The Christmas Raid.

BY MISS RAMSAY, AUTHOR OF "MILDRED'S Career "&c.

MISS EMILY SMITH and Miss Ethel Smith, (observe the difference of spelling, reader, for the owner of the latter name was tenacious of her two dots, and the omission on the part of a correspondent once occasioned some embarrassment) were-we may as well call them strong minded young ladies, for had they not belonged to that genus they would not have been living apart from their respective families independently in London, the one pursuing medical studies, the other earning money as a paid secretary, reporter, and reviewer. Undoubtedly, too, they would have advocated the extension of the Parliamentary franchise to women, they would not have been the least shocked at the idea of ladies speaking on platforms, though such did not happen to be the line of either, they would have signed, without hesitation, any petition put forward by Miss Lydia Becker, or that committee which has its office at 64 Berners Street, (he who runs may read,) in short, they desired to have all their rights of every kind, and on one occasion, as we are about to show, they took rather more than their rights. Seven or eight years have passed since that merry Christmas day; Miss Ethel Smith, every one knows now that her name is spelt with two dots-having passed with éclat no end of hard examinations, has the dignity of M. D. after her name, and is making her two thousand a year by her practice as a ladies' and children's doctor. No one who sees the grave professional look of Doctor Smith in a sick-room-tender and gentle she is also to her patients, or the

thoughtful expression of her face as she drives about in her brougham, often studying the while some new scientific work bearing on her profession, would easily credit what a wild girl she was in her student days.

Ethel was one of five daughters of a well-to-do professional man, whose home was in a pleasant English country town. There was no son, and the general opinion in the family was that nature had committed a mistake in not making Ethel a boy. Among her intimates she was known as Tommy, from tom-boy; which sobriquet clung to her to the almost entire suppression of the pretty Christian name given her by her godfather and godmothers, and was only given up with difficulty when Doctor Tommy, or Tommy Smith, M.D., would scarcely have been admissible.

From a very early age her tastes and proclivities were all boyish rather than girlish; she had an instinctive contempt for dolls, and rejected them as playthings, unless, indeed, the play was to consist in the doll being ill, when she would prescribe for it in the capacity of doctor. In the school-room her turn of mind was equally marked. She had little aptitude for, and no ambition to excel in what are commonly called accomplishments, yet she had a wonderfully clear head and retentive memory. In arithmetic she would do in five minutes a sum which her sisters would pore over for half-an-hour. governess's back was turned, the slate of one of the pushed across the table to her with the request, "Oh, for me;" and Tommy, more good-natured than conscientious at this period, would do it quick as lightning, and do the governess at the same time.

Often when the sisters would be

Tommy, do this

When she was about ten years old she one day walked with an important air into her father's business room.

"Papa, as I am like a boy, I ought to learn Latin."

Mr. Smith smiled; " I am afraid it is very unlike a boy, Tom, to wish to learn Latin. However, I could not baulk such a laudable ambition. I'll buy you a Latin grammar, and give you a lesson myself every evening."

Tommy at fifteen was what at ten she promised to be, tall and straight limbed from active out-of-door exercise; a rosy complexion tinged by the sun, curly auburn hair which she never allowed to grow long. Lolling in an easy chair, tired after a long walk, she

says

"Here is a hole in my glove, I wish one of you girls would mend it."

"Mend it yourself, Tom," was the sisterly retort.

"Not in my line. Do-there's a good girl, and in return, I'll knock up that shelf you want in your room."

But it was not only to shirk feminine duties and tasks that Ethel affected the habits of the other sex; she had a great feeling-would to God all men shared it !—that the privilege and duty of the strong is to help the weak, and if she was stronger and braver than many, it was, therefore her part to take on herself burdens to relieve weaker shoulders. Mr. Smith, who from the hours they spent together construing Horace and Virgil, knew her very well, must have been aware of this trait in her character, for when, (she being then about fifteen), he lay sick of the illness that was unto death, almost his last words were

"Tommy, take care of your mother and sisters."

