"Effie Staunton desires to become a nurse in spite of the fact that she is the eldest of six children, and the one person in the family upon whom everyone depends. Her father, a country doctor, however, objects to lady nurses, or to advanced ideas of women's work, but when he has to secure the help of a trained nurse in a dangerous case of diphtheria he changes his opinion. His devotion to his patient costs him his life, and then Effie in their time of trouble proves herself to be a girl in ten thousand, saving the family from want and her brother from disgrace." —"The Publishers' Circular, Christmas 1896
Authors
Mrs. L.T. Meade (Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Toulmin Smith), was a prolific children's author of Anglo Irish extraction. Born in 1844, Meade was the eldest daughter of a Protestant clergyman, whose church was in County Cork. Moving from Ireland to London as a young woman, after the death of her mother, she studied in the Reading Room of the British Museum in preparation for her intended career as a writer, before marrying Alfred Toulmin Smith in September 1879. The author of close to 300 books, Meade wrote in many genres, but is best known for her girls' school stories. She was one of the editors of the girls' magazine, Atalanta from 1887-93, and was active in women's issues. She died in 1914.
