The home for the immigrants given her by Sir George had four rooms, and in it at one time she kept ninety girls who had no other shelter.  About six hundred females were then wandering about Sydney unprovided for.  Some slept in the recesses of the rocks on the Government domain.  She received from the ships in the harbour sixty-four girls, and all the money they had was fourteen shillings and three half-pence.

She took them to the country, travelling with a covered cart to sleep in.  She left married families at different stations, and then sent out decent lasses who should be married.

In those days the dead bodies of the poor were taken to the cemetery in a common rubbish-cart.

By speeches and letters both public and private, and by interviews with influential men, Mrs. Chisholm sought help for the emigrants both in Sydney and England, where she opened an office in 1846.

In the year 1856 Major Chisholm took a house at Nyalong, near Philip’s school.  Two of the best scholars were John and David.  When David lost his place in the class he burst into tears, and the Blakes and the Boyles laughed.  The Major spoke to the boys and girls whenever he met them.  He asked John to tell him how many weatherboards he would have to buy to cover the walls of his house, which contained six rooms and a lean-to, and was built of slabs.  John measured the walls and solved the problem promptly.  The Major then sent his three young children to the school, and made the acquaintance of the master.

Mrs. Chisholm never went to Nyalong, but the Major must have given her much information about it, for one day he read a portion of one of her letters which completely destroyed Philip’s peace of mind.  It was to the effect that he was to open a school for boarders at Nyalong, and, as a preliminary, marry a wife.  The Major said that if Philip had no suitable young lady in view, Mrs. Chisholm, he was sure, would undertake to produce one at a very short notice.  She had the whole matter already planned, and was actually canvassing for
  pupils among the wealthiest families in the colony.  The Major
smiled benevolently, and said it was of no use for Philip to think of resisting Mrs. Chisholm; when she had once made up her mind, everybody had to give way, and the thing was settled.  Philip, too, smiled faintly, and tried to look pleased, dissembling his outraged feelings, but he went away in a state of indignation.  He actually made an attack on the twelve virtues, which seemed all at once to have conspired against his happiness.  He said:  “If I had not kept school so conscientiously, this thing would never have happened.  I don’t want boarders, and I don’t want anybody to send me a wife to Nyalong.  I am not, thank God, one of the royal family, and not even Queen Victoria shall order me a wife.”

In that way the lonely hermit put his foot down and began a countermine, working as silently as possible.