Tucker (1821-93) was a prolific English author and poet for children and adults who wrote under the pseudonym A.L.O.E. (A Lady of England). Her earliest writings were plays and poems to amuse her family and in 1847 she took charge of the education of her brother's children, her first published work, The Claremont Tales (1852), being written for them. Her work as a children's author was imbued with her Evangelical religious beliefs and most of her stories were allegories with a clear moral, though rendered with a degree of realism and naturalism. Many of her more than 150 titles appeared initially in magazines before publication in book form and she often devoted the proceeds from her writing to missionary or charity work. Her realistic portrayals of the poor were drawn from her experience as a workhouse visitor in Marylebone, but her most interesting stories are set in India where she worked as a self-supporting missionary after leaving England aged 54. She worked in a boys' school and as a teacher of Christian beliefs to native women and died in Amritsar in 1893. Reprinted from a posthumous edition of 1902, this is the story of a missionary's wife, which the author intended to give guidance to those thinking of embarking on a similar path.