The death of the head of the family placed his widow and children in reduced circumstances; not that they were threatened with poverty, for Mr. Smith was too prudent a man not to have ensured his life for their benefit, but the handsome income which he had been gaining was of course at an end, and it was necessary to diminish their style of living. While arrangements for the future were being discussed, Tommy expressed to her mother her wish to study medicine with the view of practising as a doctor.

"If I succeed," said she, "it will be for the good of us all, for any professional income I make will be as much yours and my sisters' as my own."

Mrs. Smith on this occasion showed, we think, good sense and sound judgment. She would much rather that no daughter of hers had pro

posed to go so far out of the usual groove as to study medicine, but she remembered that her husband's wont had been to indulge Tommy's eccentricities, even when they were least those of the conventional young lady; nor could she say, as she looked in the girl's intelligent honest face, that any harm had come of it. She answered accordingly,

"Well, Tommy, I cannot say that I like the idea of your becoming a doctor; I think it is going out of a woman's sphere; yet I believe that your dear papa, were he still with us, would have indulged you, so I will not withhold my consent, and I will do all I can to promote your studies."

With certain dispositions, probably with all, kindness is undoubtedly the best policy. Had Tommy met with opposition there is no saying what degree of painful separation it might not have caused between herself and her family; but as her mother spoke thus, her face softened with an expression of feeling-an expression which Tommy's merry boyish face could wear, but which was never called out save by something which touched the finer parts of her nature.

The next three or four years of Ethel's life were spent in Switzerland, attending classes at the university of Zurich, it being only by taking advantage of the superior liberality of a foreign college that a woman can at present obtain a complete medical education. But Ethel was not deterred by difficulties greater than those with which any male student has to cope-the difficulty, viz., of having to pass examinations in a foreign tongue, and she was very happy during those years; she worked hard at her studies, made friends among her fellow students, and won golden opinions among the professors for her industry and good conduct.

She was anxious, however, to obtain at least a portion of her medical education in England, and hearing that certain classes had been opened to ladies, she returned home to attend them. For this purpose it was necessary she should live in London.

The experiment was being tried at this time of building in different quarters of London a few houses in flats, foreign fashion, and Ethel, while seeking where to locate herself, lighted on the advertisement of

a small floor, most conveniently situated for her classes, to be Yet furnished. Her experience abroad had given her a preference for houses arranged on that system; the rent was not higher than she had reckoned on having to pay for lodgings, her mother would find her a respectable country girl to wait on her as a servant, and she might live thus she thought both independently and cheaply. The accommodation consisted of a good-sized sitting-room, two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a servant's sleeping closet. She called at the agent's office, had an interview with the managing clerk, and was pleased when after the delay of a couple of days she received a letter from the office giving her immediate possession and inclosing a pass-key.

She had postponed enquiring about a servant until sure of her house, but she was impatient to take possession of her rooms, and decided that for a few days she could manage alone with the aid of a charwoman for an hour in the morning. Many girls would have been frightened to pass even a single night alone in rooms shut off from other parts of the house, but Tommy would have ridiculed such an idea. She feared neither robbers nor ghosts, for the good reason that she did not believe in the one, and had nothing to tempt the depredations of the other.

It was six o'clock in the evening when she arrived, with her portmanteau carried by a porter, and a basket of provisions for immediate use, viz.,—a meat pie, and a bottle of claret. Tommy did not despise the favourite feminine beverage, tea, but having as yet no supply of fuel, she selected such viands as did not necessitate cooking. The porter carried the portmanteau for her up the stone stairs, deposited it at her own door, and was there paid and dismissed.

Ethel opened the door with her latch key and dragged her luggage into the passage, then proceeded into the sitting-room. It presented a much more homelike appearance than she was prepared for; for a fire, not long kindled apparently, burned in the grate, and a kettle was singing merrily upon it.

Ethel stood still at the door with a gratified smile. "How considerate of the house-agent to order me a fire! I should never have