ttered up to me through
the crowd a _live skeleton_, the outline of nearly every bone quite
distinct, covered only with yellow skin, which hung about in loose
folds. I think I see him yet--the chin as distinctively that of a
skeleton as if it had bleached months on the plain. The man was
about seventy, wore a pair of trousers, and had a loose garment
thrown over his shoulders. He came for cough medicine, I think; if
so, he got it; but I was soon engaged fingering and studying the
bone I had to see to that afternoon. I was deeply thankful, but
amidst all my gratitude the thing seemed so comical that I could
not help smiling, and a keen young Chinaman in the crowd remarked,
in an under tone, "That smile means something." So it did. It
meant, among other things, that I knew what to do with the wounded
soldier's damaged bone; and in a short time his wound was in a fair
way of healing. I was and am very thankful; but, after all, I am
more impressed than ever with the fact that things are badly out of
joint when there are lots of Christian doctors at home, and abroad
too, and I, knowledgeless, am left to do the doctoring in a large
district like this quite beyond the reach of medical help, not only
for the natives but even for myself should I need it.

'A grim commentary on these wounds was the fact that in leaving
Ch'ao Yang I was to pass through a brigand-infested district--so
badly infested that travellers have abandoned the road. As saith
the Scripture, "The highways were unoccupied, and the travellers
walked through byways." I had avoided this road twice, and was
ashamed to avoid it again, so we went straight through it. We saw
no one to harm us, but a week ago it was just as likely that I
should to-day have been lying on a Chinese kang, trying to dress my
own wounds, as that I should have been sitting here writing to you.

'I am at present waiting for Dr. Smith, whose last word to me,
dated Tientsin, April 9, was that I should either see him or hear
from him here between June 6 and 12.

'Yesterday, Sunday, June 8, had a pleasant day. The three
Christians here have grown. Two of them have been through a good
deal of trouble and stood it well. The farmer, who has been very
ill, guessing we would be here, came in and spent the day with us.
They