-century back, started out on the task virtually alone and unsupported, neither daunted by its difficulties, nor overwhelmed by its size, and who are now seeing thankfully some of the fruits of their labours.