t of all romance, and
of everything which is unreal."
_Miss S. S. Hewlett, India._

THERE have been times of late when I have had to hold on to one text
with all my might: "It is required in stewards that a man be found
_faithful_." Praise God, it does not say "successful."

One evening things came to a climax. We all spent a whole afternoon
without getting one good listener. We separated as usual, going two and
two to the different quarters of a big sleepy straggly village. Life and
I went to the potters. Life spoke most earnestly and well to an
uninterested group of women. After she had finished one of them pointed
to my hat (the only foreign thing about me which was visible--oh that I
could dispense with it!). "What is that?" she said. Not one bit did they
care to hear. One by one they went back to their work, and we were left
alone.

We went to another quarter. It was just the same. At a rest-house by the
way I noticed a Brahman, and went to see if he would listen. He would if
I would talk "about politics or education, but not if it was about
religion." However, I did get a chance of pleading with him to consider
the question of his soul's salvation, and he took a book and said he
would read it at his leisure. And then he asked me how many persons I
had succeeded in joining to my Way since I began to try. It was exactly
the question, only asked in another form, which the devil had been
pressing on me all the afternoon. After this he told me politely that we
were knocking our heads against a rock; we might smash our heads, but we
never would affect the rock.

"Rock! Rock! when wilt thou open?" It is an old cry; I cried it afresh.
But the Brahman only smiled, and then with a gesture expressing at once
his sense of his own condescension in speaking with me, and his utter
contempt for the faith I held, motioned to me to go.

Outside in the road a number of Hindus were standing; some of them were
his retainers and friends. I heard them say, as I passed through their
midst, "Who will fall into the pit of the Christian Way!" And they
laughed, and the Brahman laughed. "As the filth of the world, the
offscouring of all things, unto this day."

We walked along the road bordered with beautiful banyan trees. We sat
down under their shade, and waited for what would come. Some little
children followed us, but before we could get a single idea clearly into
their heads a man came