lamored three or four voices at once. "Pick your
own! Just as if we'd be allowed to pick our own senior workers! What
are you talking about?"

"Just what I said. I'm picking my own senior worker! Of course I may
not be able to do it right away--I may have to live with one that Mr.
Gibb picks for me for a year or two--but I'm getting the one I've
picked for myself in the end!"

At that juncture two girls jumped upon the speaker, and rolled her
from the bed to the floor. "Just because you are engaged you don't
need to think you are better than we are!" and the serious discussion
broke up with a laugh.

* * * * *

With whom am I going to live and work for the next six months? For the
next six years? For the rest of my life? Who will be the one I will
see the first thing in the morning, and the last thing at night, and
all the time in between? With whom will I sit down at the table three
times a day? Who will be my fellow worker, my companion in recreation,
the one who spends time with me at the Throne of Grace, pleading for
souls, and for the upbuilding of God's Church? Yes, it's quite a
question. For somehow, mission boards usually seem to recognize only
one legitimate reason for allowing a missionary to choose his or her
own fellow worker, and that one reason is marriage. Even married
couples will probably be asked to take one or more younger workers
into their homes; and if you are one who remains single, why, you will
just have to let the superintendent, or committee, pick your
companion and fellow worker for you.

When I was in high school it was one of my ambitions to learn to be at
home in any environment. Whether a wealthy home or a poverty-stricken
one, whether an American culture or the culture of some other group, I
wanted to be able to live in that environment as though I had grown up
in it. This ambition was no doubt laudable and its attainment is very
useful to the missionary. I found later, however, that it does not
quite go to the heart of the problem. My ambition at present is not so
much to be able to live happily in any _environment_ as to be able to
live happily with any other _missionary_.

This statement may horrify some of my readers. If I had said I make it
my ambition to be able to live happily with anyone, you would have had
no bone to pick with me. But no, I _must_ say, _with any other
missionary_! Am I trying to imply that some missionaries are hard to
live