is not every
mission station that can provide a distinct European missionary for the
school, and Bannu is one of those where the supervision of the school
is one of the duties of the medical missionary, who takes the senior
classes in Scripture, English, and Science. So the consulting-room
is changed for the class-room, and the missionary finds himself
surrounded by a class of twenty to twenty-five intelligent young
fellows preparing for the matriculation at the Panjab University, and
waiting to be initiated into the mysteries of optics, or chemistry,
or mechanics, or to practise English composition, or he may have them
attentively listening while he goes with them through the ever-fresh
stories from the life of our Lord, hearing and asking them questions
as its inimitable teachings are brought home to them by precept and
by illustration. Class-work over, a visit of inspection is paid to
the other class-rooms, where the remainder of the school staff are at
their work, which the school principal must criticize and supervise,
giving some advice here, some correction there, and seeing generally
that everything is kept up to the mark.

Now we must go to see what progress has been made with the new ward
which is being built in the hospital. The beams must be selected and
tested. Here a carpenter has been putting some bad work into a lintel,
thinking it will not be noticed; there the bricklayers have been idle,
and have not finished the stipulated number of layers. The foreman
has a complaint to make of some of the coolies, who went away from
work without his permission. "We only went to say our prayers. Surely
you would not have us miss them?" they plausibly urge. Put them on
piecework, and their prayers are got over very quickly; but pay them
by the day, and even the ablutions seem interminable! But such is human
nature, and they have such an air of injured innocence it is difficult
to be angry with them. They are Mahsud Wazirs from over the border, and
work hard when well managed, so are let off with a warning this time.

This done, a visit must be paid to the mission press. Here not only
is printing in vernacular and in English carried on for the mission's
own requirements, but work is executed for the various offices and
merchants in the city. Accounts have to be checked, bills have to be
made out, proofs have to be corrected, and directions given for the
day's work.

Now it is time to visit the hospital wards, and p