these
are the words he wrote:

"Here I am in this house, having been led all the way from the old
homestead in Zorra by Jesus, as direct as though my boxes were labeled,
`Tamsui, Formosa, China.' Oh, the glorious privilege to lay the
foundation of Christ's Church in unbroken heathenism! God help me to
do this with the open Bible! Again I swear allegiance to thee, O King
Jesus, my Captain. So help me God!"

And now his first duty was to learn the Chinese language. He could
already speak a little, but it would be a long time, he knew, before he
could preach. And yet, how was he to learn? he asked himself. He was
a scholar without a teacher or school. But there was his servant, and
nothing daunted by the difficulties to be overcome, he set to work to
make him his teacher also.

George Mackay always went at any task with all his might and main, and
he attacked the Chinese language in the same manner. He found it a hard
stone to break, however. "Of all earthly things I know of," he remarked
once, "it is the most intricate and difficult to master."

His unwilling teacher was just about as hard to manage as his task, for
the coolie did not take kindly to giving lessons. He certainly had a
rather hard time. Day and night his master deluged him with questions.
He made him repeat phrases again and again until his pupil could say
them correctly. He asked him the name of everything inside the house and
out, until the easy-going Oriental was overcome with dismay. This wild
barbarian, with the fiery eyes and the black beard, was a terrible
creature who gave one no rest night nor day. Sometimes after Mackay had
spent hours with him, imitating sounds and repeating the names of
things over and over, his harassed teacher would back out of the room
stealthily, keeping an anxious eye on his master, and showing plainly he
had grave fears that the foreigner had gone quite mad.

Mackay realized that the pace was too hard for his servant, and that the
poor fellow was in a fair way to lose what little wits he had, if not
left alone occasionally. So one day he wandered out along the riverbank,
in search of some one who would talk with him. He turned into a path
that led up the hill behind the town. He was in hopes he might meet a
farmer who would be friendly.

When he reached the top of the bluff he found a grassy common stretching
back toward the rice-fields. Here and there over these downs strayed the
queer-looking water-buffaloes. Som