girl had on broken boots this weather?” said he.  “Yes, it’s a Pity; but we are poor folks ourselves—­we can’t help it,” said she.  “Let her off the 6/ for a fortnight, so as she can get a pair of sound boots for her feet, we’ll worry through without it.”  And they did.  The extreme solicitude of the State Children’s Department, as carried out by its zealous officers, for the life and the wellbeing of their babies serves them in Public extenuation, and the children are often so pretty and engaging that they win love all round.  A grown-up son in the home was very fond of little Lily.  “Mother will you get Lily a cream coat. such as I see other babies wearing, and I will pay for it.”

A most pathetic story I can tell of a girl respectably connected in the country, who had been cast off in disgrace, and came to town to take a place, committing her infant to a good foster mother.  When he was old enough to move about, and was just trying to walk, the mother was taken dangerously ill to the Adelaide Hospital.  The foster mother thought the girl’s father should be sent for, and wrote to him giving her own address, but not disclosing her connection with the patient.  The father of the girl came, and was told that he had better be accompanied by his informant, who could prepare the sick woman for the interview.  The little boy was running about, and the old man took him on his knee while the woman got ready to go out.  “You must come with us, Sonny,” said she.  “I can’t leave you alone in the house.”  “A very fine little chap.  Your youngest, I suppose.  I can see he is a great pet.”  “No,” said the woman slowly, “he is not my son, he is your grandson.”  “Good God, my grandson,” Then, clasping the little fellow to his heart, he said, “I’ll never part with him!” The mother recovered, and was taken home with her child and forgiven.  Such is often the work of the good foster mother.  In all the successes of the irresponsible committee and of the responsible State Children’s Council the greatest factor has been the character of the good women who have been mothers to the little ones.  The fears that only self-interest could induce them to take on the neglected and uncontrollable children were not borne out by experience, and in the ease of these babies not really illegitimate—­it is the parents who deserve that title, no infant can—­the mother’s instinct came out very strong.  At a conference of workers among dependent children, held in Adelaide in May, 1909, when all six States were represented, a Western Australian representative said that the average family home was not so good for its natural circle that it could be depended on for strangers; but our answer was that, both for the children of the State and for the babies who were not State children, we insisted on something better than the average home, and through our inspection we sought to improve it still further.  We have not reached perfection by any means.  When we begin to think we have, we are sure to fall back.  Another good