direct it

herself for several years.

At a gathering in England it was once asked that every person write on a slip of paper the name of the one who had rendered the English nation more benefit than any other. When the slips were counted, the name of Florence Nightingale was found on every single one of them!!

King Edward VII honored her by

conferring on her the Order of Merit, in recognition of her noble services to the nation. She is the only woman to have gained this honor: the laws of England were changed expressly for the purpose.

When she died she had reached the age of ninety. The Bishop of Westminster asked that she be buried in Westminster Abbey, the famous London church that holds the tombs of the kings, the nobles,

and the great. But her will directed that she rest in a quiet county; and the will was carried out.

The dearest wish of the little girl had been to protect the flowers, to nurse the sick, to care for the suffering, and to succor the ani-mals and the birds. And this lofty inclination to help became, after years, the life work of the noble woman whom we have known by this name: Florence Nightingale.