y clan, now reduced through opium smoking to comparative poverty. He had not yet reached the stage of positive want, but that condition is n

ridescent bloom. The beauty was shortlived, even as the seeming prosperity of the grower, and but a few days later Southern Springs stood amidst bare brown fields of dry poppy heads, scarred by the cutter's knife, exuding in thick drops the

t his tomb. Moreover, his wife's keen intelligence and strong will were gradually being subjugated by a growing apathy, result of her secret habit. On these two Fan urged a plea to give the Refuge a trial, and his nephew, impressed by the evident good result in his uncle's case and the assurance that the treatment had induced very slight suffering, pronounced himself willing to try the experiment; his wife, on the other h

ld sing hymns written by Pastor Hsi on the subjects of salvation and the

social intercourse. He was referred to as a competent authority on all matters relating to the ways and habits of those "foreign devils" who went to and fro between

week day, or better still on Sunday, to sit an hour with the Refuge-keeper, whom it was hard indeed not to trust, and who always had some good matter to unfold and kind, earnest words with which to help a man in the hour when his old vice thre

ous, in physique of a pronounced Jewish type. Not easily led, and impossible to drive, she flew into such a passion when her husband ventured to tell her that two lady missionaries had arrived, an

ffectually, for influences stronger than the woman realised were even now at work, prepari

ng to herself and others the extraordinary change of viewpoint which ha

family formed a tearful group on the kang. With characteristic abruptness Mrs. Fan delivered the information: "I am preparing to go to the city

into its mouth, she had that day made the discovery that, as soon as she herself lay down to sleep off the effect of her dose, the two elder gir

of scarlet cotton to ensure luck on the journey. Flour and millet for food, and other necessaries were piled up behind the cart, and the children were packed inside and told to keep quiet, for they were leaving at

e "foreign devil" about her. She would hear no harm of the missionaries, and flatly denied that children were enticed on to the premises to be done to death by foul means, or

nurse helps to while away the dreary hours by satisfying her curiosity. Then at dawn the longed-for dose of medicine is administered, after a prayer that the "medicine may heal

ge of women. Even the old Refuge-keeper could read a little, but she was quite dull and slow, whereas without much trouble Mrs. Fan herself co

true God, the He

d clothes an

r, too, who can

to His word, Jesus

he sinner, Je

washed me clean, He v

mind that her girls should be among the first who would have natural feet in the neighbourhood, in spite of the lurking fear that all three might be left as old maids upon her hands if no man might be found bold enough to risk the disgrace of a wife with norm

chers and evangelists among their own people; the third was early prepared by intense suffering and deep w

URNACE FOR

in heart, for th

avely. A bird which he must carry in his bosom acro

od genius on the opposite side, unr

arms beneath the sunshine of smiles or the pressure of hand or lip-this is the great martyrdom of sensiti