word he dropped the
cold, limp little body into our arms, and prostrated himself till his
forehead touched the dust. We had not time to think of him, we hardly
noted his extraordinary submission, for all our thought was for the
babe. There was no pulse to be felt, only those far too brilliant eyes
looked alive. We worked with restoratives for hours, and at last the
little limbs warmed and the pulse came back. But it was a bounding,
unnatural pulse, and the restlessness which supervened confirmed the
tale of the brilliant eyes--the little babe had been drugged.

From that day on till our Prayer-day, January 6th, it was one long,
unremitting fight with death. We wrote to our medical comrade in Neyoor,
and described the symptoms, which were all bad. He could give us little
hope. Gradually the brilliance passed from the eyes, and they became
what the Tamils call "dead." The film formed after which none of us had
ever seen recovery. Then we gathered round the little cot in the room we
call Tranquillity, and we gave the babe her Christian name Vimala, the
Spotless One; for we thought that very soon she would be without spot
and blameless, another little innocent in that happy band of innocents
who see His Face.

On the evening of the 5th, friends of our own Mission who were with us
seemed to lay hold for the life of the child with such fresh earnestness
and faith, that we ourselves were strengthened. Next morning we believed
we saw a change in the little deathlike face, and that evening we were
sure the child's life was coming back to her.

It was not till then we thought of the father, who, after signing a
paper made out for him by our pastor, who is always ready to help us,
had returned to his own town. When we heard all that had occurred we saw
how our God had worked for us. It was not fear of his baby's death that
had moved the man to return to us. "What is the death of a babe? Let her
die across my shoulders!" He was not afraid of the law. After all
persuasions had failed, we had tried threats: the thing he purposed to
do was illegal. The Collector (chief magistrate) would do justice. "What
care I for your Collector? How can he find me if I choose to lose
myself? How can you prove anything against me?" And in that he spoke the
truth. There are ways by which the intention of the law concerning
little children can be most easily and successfully circumvented. Our
pleadings had not touched him. "Is she not my child? Was h