The mission-box: or, Doing good and getting good

"The mission-box" by Lucy Ellen Guernsey is a didactic children's novel written in the late 19th century. It centers on a Sunday-school class of girls led by Miss Ackerman as they assemble a charitable “mission-box,” testing generosity, humility, and perseverance. Key figures include kind but easily-distracted Ida Van Zandt, snobbish Julia Hazleton, industrious Eunice Riker, and conscientious Mary Edgar, whose choices illustrate the book’s theme of doing good and getting good.

The opening of the story introduces Miss Ackerman’s class and a tea where class prejudice surfaces: Ida defends inviting Norah Flynn and Eunice Riker while Julia objects. A plan is unveiled to outfit Ethelind Swift, a missionary’s daughter in Dakota; work parcels are distributed—Julia takes a nightgown, Ida a chemise, and Eunice offers knitting and laundering, aided by yarn from Mrs. Ackerman. Garden visits and Flower Mission plants spark talk on charity and manners; Ida keeps postponing her sewing, while Mary, moved by the need, accepts a modest allowance with bookkeeping, hems handkerchiefs, and bravely surrenders her new doll to help. At the class sewing meeting (which Ida misses), Anita adds exquisite Mexican lace, Eunice presents beautifully knitted stockings and baby socks, Mary brings marked handkerchiefs, and Miss Ackerman answers doubts with a stewardship parable; Anita then offers Eunice paid needlework and they plan mutual lessons, while even sharp-tongued Matilda begins to soften.