aving agency. If it really is a soul-saving concern, I don't
think it matters very much what it is.'

On July 21, 1890, he wrote to the same friend:--

'Since July 3 we have had most extraordinary weather for this
part--rain and dull; there have been only four or five days when I
could go on to the street with my tent. I am therefore not so busy.
In addition, Dr. Smith has joined me, and as he does all the indoor
medical work, I am still less busy, and so I can write you more at
leisure than usual.

'The rain reached a climax on Saturday night, July 19. Till then,
roofs and walls held out well. There were leaks in places, but
nothing serious. We thought it had cleared off. Not a bit of it.
The wind changed, it is true, but then rain came down in torrents,
the ceilings--all reeds and paper--began to give way. Ever and anon
splash came a bag of water, as the paper burst in different places,
and Dr. Smith and I had a lively time of it shifting our boxes and
bedding to dry spots. By dusk it was serious. I was just about my
wits' end when a Chinaman put his head into my room, and said with
a grin, half in jest, half in earnest, "There is a tent standing
idle out in that room, why not put it up in your room?" The idea of
putting up a tent in your bedroom seemed so absurd that we had a
good laugh over it; but after thinking over it awhile, and thinking
out how the thing could be done, we actually did it. It covered
two-thirds of my kang, and a little space on the floor where I put
my boxes. The inner corner of the tent I put up to cover my stock
of books and medicines, lit my lamp, brewed a pot of tea, and,
squatting on my feet, called in Dr. Smith. He said I looked "just
like an opium-smoker." Dr. Smith had a portable iron bedstead. On
the top he put floor mats and a waterproof, and, without
undressing, we went to bed. After a little a great crash was heard.
Some part of the buildings had come down. In the rain and dark it
was not easy to see what it was, but we at last found there had
been more noise than real damage. We were thankful when day
dawned.

'The Chinese suffered much more than we did. Such a rain happens so
seldom--once in three or four or five years--that houses are not
roofed to resist it; the Chinese deeming it cheaper to take the