THE KING’S BUSINESS
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some miles distant. Their mothers want to sell them to heathen husbands just in order that they may get the paltry amount of food and clothing. W e have no room for them yet, so you see how much our girls’ boarding school is needed. It is the same with many hundreds o f girls all about us. Some o f them have unbound their feet and have been attending our meetings at the out-stations. When we go on our walks people call us to come in, and really beg us to stop and talk with them. O f course this is mostly out o f idle curiosity, but you see what great opportunities there are for giving the Gospel. Oh, how I long to talk to them! My prayer is that God may soon give me the language, for there is no joy like being able to tell the precious story o f Jesus and his love. Missionaries on the coast do not really know what China is like. It is not until you get into the interior that you see the real China, and it is like another world. The cities along the coast are becoming very modern, but this place is just like it was hundreds o f years ago. Pi Yang is a walled city. The walls are about forty feet high; there are four gates. W e usually take our walks on the wall. You get such a good view o f the surround ing country. I just love the Chinese people; they are not at all like the Chinese you see in America and are really very lovable. Their customs are just the opposite from ours in so many ways. They make a great fuss and noise about everything they- do. This morning ten men came/ bringing wood for Mrs. Nowack, which she had ordered, but they wanted two cash more a giro than she had paid before and she would not pay it. You should have Tieard them; you •would think they were fighting, but it is just their way. They hung around for an hour and they finally came down one cash, so Mrs. Nowack paid it. When they give you a present you have to be sure to give them back a present o f the exact value they gave you, and you do not need to fear but that they know the exact amount your present cost.
Rain again today, so your long-looked- for letter I guess will not arrive, but though disappointments may come, I can always rejoice in my Saviour, for I can always depend on Him. He never disap points and so my heart is always happy let come what may. The other day while writing we heard we had a chance to take a ride. A sick woman out in the country sent an ox cart for Mrs. Nowack to go out and pray with her, and so when Mrs. Nowack returned the three children and Martha and I jumped in and went back. It was a yoke o f oxen and an open cart in which we had to sit on the floor. The man walked beside the oxen whipping them up. Our team got stuck in the mud and we all had to get out. W e went out o f the city and across the river. The oxen waded, across and we in the cart. W e picked some lovely flowers on the other side; they looked exactly like lilacs, but they do not grow on bushes. I am sending you eight pictures. The picture o f the pond is inside the city, just around the corner from us. You can see the women washing the clothes on the bank, and you get a good idea o f the mud houses and mud wall around the houses. The official’s concubine was here and called on Mrs. Nowack the other day; the usual word came before that she would be here and of course we had to get things fixed up and prepare tea and cakes. She is a girl o f 17 years, taken from one o f the government schools; how sad! She was very bright, could play the organ and was dressed as they do in the cities. Our Chinese sat around gazing at her, for they do not know much o f life in the cities, and her dress and ways were strange' to them. It is the custom o f the officials and their families to visit the .foreigners in every city. Mrs. Nowack gave her a Testament and spoke to her about our meetings and about Jesus. The official circle is hard to reach, yet our prayers God can use and they have followed her. Two young girls about 16 have appealed to us to take them here that they may study the' Bible. They are from a village
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