On one occasion he was captured by roving Chinese bandits. They took his money and his precious gold watch with his father's name inscribed inside. Because he was held in a small room with his shoes taken away, he could not easily leave. However. courageously in bare feet he slipped out of the room at night an walked as fast as he could and escaped to friends in the next village. On another occasion when accosted by bandits, he was able to distract them with chocolate bars and to escape again. Frequent harassment and very dangerous conditions int he area made life so difficult that Charles and his daughters. now 2 and 5 years of age. went home to Toronto, Canada, to join his mother in 1920. After a year of visiting with churches and friends, recounting the work in China. Charles returned to China taking along his mother who would care for his adored little daughters. Conditions were still dangerous in the north when he met Dr. Keller in Hankow, who offered him a teaching position at Hunan Bible Institute (H.B.I.).) which he readily accepted. Having spent five years as a student of the Chinese language, he was well prepared and spoke excellent Chinese which impressed Dr. Keller. J From Hankow, the family took the train south to Changsha. Dr. Keller, Superintende~~ of H.B.l., had been looking for teaching staff, and was delighted to find Charles who had ':¥. rl~ fl' excellent language skills and teaching ability. In 1922. the H.B.I. campus buildings were not completed, so that Charles and his mother and daughters lived in the Women's Dormitory. The girls were taken by rickshaw every day to attend the American school across the city on the Yale campus. Charles was busy preparing lectures in Chinese for his classes. His teaching assignment included New Testament. history and geography and Greek. Int he hot summer season, Grandma Louisa and Faith and Miriam went up to the mountains north of Hankow to Chi Gung (Rooster's head) where most of the missionaries spent the summer months way from the heat and humidity of the great rice plains below. There the girls attended the Lutheran American Boarding School as day students.
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