The Fulfilment of a Dream of Pastor Hsi's / The Story of the Work in Hwochow

ion to Chine

hes and books were tied up in large square handkerchiefs and distributed as evenly as possible, along with a folded, wadded quilt in a long bed-bag which, thrown over the donkey's saddle, reached nearly to the ground on either side. On the early morning of the day decided on for our departure, two donkeys thus laden stood at our gate. On to one of them I was hoisted, and took my first lesson in how to sit ha

the city gate, passed the great tanks of lotus bloom to the edge of the swift, shallow river

hed the landscape in a dazzling glare. Through occasional villages we rode, where the women called to each other to hurry and

aves according to the economical method of the country. Scarcely any bricks are required for such building, and the deep, lofty, a

made my donkey step gingerly as near to the chasm's edge as she could secure a foothold, and I dug my knees into the soft bed-bag and longed for something on which I could get a grip. How pleasant and easy such journeying became before the end of that autumn's wandering, and how familiar the life of the village homes. Almost day by day the confused sounds took form to my unaccustomed ears, and I was soon able to differentiate quite clearly

husbands; how they dyed the cloth with indigo of their own growing, and finally converted it into the garments, and even the shoes and socks, worn by the whole family. I saw how those same garments were wadded with a layer of cotton-wool as the cold season approached, and behold, the whole family was made proof against the severe onslaughts of the keenest frosts and bitterest winds. I saw how a measure of wheaten o

he horrors of a famine and pestilence which left whole villages with no other survivor than p

n of his tale, only too literally and absolutely true, for no man dared to venture on the lonely path leading from one village to another, knowing that the likelihood was t

utter ruin, and the traces of whole villages now returned to waste land

wolf; men had rushed to her rescue, but her face, which is generally the part first attacked, was torn beyond recognition. I then learned what a common thing it is for wild beasts, wolves or leopards, to come down from the hills, and steal children even as they play around the courtyard grinding-stone. I could not be surprised at the intense anxiety of a woman whose son was half an hour late returning from an errand, w

lieve, things which I should have dismissed wi

n a portion of what has come under my personal notice. For the first time I heard, often in the midnight stillness, the high-pitched voice, intoning the magic incantations whereby some young woman yielded herself to be t

cave set apart for our use was decorated with flowers, everything was clean and comfortable, and we were made to feel "at home." Being guests in the house, our meals were always served separately, bu

pel. Meanwhile, the shepherd folded his sheep, carefully counting them lest one should be missing, and the women prepared the millstones for grinding on the morrow. I saw much illustrated that had been familiar to me from childhood in the Gospel stories, even to

. Such homes are resting-places to those who have left home for the Kingdom of God's sake

hese Chinese courts, and for the Church of Christ in th

PTION AT

rds, and give them credit for their conduct. Now, my way is to h

lace, I am concerned how I may fit myself for one. I am not concerned t