ur strength would be given to fighting
this battle with death, and you would have no strength left for prayer.
God wanted to have one of us free to pray; and so He has taken you up to
the mountain, as He took Moses when the people were fighting down in the
plain." This was the true inward meaning of it all, and I knew it. But
Ponnamal is far from strong, and I feared for her; and to stay away with
the babies ill--it was the very hardest thing I had ever been asked to
do.

When the trouble passed there were ten in heaven. One, a little child of
two, had been saved so wonderfully from Temple dedication that we had
looked forward to a future of special blessing for her; and another was
a very lovely babe, dear to the missionary who, after much toil and many
disappointments, had been comforted by saving her. Each of the ten had
cost someone much. But this is an earthly point of view. They had cost
Him most who had taken them, and he is only an owner in name who has no
right to do as he will with his own.

The other side, the purely human side, pressed heavily just then. The
doctors had most kindly at once ordered a mission room, vacated at that
season, to be lent to the nursery, and another little house was taken
for the month. How Ponnamal kept all four houses going in an orderly
fashion, how she kept her nurses together through that time of almost
panic, and how she herself, frail and delicate as she is, kept up till
all was over, we cannot understand from any point of view but the
Divine. She only broke down once. It was when her dearest child, our
merry, beautiful little Heart's Joy, who, having more strength than
most, had battled longer and almost recovered, suddenly sank. The
visible cause was that a special nutrient, which, being costly, we
stocked in small quantities, ran short, and the fresh supply reached the
nursery just too late. "If only it had come yesterday!" moaned Ponnamal,
and we with her when we heard of the series of contretemps which had
delayed its arrival. The torture of second causes is as the blackness of
darkness, but the Lord gave deliverance from it; for just as she had to
part with all that was left her of our little Heart's Joy, a letter came
from Dr. Davidson which was God's own blessed comfort to a heart almost
broken. She never refers to that letter without the quick tears
starting. "I could let my little treasure go after I read that letter.
It strengthened me."

While all this was goin