tside China. A
Hoa had been private secretary to a mandarin, and had traveled much in
China, and once spent six months in Peking. His idea had been that China
was everything, that all countries outside it were but insignificant
barbarian places. His geography lessons were like revelations.

His progress was simply astonishing, as was also Mackay's. The two
seemed possessed with the spirit of hard work. But a superstitious old
man who lived near believed they were possessed with a demon. He often
listened to the two singing, drilling, and repeating words as they
marched up and down, either in the house or in front of it, and he
became alarmed. He was a kindly old fellow, and, though a heathen, felt
well disposed toward the missionary and A Hoa. So one day, very much
afraid, he slipped over to the little house with two small cups of
strong tea. He came to the door and proffered them with a polite bow. He
hoped they might prove soothing to the disturbed nerves of the patients,
he said. He suggested, also, that a visit to the nearest temple might
help them.

The two affected ones received his advice politely, but the humor of it
struck them both, and when their visitor was gone they laughed so hard
the tea nearly choked them.

The missionary was soon able to speak so fluently that he preached
almost every day, either in the little house by the river, or on the
street in some open square. There were other things he did, too. On
every side he saw great suffering from disease. The chief malady was the
terrible malaria, and the native doctors with their ridiculous remedies
only made the poor sufferers worse. Mackay had studied medicine for a
short time while in college, and now found his knowledge very useful.
He gave some simple remedies to several victims of malaria which proved
effective. The news of the cures spread far and wide. The barbarian was
kind, he had a good heart, the people declared. Many more came to
him for medicine, and day by day the circle of his friends grew. And
wherever he went, curing disease, teaching, or preaching, A Hoa went
with him, and shared with him the taunts of their heathen enemies.

But the gospel was gradually making its way. Not long after A Hoa's
conversion a second man confessed Christ. He had previously disturbed
the meetings by throwing stones into the doorway whenever he passed. But
his sister was cured of malaria by the missionary's medicine, and soon
both sister and mother became